Selmer Mark VI Soprano: American Engraving, Silver Plate

You just don’t see these every day. I am in the mid­dle of clean­ing up this horn, and the sil­ver plate is so bright and thick that if I hadn’t seen it tar­nished and cleaned it up myself I’d won­der if it was excep­tion­ally classy nickel plate. Beau­ti­ful and rare exam­ple of a Mark VI soprano.  

Why Cheap Saxophones Are Cheap

Curt Altarac, a fel­low sax­o­phone repair spe­cial­ist here in North Car­olina put together a great arti­cle at MusicMedic.com based on the expe­ri­ence of one of his appren­tices fit­ting the keys (aka rebuild­ing the mechan­ics) of a cheap East Asian import sax. Any of you who are repair­men read­ing this are imme­di­ately get­ting clammy, and per­haps …

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The Plastic Saxophone

A com­pany based in Thai­land has made a plas­tic sax­o­phone, called the Vibrato. had a chance to test out a Vibrato model A1S and take a look at the mechan­ics from a sax­o­phone repairman’s point of view. (Click on any photo for a high res­o­lu­tion version) In the way­back times, an Eng­lish com­pany made an acrylic sax­o­phone aimed at …

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The Original Mark VI Booklets In Their Entirety

I love orig­i­nal lit­er­a­ture, be it ads or book­lets or price lists, and I col­lect them as I come across them. Here are some high-quality scans of the book­lets that would have come with your new Selmer Mark VI sax­o­phone.   Click on any image for a high resolution version.    

The Unprofitable Valley Or: Why So Much Stuff Is Mediocre

The short­com­ings of lan­guage and bar­ri­ers to con­sumer knowl­edge have divorced value from price, and cre­ated an unprof­itable val­ley that traps and kills many good prod­ucts, ser­vices, and inno­va­tions to keep the sta­tus quo a sea of mediocrity.

On The Forked Eb (aka Eb trill) On Vintage Saxophones

On older horns, sometimes you’ll find that the right hand E pearl is disconnected from the E pad cup, and through a rather complex mechanism is attached to a tiny key opposite the low D.  This is a mechanism called the forked Eb, and when in proper working order allows you to trill from D …

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Why is my C, D, E, A stuffy? Why does it have a different tonal color?

Obviously some stuffiness is caused by leaks, damage, supoptimal key heights, octave issues (particularly with upper A and C), etc. But what about when you’ve taken it to a competent tech and worked on it and nothing seems to be helping? Well, the following information may help you. Some notes on the horn are vented …

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My spiel on equipment, setup, and the vintage Selmer thing

The following is an email I received asking a variation of an Eternal Question I seem to get pretty often, followed by my response. “Hello Matt.I am mailing you to tell you about a Keilwerth New King Tenor I have bought and playing. I put it through a repair shop and it plays so well …

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