Sax on the Web Forum banner

Best serial range for Mark VI?

15K views 27 replies 14 participants last post by  Sidepipes 
#1 ·
Hey guys, it's the Sax dragon. What do you guys think the best range of Mark VI altos? For me, it's pretty much any of them that don't have the long bow. Specifically, I would say 135xxx-160xxx. Let me know.
 
#3 ·
Long bows made the horn very out of tune in the middle register when playing a B, C, or D, and for that reason it was not very sought after. Then medium bows were considered the best, because it was in between the short and long, and was considered to have the best intonation, and be the most open.
 
#13 ·
So you are the one who considered this all? I thought who must that be.
A lot of other musicians agree with me. Let's not argue about this. Remember, these are opinions.
 
#6 ·
I don't play the serial number game, usually. I'll just say that I've played a lot of dog VI's and some amazing ones. I do, however, gravitate towards the post 1965 altos. I have a 204xxx that plays better than most of the "legendary" numbered altos I've tried.
 
#8 ·
deleted
 
#10 ·
I realize the initial question was about altos (and I have one - #112XXX - and it plays nicely with no issues), but I also have two soprano MKVI's, one from 1959 and one from 1972.

It seems to me that if there was such a thing as different eras of quality in MKVI's, that all of the saxophones would suffer this disparity. Both of my sopranos are equal players and they are years apart in age. DAVE
 
#16 ·
The Selmer Mark VI, in particular its tenor manifestation, is a fine saxophone - but there's still a lot of nonsense talked about it, e.g., with regard to which serial number runs are good ones or whether the brass of later ones was inferior to the brass used in earlier ones, or whether the "long bow" was inferior to the "short bow", and so on. Given the exorbitant prices charged (and paid) for these instruments, all this chitchat is hardly surprising, for they sell for about double what they should do, without the hype.

Anyway, there's one article which should be required reading for this topic. You'll find it on the Saxpics site, under the title,"The Selmer Mark VI."
 
#22 ·
It's a silly question, as there's good and bad horns across all serial numbers. In general, however, I've found that 80k-110k are some incredible horns, suitable for jazz to rock. But as I mentioned, I have a soprano that's around 210k that plays wonderfully as well.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top