Since 1930, only saxophones in the key of B♭ and E♭ (originally intended by Sax for use in military bands and wind ensembles) have been produced on a large scale.

This enabled amateur musicians to play along with a friend or family member by reading from the same sheet of music—so long as the music fell within the pitch range of the C melody saxophone itself, that is, was not too high or low.

A number of high-quality manufacturers produced C melody saxophones (including Buescher, C. G. Conn, Martin,[6] King[7] and Selmer) from 1914 through 1930.

Most of these companies also manufactured "stencil" saxophones for other vendors under different names e.g. the 'Harwood Jenkins', 'Lyon & Healy', 'Oliver Ditson' and 'Wurlitzer American' – all of which were actually made by Buescher.

The Conn straight-neck Tenor in C is the most common of the actual orchestral saxophones and has a more classical sound and plays in tune throughout the instrument's range.

However, the long straight neck means that the saxophone must be held away from the player's body, a posture which some people may find uncomfortable.

However, it is important to note that production ended for purely financial reasons, and not because of any inherent flaw in the design or poor manufacturing standards.

This unusually profound recession hit saxophone manufacturers hard, forcing them to reduce the range of musical instruments they produced down to the most popular models, simply in order for those companies to survive.

Not surprisingly, instrument manufacturers concentrated instead on making other types which had strong customer demand and were easy to sell e.g. alto and tenor saxophones.

Although he played alto and soprano saxophones as well (the latter in ensembles with Arnold Brilhart, Alford Evans, and others), he made his most famous recordings on the C melody, and was a significant factor in popularizing the instrument among the general public.

Examples include Anthony Braxton,[10] Kyle Vincent, Scott Robinson, Rick Arbuckle, Rosy McHargue, Dan Levinson, Hayes Greenfield and Joe Lovano.

[12] Despite the fact that they have not been manufactured in over 75 years, C melody saxophones are readily available today, due to their limited use and the sheer number that were produced in the early 20th century.