1970 Alto Saxophone SELMER Paris Mark VI

This alto saxophone, manufactured in 1970 in the SELMER workshops in Mantes la Ville near Paris, was shipped in its raw form—i.e., in individual parts, without lacquer, engraving, springs, or pads—to the SELMER partner factory in Elkhard, USA, where it was lacquered, engraved, and assembled. Typical for export models for the US market at that time was that they were not equipped with the high F# key (Mark VI with high F# were only delivered to the USA in isolated cases).
During assembly at the SELMER USA factory, the body and knee were usually soldered together, which has a significant influence on vibration transmission, as is also the case with this model.

This fine horn was completely overhauled four years ago in our SAXOPHONIC workshop with revised mechanics and CHANU pads with INOX metal resonators without rivets, and has just been fine-tuned again. In recent years, it has been used as a second saxophone (alongside the tenor saxophone) by an amateur player. Technically, it is in perfect condition and, thanks to the high-quality overhaul, it can be played for many more years to come.

The running mechanism makes it easy for the player to express themselves in a variety of ways: it has a really beautiful tone, with a lovely richness in the lower registers and a warm resonance, and when played vigorously it produces plenty of power with beautiful overtones. With sufficient projection, it allows even distant listeners to appreciate the player's virtuosity and, in my opinion, is suitable for jazz, pop, funk, etc.

Visually, you can see that this Mark VI alto has been played a lot: its probably original lacquer is still 60-70% intact, there are minor dents and scratches here and there, lacquer wear and a solder joint on the Eb key guard, but these do not detract from the overall impression of the saxophone, which is 55 years old after all. And despite, or perhaps because of, its age, it easily outperforms most modern saxophones!

1-year SAXOPHONIC warranty