1960 Holton 243 on the way...

[JayeSF]

One on the way, she will need some love since she seems to have been th victim of some shoddy repair work...but I am curious to compare to my '37 Revelation and my '46 241....

I noticed a significant change in the 2 Collegiate altos I had..one being a '57, the other a '63....wondering if Holton did some significant, um, 'redesign' of their saxes somewhere in the early '60's (like everyone else did)?

Anyone have a 243 Tenor ?

[geauxsax]

Ha! I figured one of us snagged that 243--good on you, Jaye. Of note: SOTWer Hafuch owns (owned?) a silver one, detailed in the earier pages of the "modern vintage" holton thread. With a little love, that ought to be a nice horn. I'm curious to see how it fares against the 241. Maybe you can measure bores, bells, etc to check for differences. All I can tell from pics is that the LH spatula on 243s is rounder than 241s, and that the F# trill key has a pearl on the 241s, but just a teardrop lever on 243s.

[JayeSF]

Yes, well...I always wonder if our little group here ends up bidding against each other more often than we think :shock:

although I dunno if anyone here was bidding on that eBay "Colton 230" Alto Sax which I recently won for $91 shipped (whatever the heck a 230 is....)

...you gotta luv misspellings....

...I will certainly do a comparison of the Tenors as far as attributes goes, when I get it....

[geauxsax]

Too funny! Enjoy your Colton.:D I never even saw it, as it didn't trip my search terms.

I'm sure I've bid against several of the Holton crowd before too.

[JayeSF]

I won't laugh quite yet....it would be even more ironic if it actually IS a Colton....:shock: :(

[JayeSF]

Good news: It's here.

Bad news: it doesn't play at the moment.

Pics up in my Holton Album:

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/album.php?u=44066

But even though....physically speaking, this is an interesting horn...

(comparing to my '47 241 and '37 Revelation)

Still has the old-school bell brace and bellykey guards of the earlier-era models.

Different pinky table from either the 241 or Revelation...but it has the sinuous low C/Eb spat keys of the Revelation, although it is closer in age to the 241.

RH palm key mechanisms are identical to the 241 and the Revelation.

Lower F# key is now metal, as opposed to pearl on its earlier cousins.

LH palm keys are redesigned.... spines/shafts are shorter and keys sit a tad closer to the body tube.

Upper stack keywork is also a tad different....pearl keys are a bit closer together than on the older models.

Completely different octave mech....they did away with the ball-bearing spring loaded one in favor of a more conventional type.

Looks to be a 241 body w/ some minor changes up near top of the tube.

It is as heavy as the 241.

I was sorta expecting the 243 to be a stripped-down version of the 241...but (just from appearances only, since she needs almost a complete repad and I can't get many notes out of her now) actually it LOOKS like a sort of "re-issue" of their older style saxes, with a few keywork changes.

[geauxsax]

Awesome Jaye,
Disregard my question in the other thread concerning playability. Anyway, It would be fun to get our Holtons together for a comparo.

[JayeSF]

I gotta work up a Couesnon tenor this week, then hopefully on the weekend I can whip the 243 into playing shape....

...now....I keep missing the occasional Baritone which appears now and again :(