I bought a new saxophone today. It’s a tenor, a Selmer Paris Reference 54. Very nice, great condition, almost like brand new, all golden and shiny, and it plays just fantastic.
My old horn is a Selmer Mark VII, and it it’s getting pretty long in the tooth. I just had a worked on a few months ago, and then first band practice of the new year a pad fell off. Oy! I was able to put it back on with tape, but the sound isn’t quite the same, and now it’s got to go into the shop again. In general the horn is fairly clackity, and it’s difficult to sound the low notes softly without using subtone. Like I said, the horn is old. Like forty-five years old. And I’ve had it and been playing it in working bands for almost twenty five years now. I think it may really need a complete rebuild.
So, the other night I was feeling kinda down about the situation, this being my main axe and all. On a whim I decided to look on craigslist to see if there were any saxes for sale. I’ve been looking off-and-on over last couple years for various things like PA equipment, a soprano sax, a bass clarinet, and even a tenor, but haven’t found a deal I wanted to take. The really good horns only go by rarely. There’s lots of crap out there, and sometimes some pretty good stuff, high-end second-rate stuff that tends to be really expensive. I figured for a tenor I’d never find a Mark VI or Mark VII that is good shape that I can afford, so maybe I’d look for a Super 80, or a Japanese model.
So I was pretty surprised when I saw this horn listed at reasonable price, and what’s more the guy selling it is right in my neighborhood. The Selmer Reference 54 is the current Paris model, based on over 100 years of saxophone making, the direct descendant of the Super 80, Mark VII, Mark VI, Balanced Action, Cigar Cutter and all those. It’s based on a Mark VI, the most legendary horn of them all, but with modernized design and manufacturing. Literally the best you can get. And beautiful engraving too. I have few other Selmers but none have the fully engraved bell like this one.
And I gotta tell you it plays like a dream. Butter and cognac and molten gold. Lots of little refinements mean the intonation is better and the tone is more consistent throughout the range, and the action is tighter, which means you don’t have to move your fingers as far and it just plays faster. Best of all the tone is rich and solid at pianissimo all the way down to the low Bb. I can play Lush Life again! The tone is clearer than my old horn, but still sufficiently dark and smoky, at least the way I play (I only played about three bars when the dude says to me “Wow, you’ve got a huge tone!”). And like I said, very shiny. Like new, just one or two tiny scratches.
Dude even threw in a second neck. I don’t know where he got it, but it’s not Selmer. But is makes the horn sound pretty different, more open and brighter. I’ll have to experiment with it.
As for my old horn, well it’s still a classic. People generally prefer the Mark VI over the Mark VII, but to me that’s a great horn. It’s got everything the Mark VI has plus a high F#. Mine has a great, tone, smoky and edgy, although that’s partly cuz it’s a but leaky, creaky, and squonky, and I’ve gotten used to its idiosyncrasies. Someone told me a long time ago that horns tend to improve their sound over time because the crystals in the metal actually reoriented themselves to align with the resonant energy patterns of the horn. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds like it could be.
So I guess I’ll take it to my man in Yonkers and at least have him replace a few bad pads and whatever bits of felt and cork have fallen off since the last time, and see how far that goes. Who knows, maybe that’s all it needs. I can ask about the rebuild, how expensive it is and how long it’s likely to take. If it’s not outrageous I’ll probably go for it, since the work goes straight into the value of the horn, and I have another horn now, so I don’t need it back in three days or less.
Meanwhile I’ll spend time some exploring my new horn and getting used to it. Next up, I need a new mouthpiece too. I don’t even know if they make the kind I use anymore.