A few months ago I acquired a vintage silver Rampone soprano saxophone. It had been in someone’s grandmother’s attic, without a case, for who knows how long and was in quite a state of disrepair.
Cazzani, Ditte Riunite Copper wash on the inside of bell The saxophone is a one-piece straight silver soprano with a copper wash on the inside of the bell, by A. Rampone, Milano with the A. Cazzani, Ditte Riunite circular logo, serial number 4xxx (haven’t been able to determine the year it was built yet). Now here is something you don't see very often: a vintage Rampone & Cazzani tenor saxophone. Source: eBay.com The seller describes the tenor like this: Vintage.
Every pad (pretty sure they were all original) and most corks needed replacing, some keys and rods were bent, and the whole thing needed a good polishing. I have some basic repair skills and take care of basic pad, cork, and felt replacement and adjustments on my horns, and have done a full strip down, repad, and polish of a metal clarinet once, but have never undertaken a full restoration of a saxophone before.
The thought to write a post about this process only occurred to me after I started, and even then I didn’t do a very good job of photo documenting it, but here’s what I’ve got. Copper wash on the inside of bell The saxophone is a one-piece straight silver soprano with a copper wash on the inside of the bell, by A. Rampone, Milano with the A.
Cazzani, Ditte Riunite circular logo, serial number 4xxx (haven’t been able to determine the year it was built yet). No front high F, a “nail file” G#, and the rest of the left hand pinky keys inline. The original pads used a rivet resonator for all larger than 15mm, except for the lowest 4 pinky-key pads (C#-Bb), which have a screw-on flat resonator (which I didn’t entirely realize until I was taking it off more on that later). The thumb hook looks like it’s a replacement just a piece of metal soldered on and bent to a curve.
It was blocking the pad immediately above it from opening, so had to be adjusted. There’s no neckstrap hook, but a place on the back where it looks like one may have been at one point but became unsoldered and come (or taken) off. There are some small dings in the body, but nothing major.
Repairing that is beyond my humble abilities, so I’ve left them. The things I needed to do to overhaul the instrument were: • Clean body and keys • Replace all pads • Replace mouthpiece cork • Replace various other bumper corks and felts • Fix bent key and bent rod • Level some toneholes • Replace rollers • Get a case. Still stripped down I first took off all the keys, which was a bit of a struggle as the whole upper stack and top side key is all attached to a single long rod in a somewhat complex overlapping configuration, so I had to pay careful attention to the order of how the keys went together. This is also where a key was bent, making the rod very difficult to unscrew and pull out.
The right hand is also on a single rod, though not so complex. Next I measured all the pad cups and ordered new pads from.
Ad Aware Pro 8 1 0 Keygen Download. I decided to go with their SoftFeel line and to use the same resonators as the originals, which as I mentioned earlier were just normal pads for the smaller ones up to 15mmm (palm and side keys, octave keys, and above left hand first finger), and rivet resonators for all the rest except for the lowest 4 pads which had a flat resonator. When I took off the pads and measured these I saw they had a screw holding the flat resonator in but didn’t realize that they screwed into the cup itself, so when I ordered the pads I got them with flat resonators. It was only when I went to remove the pads and clean the cups that I understood what was going on, and meant that I would have to remove the rivet and resonator from the new pad to install them. Straightening the rod The next problem to tackle was the bent post on the left hand G key. It was knocked quite considerably out of line to the point where the left hand stack wasn’t even really moving before I stripped it down.
Through gentle bending I was able to bring it back into the right position. Along with the post getting bent, the rod that went through the whole left hand stack was no longer straight. After learning how to straighten it using a drill and a wooden handle (courtesy of ), I also got it back where it needed to be. Checking the levelness of the tonehole Then I was able to start gluing the pads back in, replacing the felts (for which I used a soft brown leather instead) and bumper corks, reattaching the keys, and leveling the pads to the tone holes. I got to a problem with the lowest pads and the screw-in resonators. Since I didn’t realize how they worked when I ordered the pads, they came already attached, so I had to remove the attaching rivet. I decided to use the flat resonators from the new pads rather than the originals, which had become rather corroded.
