Selmer SBA Neck Comparison Blues

**mrpeebee** · 03-31-2011, 10:47 PM

Hi all,

Having several (vintage) mouthpieces with different shank bore sizes gave me some issues with my neck cork. The smaller ones easily destroy the cork thickness, making it difficult to play the wider ones. In order to solve that issue I bought some monthes ago a second neck for my Selmer SBA (Super Balanced Action) of 1952. Now one neck has thinner cork and is for the small bore MPC's, the other neck has thicker cork and is for the wide bore MPC's.

What surprised me is the difference in sound between the two necks. In order to make that more clear to myself I recorded some takes using the same mouthpiece/reed combination on both necks. Out of two tracks I compiled a "Selmer SBA Neck Comparison Blues" of 10 chorusses, played on two vintage Otto Link mouthpieces. I just created a small video with pictures of the necks and mouthpieces and put it on YouTube. See this link:

- Selmer SBA Neck Comparison Blues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1cjPcA5Hqo

By opening the description under de video you get a time index, which makes it easy to jump to a certain part of the recording.

Some details on the equipment:
- Neck 1 is my old SBA neck. It has no lacker and is a bit higher then neck 2.
- Neck 2 is my new SBA neck. It has more lacker and is a bit lower then neck 1.
- The first 5 chorusses are played on a vintage Otto Link Florida no USA 10* with a La Voz medium reed.
- The last 5 chorusses are played on a vintage Otto Link Tone Master 8 with a Fibracell 3,5 synthetic reed.

My conclusion is that neck 2 sounds considerable darker then neck 1. I expect that the main reason for the difference in sound comes from (small?) differences in shape (bore, bow, ...). I don't think the presence of more or less lacker has anything to do with it.

Just posted this clip here for information. Please don't bother to much on my playing, I'm just an intermediate player who likes to make these kind of comparisons

.

Peter.

**swperry1** · 03-31-2011, 11:33 PM

Interesting comparison! I prefer the darker tone of "Neck 2," but both sounded fine.

I wasn't paying attention at the beginning when you said "two voices" during the first chorus, and thought you had some kind of flanger effect on...wouldn't be the first time someone put up a post to compare sounds, then make it so you can't here the real sound of the horn.

**mrpeebee** · 03-31-2011, 11:45 PM

Thanks for listening and your comments swperry1. I also prefer Neck 2, I play that one as main piece (with the Florida no USA 10* mouthpiece).

No special effects in the theme, just two recordings (second voice played over the first one, by ear)

.

**Nefertiti** · 04-01-2011, 12:11 AM

Are there serial numbers on the necks?

**Nefertiti** · 04-01-2011, 12:14 AM

Boy, Iwas looking at this and saw your comparison of links video on the side. That's a crazy amount of vintage links. Which one one in that video?

**mrpeebee** · 04-01-2011, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by Nefertiti

Are there serial numbers on the necks?

No serial numbers on both necks Steve.

Neck 1 (it came with my SBA 506xx tenor of 1952) doesn't have the 'mouse ears' Selmer logo in front. I found this type of necks in SBA pictures from serial 429xx onwards (about 1950 upwards). Neck 2 (recently bought) has the 'mouse ears' logo. The most recent SBA pictures I found with that type are from serial 398xx downwards (1949 and before). So I guess that makes Neck 2 and older one then Neck 1.

I used these sites for the details on pictures and serial numbers:
- Selmer SBA pictures: http://usahorn.com/archive/Selmer-Pa...ophones/#Tenor
- Selmer serial numbers: http://www.saxpics.com/?v=ser&manID=18

**mrpeebee** · 04-01-2011, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Nefertiti

Boy, Iwas looking at this and saw your comparison of links video on the side. That's a crazy amount of vintage links. Which one one in that video?

Indeed I have a lot of that old stuff, really like to collect and play those vintage Links (have still enough MPC's to create another comparison blues

).

I already posted the Vintage Link Comparison Blues clips some while ago in another thread here on SOTW, see this link:
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthr...=1#post1612987

In the Neck Blues I played the Florida no USA 10* (same MPC as B and D in part 1 of the Vintage Link Blues) and a (refaced) Tone Master 8 (same MPC as H in part 1 of the Vintage Link Blues). By opening the description under the YouTube video you get a time index, which makes it easy to immediately jump to a certain MPC in the recording.