It will be a really fantastic player with an overhaul. It has older pads, which are still sealing, but I’m selling it priced on the low side even though it’s so clean and beautiful so that you can play it, enjoy it, and sooner or later get it overhauled. This is the nicest Superba 1 I have owned.

If you want darker and more powerful, it’s Keilwerth. If you want something clear and bright think Yamaha or Yanagisawa. There really aren’t many baritones that can beat it for combination of tone and keywork. I would take a Superba 1 over a Mark VI bari all day long. The keywork feels modern, but the tone is warm and complex like a vintage horn. Anyway, I love Couf Superba 1’s because Herb Couf, who imported and popularized Keilwerth in the 60’s and 70’s, had great taste and an eye for detail on saxophones (and mouthpieces) and helped Keilwerth create a lineup of pro saxophones for the USA that is really hard to beat. James Carter also loves these baritones, although he’s endorsing P Mauriat at present, and could make any bari sound pretty good. The Couf Superba 1 is basically a special version of the SX90, and was played famously by Grover Cleveland. But it’s the bark and ‘fatness’ to the tone that I think makes people flock to Keilwerth on bari. You can also use a more traditional larger chamber, lower baffle mouthpiece and get a dark, rich, warm tone of course. They have a dark, powerful tone that combines well with a brighter mouthpiece to give you that biting, funky tone that makes bari so much fun to play. Keilwerth baritone saxophones like this Couf Superba 1 low A are among the most desirable bari saxes ever made.

Couf baritone sax