Vito French Tenor Sax

This is your chance to get an inexpensive French-made tenor saxophone.

Right now, I am selling this for just enough to cover my costs for the work I did to get it playing. As time permits, I will continue to work on it and the price will continue to increase. The pads weren't bad, so I replaced only a handful of pads at the top end of the horn.

Here's what I have done:

The prior owner/repair tech had some major problems with the side C (#7) key. They evidently weren't able to remove the screw rod holding the key in place so they chose to saw through the key and screw rod to remove the key. At that point they stopped work. I had to add material to the key to build it back up where it had been sawed off. The lacquer on the key pan got a little toasty and darkened a bit, but is still good. I unsoldered the key posts from the body so that I could drill out the remains of the screw rod from the post. I then retapped the thread into the post and made a new screw rod, soldered the posts back on the body. Put the key back on and got it to work properly.

The bell brace was unsoldered at the body end (not the bell end)and there was a dent there. I raised the dent and resoldered the bell brace to the body. Looks as though it had been soldered before by someone. The lacquer was already darkened and the solder job isn't as pretty as it could be. I cleaned up the solder some when I resoldered it, but left the lacquer alone.

The other major thing that I noticed...the bell seems to 'cant' to the right (from the player's perspective, as you hold the horn. I was worried that the bell keys consequently might not seal, but they do and the pads seem pretty centered over the toneholes. I don't see any signs that the bell was removed from the bow, nor that the bow was removed from the body.

I fixed some other stuff also. It plays from top to bottom now.

Not sure if you can tell, but the bell is 'canted' off to the right. At first I thought it had been bent or something, but I couldn't figure out how it could have occurred. Seemed like that would have caused the bell keys to be no longer centered over their toneholes, but that was not the case. But after input from another Vito French Tenor, whose horn is in excellent shape, it turns out his horn is canted in the same way. The horns were designed and built that way.

Sorry, this horn has been sold (Feb. '07)

If you want this shipped to you, it will cost around $40 (UPS, insured).

This horn will only get more expensive. Next up, I will make some guards...a small one for the side F# and then a pants guard or clothing guard...the one that protects the feet of the lower stack keys. The posts are in place (see pictures), but somewhere along the line they were removed and lost (sigh). I'm just hunting for the right screws now. Once I have those on, I will increase the price at least $50.