Martin Baritone Saxophone Pictures

This is a Martin Handcraft baritone saxophone made in 1934 in Elkhart, Indiana. For more about Martin instruments, see The Martin Story by Edwin van Druten.

The instrument has a round tone, rather like a cello if heard from an adjoining room. It doesn't play well with a modern mouthpiece, which raises the pitch, so it is best to stick with an old type with quite a large chamber volume. The sax is "low pitch" - i.e. in standard modern concert pitch.

The highest note is top F; there is no front F key. There are two (not three) right-hand palm keys, the upper one serving for both  top E and side C depending on whether the upper B key is depressed. Pressing a right-hand main key with left hand 1 gives Bb (as usual), and with no left hand key down gives C (not so usual). The lowest two tone holes are on opposite sides of the bell. The highest two tone holes on the neck are large, and placed (I assume) a "true" distance from the mouthpiece - further from the mouthpiece than on most makes.

The following are thumbnail pictures; click on them for larger versions.
The pictures are copyright © 2004, John Kilpatrick but you may download them freely for legitimate purposes.

This instrument is no longer in my possession.

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