I also found some of these tone holes to not be level, so I attempted to level them with a diamond flat file. This is not the recommended way to do level these as you can’t be sure that you’re doing so correctly, but the proper tools are far too expensive for a hobbyist to own. I made them a bit better, but I’m sure it’s not perfect. With the more pillowy pads I was using and quite a lot of pad adjusting and levelling, I was luckily able to get them to seal.
My first attempt at replacing the mouthpiece cork was not as successful as I would have liked, and some of it tore. It was still in a usable state, but I decided to try again. I didn’t have any more of the cork, but did have a wine cork. It was about the right size, though far too thick.
After drilling out the middle and applying glue I got it into place, and then had to sand it down to fit a mouthpiece on. And used it for the mouthpiece cork Of the 6 original rollers, most were cracked, broken, or just didn’t move. I unscrewed the ones that I could, but some needed to be cut off with a razorblade. I ordered new custom ones from, and rather than the original brownish-red color decided to go with the Taos color, which I think looks quite nice against the silver horn. Although I had them cut to size for me, they rolled, but some not all the way around.
I used my diamond file again to open up the space by fractions of a millimeter so that they all rolled freely. Finished case! I had my friends at send me over a Rico Metalite M7 mouthpiece, which is an interesting little piece. Really not bad for the price they sell it for, and gives quite an edgy sound like a metal mouthpiece, but from plastic. Overall it just didn’t respond well enough for me though, and I wanted something darker and richer anyway, so I took the horn over to my other friends at and went through the stock there.
I came home with a Meyer, Otto Link Tone Edge, and a Jody Jazz HR* on trial. I thought I was going to go with the Link for the sound and how well it played in tune, but in the end I settled on the JJ HR* 6. It just blew more freely for me, had more depth in the sound, and was overall more flexible. I could throw nearly any reed at it and it would play fine, just with a different quality depending on whether it was harder or softer. Total project cost: £220- saxophone + shipping (eBay) £40- pads, cork, leather (Music Medic) £35- rollers (Sax Key Rollers) = £295 for the instrument (+ £120 mouthpiece) £2- architect tube (eBay) £2- handle (eBay) £8- hardware – picture hangers, carabiners, screws, bolts, and washers (local hardware stores) £10- strap (Thomann) = £22 for the case.
I'm thinking of buying a used R1 jazz Bb tenor from someone I don't really know. I tried it and the sound and feel are great, but I need more information (especially the year it was made and purchased) before making a big investment like this.
I tried sending an email (to info@ramponecazzani.it) about a week ago and I didn't get an answer yet. I also tried calling (+39 0323 826134) and sending a facebook message but this also didn't work out. How can I get information about the sax? Is there a serial number chart or updated contact info? About a week ago, the entire Zolla family ( owners of Rampone & Cazzani) was at the Frankfurter messe, engaged in the most important commercial event of the year with visitors from the entire world.
The fair closed Sunday and then they drove back to Quarna. Now they will be back home and after a little rest they will be able to process all the mail which arrived BECAUSE of the commercial contacts which they had at the fair. Sometime down the line, I suppose they will have time to answer you urgent query. The company is family run and there are less than 10 people altogether working there. The offices are run by two or three people.
They are the only source of information about the R&C serial number. I don’t know what, knowing the exact year of production, would add to have tried the saxophone and found it good.
But I suppose that you must have your reasons. Some R1 Jazz don’t take kindly to the passing of time and despite the fact that they might have been played very little, still the metal might look less than sparkly.
In fact this has been the case even with some new, never used ones in some of the many finishes in which they, these days, come. I have seen it personally. In that case the shop might ( but I couldn’t say) have purchased it as a “ second” for just a little less than normal. Anyway, the seller should be able to produce some title of purchase showing that it was indeed bought no long ago. Even Rampone & Cazzanis have been know to have been laying in wait for a customer and the document would also tell you the exact price it was purchased for.
