A-Rampone Soprano?

[Josh2586]

Hi, i'm interested in a soprano at the moment, 'a-rampone' is engraved at the bottom, serial number is 13101
Does any1 have any information on the date this sax was made/worth etc?
Cheers

[DanY]

What else is engraved on the horn? Does it say Rampone & Cazzani?

[David Spiegelthal]

It's probably an early horn that was "A. Rampone" prior to merging with Cazzani -- -check their website for some history, at: http://www.ramponecazzani.it/en/index.htm

[yaniman]

hey hey. As far as getting information about the older R&C's goes, I recently bought one off ebay and in doing research on it i came up with very little :cry: ! I emailed R&C through their website and was happy to get a response, noting that my sax was a 1940s model so maybe you could try the same path! :wink:

I'd be interested to hear if you manage to find out about any serial number charts of value gudes. however in response to your initial query, I'm in no position to really comment on age or value :(

As a point of information - The engraving A. Rampone refers to Agostino Rampone who, according to the R&C web site was the drive behind the company probably around the latter part of the 19th C and earlier 20th C. Does the saxophone also have the bell engraving A.Rampone, Ditte Riunite (italian for fingers united!), G.B.Cazzani?

Happy hunting! :D

[David Spiegelthal]

For what it's worth: I have an alto marked "A. Rampone" (no Cazzani mentioned), from the design I'm guessing it's around 1950s vintage. Following a complete restoration it plays well (not great, but well enough). If I were a betting man I'd venture that the more modern "A. Rampone" saxes were a student or intermediate line, whilst the full name "Rampone & Cazzani" was reserved for their professional instruments --- just a guess.

[singlereed]

I think that whilst the Italian Makers - Borgani, Rampone and Orsi - are fine makers these days, it was not always so. In the days before the Far East got into manufacture of saxophones, many cheaper lines were made by Italian manufacturers - along with former GDR and the other Eastern Bloc countries. Therefore, you won't find too many people getting excited about older Italian saxophones. I wouldn't expect to discover an 'old master' amongst them.

[ernie tollar]

i have 2 'Lafleur' curved sop saxes. they were made for boosey and hawkes. i heard that they were made in italy.
No marking though.

But, the opening diameter is slightly larger than the R-1 Ramponi-Cazzani.

they are really great in many ways - not super deluxe pro horns like the R-1's but seem like they could somehow be in they same lineage.

I prefer my R-1 for sure but the Lafleur's do have some old master on a limited commision budget thing about them

cheers

[supruet]

I think it is 'Alfonso Rampone.'

[milandro]

this comes from another unrelated topic and it is an answer given by Rampone to a similar information request

However, when Rampone & Cazzani was asked whether this was one of their stencils, they replied:

"It is MAYBE an ALFONSO RAMPONE, not a R&C. ALFONSO RAMPONE was a cousin of the original Rampones. He ran his own factory, manufacturing pretty good horns from 1932 to 1974." [their capitals].

So Alfonso Rampone is a different company from the one Egidio Rampone founded and later became Rampone & Cazzani.

Does the saxophone also have the bell engraving A.Rampone, Ditte Riunite (italian for fingers united!), G.B.Cazzani?




BTW Yaniman, you wrote this 3 years ago but " Ditte" is the plural of " Ditta" which means company (pl. obviously companies).

So " Ditte riunite " just means " United Companies" (forget the prefix re-, in Italian it works this way, trust me ).....NOT UNITED FINGERS! (fingers are dito singular dita plural)