A SUPERB SELMER MARK VI ALTO;serial # 106,855. “9.5 on a scale of 10.0”.
Have a look at the photos, if you would. The instrument has come to us in nearly perfect condition.
French bright silver plate finish is 99.5% original. See worn spot on 8va. touch, on Eb key-guard, thin worn spots on Eb / C key touches. See photos, please.
Very good original bright (not satin) silver, without engraving.
High F# key also.
Note the key-touches for the LH pinky keys and the thumb-rest….no scratches, no plating wear.
Never dented or dinged. No “pull-downs”, no solder repairs, ever.
We disassembled the instrument, gave it a very careful bath (cold water, of course), then replaced ALL pads and corks. The original pads had NO washers, so we fitted the new pads with 1960’s USA-style stainless-steel resonators.
I’ve spent about two hours play-testing it. In my opinion it works best with a modern Selmer C-star or Meyer 4M. The tone-color is just a shade darker, “firmer” than an earlier M6.
A note about the silver-plate. This superb alto was made for the French market and came to us from a pro-player in Gascony. Silver plate was, at the time, the preferred finish for Selmer saxes. We’ve seen hundreds, can attest to the fact that silver, although unusual in the States, was the finish that was, in Paris, usually electro-plated over the brass.
However, there’s going to be “experts” out in Sax-O-Land that insist that our (nearly) pristine alto is a replate, the silver NOT original.
To the above, we propose you come for a visit to our small workshop in Wichita. Jess, my best woodwind tech, has done dozens and dozens of these and the only way, the best way is to use a six-inch hand-burnisher use very strong fingers and carefully burnish the silver plate back to perfection. You can’t do it with a nickel-plated sax, you can’t do it with a lacquered sax.
But if you’re good at it, if you have strong fingers and if you’re patient, six or eight hours after the start, you can make a bright-silver sax look again like new.
No…not a replate…It’s a superb, original, complete artist-quality alto that has now returned to its original glorious specs!
Low B & Bb speak easily, no hesitation in any way. Intonation is “perfect M6”, meaning the low notes (for me) were just a bit sharp. Normal stuff for a M6.
I’ve got two similar M6 altos at the present time, the other with 98% original bright silver finish. Both instruments are superb and, for the life of me I cannot tell you which is the better.
But if you’re looking for a PERFECT M6, this one’s just as close as it gets. I recommend it highly.
Set includes: Original Case, New Case
Sax questions? Write me! Nope, I’m not a top concert player, but I’ve tooted on thousands (literally) of Selmer altos and do believe I can offer a candid and honest opinion on any saxophone subject.
Respectfully, GR
HG