What's a 465 ????

[JayeSF]

OK, look...the Search function on these sorta sites leaves a lot to be desired...I mean, considering how many saxes have model #'s made up of 2, 3, or 4 characters....one would think a search feature on a sax forum could deal with that.....

Anyway...a 465....Holton Ideal.

Info ? The good...the bad.....

Hit me with your best shot......

[soybean]

Look in the thread "modern vintage holtons". I'm posting today about the Ideal.

[geauxsax]

Pics up in Modern Holton thread. :)

[JayeSF]

Here it is. Here we go !

First off...miracle of miracles, because I think the eBay seller of this wasn't a sax person....but, she plays and is completely regulated from top to bottom...action, pads, everything. What a luck-out for me...I usually have to put several hours and at least $100 of pro tech work into an eBay horn.

This is a very nice alto. Big, wide, fat sound with a lotta resonance. I blew it next to the following altos:

Martin '66 Imperial
Noblet '61
Hohner President '68
Keilwerth New King '56

It has the widest spread on the bottom of all except the Noblet. So it's got a significantly beefier low end than either the Martin or the K. Both of those horns have an edgier, reedier sound, however.

I would say it's a smooth, open sound.... the only horn which has a deeper bottom is the Noblet, but the Holton is punchier in its attack than the Noblet.

(It's close to the President, but that comparison helps nobody since there were probably only about 100 Presidents made in the world....)

Intonation is actually very good.....slight, slight flatness on the neck key upper octaves...C,B,A...but very easily reconciled with a tad of lipping.

The strange key in question is...duh on me...the exact same mechanism as on my '37 Revelation Tenor...(bear with me, I dunno if I know the proper title for it)....& it appears to be there solely to trill between a G and G#.

It allows the G# key cup (top of lower stack) to close when the pinky-table G# key is depressed...obviously a much easier transition than trying to trill with your pinky alone.

Apparently, Conns of the similar era also had these...and I have a Malerne which has one as well. This was seemingly in-vogue for a while, but has since passed.....
That appears to be all that key does.....

Ergos are fine. Can't explain the odd nickel band on the neck, adjacent the cork...seems to be just an aesthetic detail. Bell is straight forward, not canted. And the diameter of the neck tenon is a tad smaller than my '54 Collegiate alto.

Serial places it 1937...exact same year as my Revelation. A lot of detailing is similar...key cups, palm key mechanisms, keyguards, spatulas.....But several details are different...different pinky table, some different post designs, different bell-brace and strap-eyelet lozenges.

Attached are some pics, none of the the engraving though, since it came out better in the pics which Geausax posted on the other thread.... (BTW, maybe we should keep the 465 conversation here, on this thread...might be easier to locate should someone websearch it)