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Just won a 10M on ebay!!

7K views 38 replies 12 participants last post by  Sigmund451 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Nice one !....those were going for around $900 just two years ago. Dings and dents, those can be removed pretty cheaply by a half-decent tech...maybe $50-100 worth of work.

These are great horns...they always get overlooked because the '60's ones don't have the Lady..and people mistakenly assume they were MX produced, when in fact they were made at the same Elkhart facility as all of the others....

Enjoy !
 
#5 ·
It's coming tuesday... feel like a kid 5 days out from Christmas!!!! Am looking forward to comparing it to my Martin Comm III. But my wife say's I'll have to sell my other Martin (aMedalist) to pay for the 10M... I only have 4 sax's now.. what's wrong with a fifth??
 
#13 ·
But my wife say's I'll have to sell my other Martin (aMedalist) to pay for the 10M
How much do you want for the Medalist? Aw nevermind, I can't get a 3rd tenor. Maybe bruce will buy it.
 
#14 ·
I made the same purchase several months ago. $400 for a 1967 10M. I bought a horn that was a little straighter, but it had some obviously shot pads. I love those close-up pictures showing a moldy torn pad on a beautifully straight horn. It keeps the price down and I generally want to rebuild anyway. Only after it has new Roos and resonators I can actually compair it to my other horns and decide which one to hide from my wife.

Love the 10s power. As to downside, just a few minor ones. The RH pinky keys are more of a stretch than my True Tone. Not a problem, just different and takes a few minutes to get used to. G2 and G#2 are unstable, but that may just be my horn. I've been futsing with it and have some improvement. The lower stack also needs some swedging. I'm not sure of how to make neck tenon adjustments. The standard adjustment is to expand the tenon. But with the double socket 10M neck, I think that the neck inner sleeve should be tight with the tenon so expanding the tenon doesn't seem right even though it allows the clamping part to fit better. Expanding the inner sleeve and contracting the screw clamp part seems like the way to go, but almost impossible.

It's too much fun to play, so I haven't taken the time to really try to adjust a little neck play. Still, I keep wondering if that's the source of my shaky Gs. Enjoy.

Mark
 
#15 ·
I am hoping (might be wishful thinking) that this one plays decent right out of the box. It was supposed to have been just serviced and the neck was supposed to have been refitted. Of course it could be a horn that needs a lot of work and the guy did the minimal and dumped it. I will find out on Tuesday. I have a killer tech, but she is not cheap. If my wife EVER found out how much repair $ I put into my horns...... I'd be sharing the dog bed with my Lab.
 
#19 ·
OK. The sax came yesterday. Here are my 1st impressions. Spent quite a bit of time going back and forth between my The Martin and the 10M.
Condition pretty much as listed and pictured. Some dings and rippling on bottom of bell and neck. Nothing the appears to negativly impact playability. Keys seem fairly tight, maybe a couple of he typical ones could eventually use a little swedging, nothing bad. Pads ok. The low Bb is a little tough - might be a slight leak somewhere, nothing bad.
It has a slightly brighter sound than my The Martin and the key travel seems a little farther. I will have to keep trying mouthpieces to find a combo I like for that horn. On the Martin I use a Rico Metalite 5 w/ Fibracell 3 reed, that worked good on the 10M as did a Brillhart Levelair 5. Meyer 6, Otto STM 6 ok. Jody Jazz 7*, Selmer HR soloist and metal c* all sounded bad and harder to get the higher notes.
The intonation seemed good, if not better than the Martin, especially no high stuffy D2 and was able to hit the high G3 right off, something I am unable to do on the Martin. The horn hangs nicely, these later models must have fixed the strap height problem.
Overall I wasn't "Wowed" but it seems like a real nice horn. Iwant to give it a little time. Then I have to decide what horn to sell, the other Martin (The Medalist), or the 10M.
 
#20 ·
Keep 'em both.

I tell you...different strokes for different folks...a Rico Metalite m'piece would be the absolute last choice I would ever slap on a 10M. I think a Meyer or Selmer Soloist makes a 10M sound fantastic, really rounds out the natural bottom of the horn....particularly the Meyers.

...we celebrate diversity, eh ?....

But I mean, quite honestly...you do have two different vintage beasts there, and I could see where in some instances one would serve better in a context than the other...although IMHO the 10M is probably more versatile.

I also suggest you get whatever issues are causing difficulty in getting it to speak up and down, taken care of...because one can never judge any horn until they speak up and down cleanly, no embouchure contortion required....

(quite honestly, if the work required is more than a tech tweaking some things for 30 minutes, I would contact the seller and tell them the horn didn't arrive as described, and request they pitch in with a small partial refund. You may need your tech to write up a quote first).
 
#25 ·
Ok. Just got back from lessons. My teacher is a monster player (To me anyway!)
He played the 10M from top to bottom, whisper soft to screamin loud.. Said nice tight horn, no problems, sounded nice. Than I gave him my old martin medalist. He blew 2 notes, stopped and said "no contest". He ran the martin thru the same workout. I hate to admit it but the Martin blew the 10m out the door. It had a much richer sound whether he asked it to scream or whisper. It wasn't even close.

Then he did a side by side with his Mark 6 siting there and my $400 martin held its own to his $6000 selmer. So I guess I just suffered from the old "grass is greener" syndrome and need to be content with what I have.

10M for sale........ Ha. Of course it was suggested I keep them both... how can I pay for and hide that 3rd tenor????????
 
#26 ·
I learned that about 45 years ago. At the time I had a Zephyr, 3 Mark VIs and a SBA tenor. I didn't have time to go get my tenor and my roommate loaned me has Martin Indiana. Years later, I now always keep a Martin for my tenor. They just command the tenor and bari horns IMO and have a "rugged" sound that can be controlled. I currently use a Martin HC Imperial from the 30s.
 
#27 ·
Wait...but you already paid for the Third Tenor, right ?

IMHO, Martins and Conns are different. I cannot say one is better than the other...but I do stick by my personal impression that the Conn is a more versatile horn. I also find them wider-toned.

You should be able to get what you paid for it, however. Heck, I'll buy it from you for the auction price, if you want.....quick sale, I can pay you by this weekend...PM me if so.
 
#29 ·
Yes it's already paid for.. just borrowed money against myself. I want to keep playing with it a little. I like how it plays. I wish I had one of the STM NY Mpcs fhat was mentioned to try to see how it plays with that.
I also recognize that in a line of saxs not all sound the same. Maybe this 10M is
not as sweet as most. All that I can say was in listening to the side by side my jaw was on the ground at the difference.
So I am not quite ready to sell... yet.
 
#34 ·
A final update. I had a couple people who ar better than me play the 10M and the opinion was that it just does not have that 10M sound. I know that not all horns are the same and this one did have some neck dimpling or repair, maybe that effected the tone. Anyway I threw back on fleabay, hopefully I'll get my $ back out of it. So someday maybe I'll try another 10M if only I can figure out how to sneak that one past my wife.............
 
#35 ·
Yeah, get one from the early '60s with the different bell brace (but underslung neck). I had one of these (800,xxx series) and it shore sounded like a 10M to me! Perhaps a little cleaner and louder sounding than the classic ones from the '30s, but it still had that characteristic dark, woody sound. :bluewink:
 
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