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Selmer Mark VII any good?

96K views 118 replies 58 participants last post by  Platner 
#1 ·
Hey,
Are Selmer Mark VII's any good? I am currently interested in buying one for $2300 that is silver plated and in really good condition. Does the silver make any difference? What is your guys opinion?

EDIT-
It is a tenor and the neck that comes with it is a Mark VI neck. Will that neck do anything different than the Mark VII neck? Also im a fairly advanced player and have played a small but large variety of horns. Yanagisawa A 901, Mark VI, Yamaha yts 23, 52 (mark Vi was alto and i only played it for an hour)
 
#105 ·
I owned a 1977 Mark VII Alto for 10 years. Sold it on because I was playing more pieces requiring use of the LH pinky table and my particular VII was horribly unbalanced there (I have since played some very exceptional examples of VII Altos). "A" was also very stuffy, and the sax was very mouthpiece picky. The neck seemed to be on the long side, as most mouthpieces I had to put on as far they'd go. Played really well on the stock Soloist style scrollshank C* though! But any mouthpiece without a small chamber, that sax hated! It was a serious powerhouse though. Sometimes I miss it, and I would have had it overhauked and played around with necks instead, but, I'm getting everything I want out my A880 now, with none of the problems my VII had!
 
#106 ·
I wanted to share my experience on this topic. I'm not a pro player, just a hobbyist who plays tenor sax in bar-bands and community bands. I've wanted to own a Selmer, but the prices of Mark VI's is too high. Even if I bought one I wouldn't want to take it out to the gigs I get. I had read about Mark VII's and the negative reviews kept me away...for several years. Finally the affordability enticed me into buying one about 2 months ago. I wish I had done it a long time ago. I love this Mark VII tenor...the tone is incredible. The ergonomics are better than almost every other tenor I've ever owned as well. Is it as good as a Mark VI? Well I doubt it, based on the sort of comments I see here and elsewhere. But is it a really good and affordable instrument? Absolutely!
 
#107 ·
I think the Mark VII's are some of the best deals out there. Intonation is better than the VI and they sound like a Selmer. Downside would be the weight and G# cluster but you get used to it. $2,300 is a solid deal especially if it's an M serial number.
 
#111 ·
Thought I might add to the topic since I’ve tried a handful selmer horns through this recent year. I owned a ’78 mk VII tenor for 6 years, sold it and recently ”returned” to another mk VII from ’76. As I can recall the ’78 was not as good as this ’76 I bought now, even having the ’78 with a complete overhaul. The tone is more centered and even through the whole register in the ’76 and with good intonation. The 78 had a darker tone but harder to control and not as centered, but of course a good and decent Selmer horn. I sold the ’78 many years ago but this is how I remember that horn. I like mk VI’s but never fallen in love wih one enough to buy one for the price. For me, the ’76 mark VII is better than a few late VI’s I’ve tried.

Btw, the 76 Has a M before the serial. Dont remember if the 78 was a M or N.

————————-
SETUP:
Selmer Tenor Mk VII w. Jody Jazz HR 8
Rampone & Cazzani R1 Jazz Tenor w. Saxscape Uptown NF 8*
 
#112 ·
I played a very early VII tenor for years and I tried a hell of a lot of other instruments before finally finding my dream tenor, a 1954 VI. Don’t believe the negative press about these instruments and give it a try, they can be real powerhouses.

As for the ergonomics, the only issue I found was with the bell key table, for which I always felt a little overstretched.
 
#113 ·
Search for a used P. Mauriat tenor.
Unless you get REALLY lucky and find one of the great ones, any P. Mauriat System 76 or 66r tenor will blow all Mark Vll tenors totally out of the water. It's not even close.
 
#115 ·
Well, I remember when these came out and I was in high school. Our school bought a Mark 7 tenor and alto.

I could never manage the left or right hand little finger keys which clearly were designed for someone with far far bigger hands than mine. The other thing I remember is that our lead alto player, a very fine musician, simply could not get the alto to play in tune. It wasn't a case of sharp or flat all over, it was just that certain notes were wildly incorrect. Being that it was about 40 years ago, I don't know whether this was just something badly out of adjustment or inherent in the instrument, but he put that horn back on the band room shelf and went back to whatever student horn he'd been playing.

In my early thirties, around 1995 or so, I played in a society band with a tenor player who loved his Mark 7 and sounded great on it. He was a great big bruiser with hands like a bunch of bananas, and even he had to have the tilting low Bb disabled in order to play the thing.

So, if you are approaching seven feet in height with fingers of corresponding size, this may be a good choice for you, if you get a good one like my friend the tenor player had, not a bad one like my friend the alto player had.

There were reasons why saxophone players largely did not go to the Mark 7 the way they had gone to the Mark 6 when it was introduced, and there were reasons why Selmer introduced a Mark 6 copy (the Super Action 80) just a few years after introducing the 7.
 
#119 ·
My #1 tenor is a 155XXX MK VI, however I have a MK VII and it has a beautiful tone and is quite different from the MK VI; not better or worse, just a different tool. My only problem is the neck ergonomics, the horn ends up too close to my torso. I prefer the ergs of the VI. I am in the process of looking into getting a new neck for the VII with the ergs of a VI but I am not sure what direction to go in. I have a Gloger SS neck for my MK VI baritone and it is truly wonderful. I'm wondering if anyon has experience with a Gloger neck on a MK VII? These SS necks are a little spendy but cetainly worth it but I'm not willing to take a chance without being able to try. Dilemna. In my experience the MK VII is a geat underated horn that seems to get a bad rap.
 
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