Alto Saxophone SELMER Super Action (SBA) #46484, without lacquer, beautiful patina, rare

These beautiful saxophones with their natural patina are very popular with many SELMER fans. And I also love SELMER saxophones like this beautiful alto! The patination process—the dark tarnishing of the pure brass sheet metal—takes many months to several years.

So we are delighted to once again have such a beautifully patinated SELMER alto saxophone in our collection. What's more, it is a rare specimen, as it is a rare Super Action (also known as Super Balanced Action, or SBA for short) equipped with a high F# key!

This 1953 SELMER Super Action alto saxophone was originally silver-plated, as can be seen from a few remnants of the silver plating. Contrary to the widespread belief that silver plating must be polished off to remove it, the silver layer is usually removed from the brass in a controlled manner by electrolysis or reverse electroplating, so that the layer thickness of the base material is not or hardly measurably changed.

The SBA Alto was completely overhauled some time ago and has just been fine-tuned in our SAXOPHONIC workshop. It is in very good technical condition and is wonderfully easy to play! The thumb hook was probably replaced with a modern, adjustable thumb hook during the overhaul, as was the thumb rest for the left thumb. The feel of this SBA Alto is now very similar to that of a Mark VI.

In terms of sound, this SELMER alto is very open and free, has a rather dark tone color, and develops considerable brilliance when played more forcefully.

A cool player's horn!