Thank you for your answers! The serial number is 11841, so i guess it's possible it was manufactured in 2011. My main concern is the year it was purchased from R&C, as the guy selling it claims he bought it new a few months ago and barely used it (he imported it in order to sell). The horn does play well, but it doesn't look new and barely used. So while it's not an 'urgent query', I would like to get this information as it can affect the price he asks for the horn.
My horn (240xx) & Guto's (242xx) both tie in with the manufacturing year of 2004. Your 118xx appears to have been made in the year 1001.unlikely to say the least!:) Are you sure it's not marked 21843.which, by my understanding, would place it as the 843rd horn made in the year 2001. Even then, it seems unlikely that R&C would have the capacity to build 843 horns in one year.
Some R1 Jazz don’t take kindly to the passing of time and despite the fact that they might have been played very little, still the metal might look less than sparkly. In fact this has been the case even with some new, never used ones in some of the many finishes in which they, these days, come. Izotope Serial Generator. I have seen it personally. In that case the shop might ( but I couldn’t say) have purchased it as a “ second” for just a little less than normal. Anyway, the seller should be able to produce some title of purchase showing that it was indeed bought no long ago.
Even Rampone & Cazzanis have been know to have been laying in wait for a customer and the document would also tell you the exact price it was purchased for. The R&C horns in silver tarnish like any other silver sax because they are not coated with anything. So they don't look bright shiny and new even when they are. This is true for the Duo Voci and I was kind of surprised to discover it.
There's a tenor player here that I've known for years, Gorka Garay, who is one of the R&C artists on their website. Back in the fall I was at Sax-On and he was already there at the counter where he horn lying.
He used to play a 10M I think and so I could see it was a different sax but at first I didn't recognize it for what it was. That was because the silver was dull looking and not at all like the Duo Voci on display in the showroom area. When he told me that he had just gotten it a couple of weeks earlier I found it curious because I would have thought that it would be much shinier than it was for being so new. Awesome sounding horn though, but if you are looking for a sax that retains it's shiny new look, don't get that type of finish. Hmm, ok, my (arrived today) Rampone & Cazzani FISM Deluxe tenor has a serial of 16014. I can tell you that there is no way this horn could have become so degraded over anything less than a substantial period. Green & pitted silver plate (chrome?) on a few keys and hinge tubes, a few red patches beginning to emerge where the lacquer is worn through, and lacquer mottled from (what appears to be) un-cleaned spittle.
I sent the serial to R&C asking if they could date this sax. R&C responded very quickly requesting detailed images which I hope to take and send tomorrow.
So.the theory that this was (possibly) the 14th horn made in 2016 can only be a myth me think. How contiguous are / were R&Cs serial numbering? Fabulous thanks - I'm getting somewhere.
It is most definitely an FISM Deluxe, no high F#, no extra trill etc. It's such shame it has been subject to such neglect but I'll get it sorted at some point.
This sax is the same as this one here. The only difference I can determine is the key guard cut-outs (of my sax) are a slightly different shape to the sax (URL) above. In its current state I can play about 3 notes (C,B,A) and make ducks jealous from that point onwards, or downwards as the case may be. The body ain't banged up, only slight curvature of one hinge tube and apart from appearance in great shape. Oh yeah, broken octave mechanism (post) but I have the broken bit.
This should (fingers crossed) come up fine. If it is called FISM ( Fabbrica Italiana Strumenti Musicali) this a designation that Rampone & Cazzani used in the ’70 certainly NOT 2016! Your horn is absolutely not a modern one but rather like the “ De Luxe' I sold to Jazz is all. Yes, but that sax was cosmetically quite original looking and had practically no degradation of the finish. I recall that we tried to find out the exact date of manufacture from Claudio but never got a response. Then again my memory for details of stuff like that is not so great anymore so maybe that never happened except in my mind.