The
King Marigaux was definitely the most popular and numerous
of the SML stencil horns.
These
horns are essentially Gold Medal Mk.
II horns with different engraving. There is a rumored
possibility that King had some of these horns made in the
style of the King Silver-Sonic:
a lacquer body with a (sterling) silver neck and bell, but
I have not seen any. I can say that any finish other
than lacquer on a King Marigaux is extremely rare.
From what I've been able to see, the serial number listings
for these horns parallel that of the SML models, rather than
the Kings. I have not been able to determine an accurate serial
number for the start or end date of these horns. Possibly
the start date was 1968 or slightly earlier and I've confirmed
a new Marigaux sold in 1986 -- although that could have been
one of those "attic" horns -- a brand new horn that
was sitting on some music store's shelf for years and then
sold (and there are a lot of SML's like that).
But,
as said, I haven't seen examples with rolled tone holes or
the other trappings of the Gold Medal "Mk. I".
It's possible, from the postings that I've read, that the
Marigaux horns were SML's "factory seconds," because of the
"hit or miss" nature of these horns. I've seen a lot of posts
to the various saxophone discussion groups saying Marigaux
A plays as good as a Gold Medal and an equivalent amount saying
that Marigaux B is considerably lower quality than a Gold
Medal. Note that no one ever says they're junk, though. This
is similar to what many folks say about the Selmer Mark VII
in comparision to the Mark VI -- except that some people do
say the VII's junk :~).
IMHO, these people may just think that these horns are lower
quality because they don't say "Gold Medal" on the
bell. Either that or they don't realize that thre are two
models of Gold Medal, and the later one -- which the SML is
patterned after -- is of somewhat lower quality.
These
horns are intriguing because after 25xxx these horns had the
addition of an altissimo
F# key -- the only SML models to have them -- and all
of the last few SML horns appear to be Marigaux! (Note that
the Marigaux engraving also seems to change
around s/n 24xxx and no
longer mentions SML.)
Please
also note that the King Marigaux baritone and sopranos parallel
the SML baris and sopranos in another way: their design is
mostly "Rev. D".
For
other SML Stencils, please go HERE.
|
