Pre-Zephyr New Voll-Tone Alto

[I. Fallon]

GAS has struck again. I was minding my own business at the local instrument repair bud and he showed me a satin silver King New Voll-Tone alto with bright silver around the engraving and mirror quality bright finish around the keys and covers. No finish wear except for the octave key. Best quality pearls I have ever seen. Non rolled tone holes and single neck. Plated wire guards. Patent (date?) 8-18-25 and has matching serial number on body and neck (1215XX).

Pads are jet black with metal resonators secured by a tiny pan head screw to a metal disk. There is a thick felt cube between the disk and the tone hole cover. The disk can pivot on the felt cube for a press fit to the tone hole. Neat arrangement.

The repairman put it on eBay for several seeks, dropping the price by about $200 each week, and never got a nibble. It plays great with the rubber mouthpiece that came with it. Almost too pretty for a man to play.

I have tried pre-Zephyr Kings before and never liked them. I love this one.

Has anyone heard of this model? Could it be a stencil?

[paulwl]

This is no stencil, Irv. It's the King model from the "transitional" era of sax making, circa 1930-32. (BTW, it's actually called the "Voll True," and I have no idea what "Voll" means, except in German where it means "full." Maybe it was meant to stand for "volume"?)

I've never played one of these (tho from your description I'm curious to!). But if they are like other tranny era saxes, they have improvements in tuning, among other things, and are just better players all around than their precursors.

Following on this model (ca. 1932-34) was the extensively redesigned Voll True II, largely identical to the Zephyr with right side bell cups, square key touches, etc.

[I. Fallon]

Hi Paulwl. I don't understand your comment that it is actually a Voll-True. I am reading New Voll-Tone off of the bell.

Perhaps this was an upgraded model like the Conn Artist? It seems strange that it does not have a gold washed bell.

I was wrong about plating wear on the octave key. It was only tarnish.

All of the Voll-True horns I have tried seemed to have a very light weight construction with an "airy" tone that jumped all over the place. This one is about as heavy as a Conn Chu with a robust sound. It does not have the intonation of my Couesnon (I never tried anything else that did) but it is quite acceptable.

It certainly knocks my opinion that an unplayed old horn is an unplayable old horn LOL.

[I. Fallon]

There is another one of these mystery horns currently on eBay. Check out 2558047425. If you have a daughter that wants to play, likes pretty things, and you live "down under", this may be the horn for you. Very close to the serial number of mine.

[spiderjames]

I had one of these in the 80's. i think it is pre Voll-True. Mine had a lovely sound and contrary to what I hear about old kings, pretty good intonation but would not speak well above high D no matter what I had done to it. It had a wierd slanted octave pip on the neck, No gold bell. I would definitely have kept it if I could have solved the problem. It was a really tight feeling horn.

[Mike Ruhl]

I bought a "New Voll-True" alto on ebay a couple about 3 years ago, and sold it about a year later. It was just as I. Fallon describes, and had a serial number in the 130*** range. The intonation on mine was all over the place, but I think if I'd had it professionally adjusted by someone who knew these horns, it would have been ok. It was a nice heavy horn with a full, albeit unmistakably vintage, sound.

[spiderjames]

My understanding is early Voll-Trues had a odd mechanism for high E and F . These Voll-tones are more like other Kings from the 20's. Later Voll-Trues are like early Zephyrs and, although I have never played one, are probably pretty good horns.

[shmuelyosef]

I restored this similar vintage gold-plated King for a customer. Had the weird octave pip, double G key, etc. Also, very beautiful pearls and surprisingly good intonation.

http://sjrosner.home.mindspring.com/Pre_voll_King/Composite.jpg