Additional information
Weight | 25 lbs |
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Dimensions | 34 × 14 × 10 in |
One of only 490 Selmer Radio Improved tenors that were made! And certainly one of the nicest surviving examples. The Radio Improved is a personal favorite vintage saxophone of mine. The tone is just very hard to beat. Wide and warm like a Conn, but with a delicate, focused ‘French’ Selmer core to it. The keywork has its own mojo, and you get used to it. It’s fast, but not as fast as a modern horn. If you can only play a Yamaha’s spatula keys, look elsewhere, or take a deep breath and dive down the rabbit hole of vintage saxophone tone!
What you get: Beautiful silver plated Selmer Radio Improved tenor in excellent condition. The only significant cosmetic issue on this horn is the moved strap hook. I had the bare brass spot plated where the strap hook used to be attached. It was moved down for balance, so the horn hangs more comfortably on a neck strap and spares your right thumb some effort. All in all, not a bad move. The silver was pretty tarnished when I bought this Radio Improved, so it was a job to remove the tarnish by hand and get it back looking nice and shiny again. It has a a couple of key guards resoldered (Eb, F#), and the pinky keys have had the plating touched up where the silver had worn off.
It just got a complete high end overhaul using Pisoni (italian leather) pads and reusable slightly domed metal resonators which I love on Selmers. It feels nice and ‘dry’ and snappy under the fingers, and plays with a beautiful, warm, medium dark tone. The response is quick and effortless in all registers. Low Bb is ‘just another note’ and even subtone is nice and saturated all the way down at pp.
I think this horn is going to make someone really happy! If I didn’t already have my own Radio Improved, I’d be keeping this one! Includes a BAM Softpack (hard) case with nice, protective foam and backpack straps. These cases work well for RI tenors.
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