What Happened to U.S. Saxophones (Among Other Instruments)

Posted by Charles Fail on

What Happened to U.S. Made Saxophones? (A Personal Perspective)

The Internet is an interesting place. Everyone with a computer mouse and a keyboard seems to be reading someone’s posting and then repeating it as gospel. Occasionally, us “old timers” jokingly comment on this modern play on the old “telephone game.” A few of us were “there” in the “good old days” and worked in the U.S. music industry when it made these now-legendary instruments and we personally knew many of the “players” or we worked with those that had first-hand experience. For example, I knew Vito Pascucci who gave me some of my first tools, Kurt Gemeinhardt, who showed me how to properly repad flutes, Vincent Bach, and a host of other instrument makers that now people are misquoting on the Internet. Recently, I read an Internet article by someone purporting to reveal “why” there are no more U.S. made Saxophones. This person claimed it was because foreign makers made them better with less-skilled labor. Well, this is only partially true. The demise of the U.S. band instrument manufacturing industry is a sad but complicated story. In some ways, it was a victim of its own success.
    When I first started in this business, most of the major band instrument companies were family owned. Conn (the Greenleaf family), King (Mrs. H.N. White), Buescher (the Beers family), Martin (the Martin family), etc. Except for Conn, these firms were quite small. As the school band movement began to grow, large corporations saw a chance to acquire these firms and mass produce instruments for the school market, so they purchased these companies only to discover that making band instruments in the days before automation was a time-consuming and labor-intensive business. Some tried side-stepping the autoworkers union that represented Elkhart instrument workers by moving to other areas of the country or importing from other countries. These corporations and venture capitalists were much more interested in their balance sheet and income statements than building quality instruments. This resulted in a decline in quality and a break in the long-standing skilled craftsmanship chain in the Elkhart and Elkhorn area. With few exceptions, this industry (especially the Saxophone industry) never recovered to its glory days. Today, we are left with good professional Saxophones from France, Germany, and Japan. Already, one major Japanese company is building in Indonesia. We are however, left with some great older professional U.S. made instruments that remain. These hold my interest or maybe its my love.. ~ Charles

Share this post



← Older Post Newer Post →


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published.