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Recent Overhaul

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  • Sold Out

    Conn 10M Tenor Pre-War Recent Overhaul Exceptional Player 294921

    $ 5,450

  • King Zephyr Special Alto Near Mint Recent Overhaul 266751

    $ 5,750

    This is about as nice an original lacquer later example of a King Zephyr Special alto as I have seen. This comes from the collection of Theo Wanne, and has a fresh overhaul done for Theo within the last year or two. It has been in his collection, so not played much since the overhaul and is basically fresh and ready to start being played again by someone. My main alto is a Zephyr Special, as is Matt Stohrer’s, and Theo loves and collects them as well. They are among the best sounding altos ever made, and they just do everything pretty well. The tone is warm, powerful, medium spread, and dark and velvety. Not dark like a Conn though – more focus, more projection, and more of a ringing set of overtones, where a Conn is a bit more spread and fat. It’s just an extremely pleasant tone that you get on these. Every single one I’ve ever sold has gone to a buyer who was thrilled with the sound. The keywork is not modern – it’s ‘light flute-like action’ as King described it in its original ads from the 30’s. Not heavy and snappy, but light like a flute, and fairly small amount of key travel to close a tone hole. Intonation is good with a Meyer or really whatever you want to use, though flexible compared to modern horns. You can bend notes around how you want, for better or for worse.

    These are among the most beautiful saxophones ever produced as well. Hand engraving, pearls everywhere you touch, solid silver double socket neck. They’re great. And this one has almost all of its original lacquer intact, which is pretty incredible.

    If you want to join the Zephyr Special club this would be a great way to do it. It’s already overhauled, and still priced very affordably compared to modern altos, with a tone like nothing else!

  • Selmer Mark VI Alto 1960 Original Lac Fresh Overhaul! Outstanding 94108

    $ 7,950

    This is an original lacquer Selmer Mark VI Alto from 1960 that was one owner for almost its entire life until now. It was played by a pro in FL. He had a pickup installed in the neck, which I got removed and replaced with a ‘flush plug’ meaning the brass is perfectly smooth and matching inside and out, like it was never there. The 90k-118k altos are my favorite Mark VI’s for tone of all. This 94k just got a complete overhaul and is playing ridiculously well now. It feels like a brand new saxophone, and plays like one too. Effortless low register; dry, snappy pad feel; slightly domed brass resonators (reusable selmer style ones that are $125 a set), the works. It also comes in a new form-fitted BAM Classic alto case, which is the best BAM for the money for sure and has a large external storage pocket, hard shell, and soft internal foam formed to fit a Selmer. 5 digit altos have gotten more expensive these days, and this one is priced lower than a new Selmer, and sounds and plays better, and has a better overhaul. That’s hard to beat if you want a good Selmer alto.

    Only one available!

  • Selmer Mark VI Tenor 1972 Recent Full Overhaul Replacement Neck 201149

    $ 5,000

    This Selmer Mark VI Tenor was overhauled by Matt Stohrer a few years ago for a player who then was unable to play it for medical reasons, and is still basically a completely fresh overhaul. The horn feels great under the fingers! It plays almost like a new horn. The only odd thing about it is the neck. The tube doesn’t look like Selmer to me, though the octave key is. So it’s priced quite low as a result. You could always get a VI neck for it to match up if you prefer, though it plays great on the existing neck, whatever it is.

  • Selmer Radio Improved Alto Original Lacquer, Recent Overhaul 19276

    $ 4,950

    If you read around on here a bit, you’ll see that I love Selmers from the 1930’s and the Radio Improved in particular. This one has most of its original lacquer intact, and is in quite good condition. it is also in great playing condition with a recent overhaul done by Jack Finucane (from a couple of years or so ago before he stopped doing overhauls), and feels nice and snappy under the fingers. The pads look a little funny in photos – that’s because of some powder from Yamaha powder paper that is on the leather. But the pads themselves are in excellent condition and are nearly new. The resonators look like a Reso-Tech set made to match the vintage Selmer Tonex resos, but slightly oversized, and very slightly domed. They are a good match for the horn, and they almost look like vintage Selmer resonators. It didn’t get played much after overhaul, as the owner is in a military band and plays a modern horn most of the time for work. It’s on consignment now, and I think it’ll likely sell quickly.

    The tone of a Radio Improved alto is the reason to buy it. It’s like a Selmer blended with a Conn almost- delicate lyrical core that reminds me of an SBA, but with a wider, warmer, more spread feel like a Conn. The keywork is not modern. This is before the ‘Balanced Action’ keywork improvements, so you will have to get used to the left hand pinky keys if you haven’t played a vintage horn before. If you have, then it’s no problem. I barely notice keywork differences anymore after playing all the different styles out there. This one is more comfortable than most, and I like the direct action bell key mechanism.

    The original lacquer is in beautiful shape and looks great – deep honey gold. The only spot that isn’t original lacquer (and you’d have to really look closely to tell this) is at the neck receiver, where it looks like Jack had to resolder the neck receiver and then mix up some matching lacquer to over spray there. The only way to tell is that there’s just a little sign of overspray of the new lacquer on top of the original lacquer just below the receiver. That resolder often needs to be done on a 30’s Selmer to make the neck receiver strong again after 80+ years of use. (It was done on my personal RI, so I specially look for it). These horns are very uncommon, and this one is nicer than the great majority of RI’s out there. Only 1140 RI altos were made, and this is probably in the top 10% of those.

    Only one available!