Selna

[stitch]

What do you guys make of this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16234&item=2525271 493&rd=1 ? It's reached quite a high price for an unknown brand, so presumably the bidders think it's a misreading of Selmer; however the seller assures me it's definitely Selna. Anybody know anything about this make?

[stitch]

...and it went for more than 1000GBP! Do those guys know something I don't? I mean, I know it looks like a Selmer...

I'm tempted to email the buyer....

[sax-ony]

Hello Stitch
I also emailed the seller and asked to know any words or numbers engraved on the body or crook, even if they didn't seem very significant or were only partly visible. The seller was quite certain that they could find nothing other than the one word 'Selna'. Surely everything else couldn't have been polished off entirely, even if it has been replated at some time?

Do report back if you learn anything interesting from the buyer!

[stitch]

Well ... "'curiouser and curiouser' said Alice" ...

I just emailed the buyer, reasoning the sax must have arrived by now, and the mail came straight back to me, saying:

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<xxxx@xxx.com>
(reason: 550 Invalid recipient <xxxx@xxx.com>)

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to smtp17.bellnexxia.net.:
>>> DATA
<<< 550 Invalid recipient <xxxx@xxx.com>
550 5.1.1 <xxxx@xxx.com>... User unknown
<<< 503 No recipients specified

except of course the email address was shown - I blanked it here as a courtesy.

Don't quite know what to make of it - any thoughts out there? :?

[Hurling Frootmig]

It looks like his mailbox on that server is gone. Dead account.

I saw this auction and was pretty sure it was a mis-marked Selmer or maybe a clone.

[stitch]

I saw this auction and was pretty sure it was a mis-marked Selmer or maybe a clone.

I presume you mean mis-marked by the seller (although he was adamant Selna was the only mark), rather than Selmer! (otherwise their quality control isn't up to much...)
It went for a big price (>$1650), and many people bid high, so someone in eBay land must know something....
Do clones usually go that high, especially if they're unrecognised?

[Hurling Frootmig]

The bell body braced screamed Selmer to me. Either someone did decent on the purchase or got taken to the cleaners. It wasn't me. I like to know exactly what I am bidding on.

[sax-ony]

Just to muddy the waters a bit more, I thought I'd mention another one that looks very much like a Selmer, but has only one word engraved on it - in this case 'Lyle'.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2527425959

It as been offered on Ebay at least three times recently, and has now sold for 299 Euros (about the same in dollars, I suppose). The seller only bought it a few weeks ago and paid 300 Euros. They sell a lot of sax stuff, so presumably they would know if they had something good, and they wouldn't have sold it again straight away for the same money.

Are these maybe far-eastern copies dating from before the days when Yamaha etc. were recognised brands in their own right?

[Jason DuMars]

It seems like more and more of these "exact" or "near-exact" copies are showing up on eBay. I have postulated on more than one occasion that one could make a mint if they created faux Mark VIs. It seems that is happening. Early Asian and even Italian (Grassi) saxes were based very closely on the Mark VI (and before that, Eastern European manufacturers cloned the Conn Wonder/6M). However, these horns that keep popping up with the line running through the G# key are either new or recently made. I asked the seller about the "Selna" as well, and he said there was no writing on the horn other than that. This virtually assures it is NOT a Selmer, and the high bidder threw an unlucky roll of the dice in hopes of getting a cheap Selmer. I fairly recently did the same thing with one of these copies that was made in the early 60s. It played very, very well, but was much rougher than a real VI.

I would like to find out who is putting out the Mark VI copies.

[Hurling Frootmig]

Yamaha
Yani

:lol: :lol:

Sorry I couldn't help it.

[funkenstein]

Hello there

Recently I bumped into another Selna alto saxophone. It wasn't expensive,
so I had to buy the horn. Nickel would look a bit strange on real Mk.VI !?
I wonder what it would sound like after a repad, first impression was promising.
I replaced a broken thumbrest with an original Selmer part. No problem.
I took a closer look, and they have copied every part of the Mark IV.
I think it's made approx. 1970, but this is a wild guess.

If anyone is still interested in unraveling the Selna mystery ( 4 years after
the first one popped up on ebay... )

I can send pictures, serial # , other details to anyone who's interested.

regards

Funkenstein,
The Netherlands

[BobHUK]

Hello,

I have a Selna tenor saxophone that I am currently selling on Ebay in the UK. I bought it three years ago on Ebay, and now I am passing it on. It is nickel plated, and well used by the look of it. I took it to a woodwind specialist to get it checked over, and he said it played much better than he expected it to. I bought a couple of mouthpieces for it, a Yamaha no. 4 and no. 6, and a Brilhart no. 5 from America. The Brilhart gives the best tone, but is more difficult to play than the Yamaha mouthpieces.

I haven't played it much because it is so loud that my family complained every time I took it out of the case, so I put it away in the loft and forgot about it till a few days ago when I was clearing out some rubbish and found it under a pile of cardboard boxes. So now it is for sale on Ebay, item no. 280290075079 and the auction runs out Saturday afternoon.

If anyone wants to see what this sax looks like then send an email to enquiries@qfedirect.co.uk with 'saxophone' in the subject line, and I will send you back an email with 22 close up shots of it in .jpg format.

Best regards,

Bob at QFE-Videos