I have been offered an alto sax which the owner says is a Selmer but the only name engraved on it is "St.Louis" - the brand name Selmer does not appear anywhere. Would a real Selmer sax necessarily have the name engraved on it?

It does have a Selmer mouthpiece but that may well have been bought separately, and it has a serial number which fits the Selmer pattern. These two things do not seem enough to prove its provenance to me. I have hunted about on various sax web sites and cannot find a Selmer St. Louis, or a brand of sax simply named St. Louis in its own right. Does anyone out there know enough about old saxophones to give me an opinion, please?

My feeling is that if it doesn't say Selmer anywhere on it, then it's not.

A couple of points to bear in mind - there are two types of Selmer, Selmer (Paris) and Selmer (USA). Selmer (Paris) is the "famous" Selmer, Selmer (USA) tend to produce low budget student saxes. Selmer (Paris) does however manufacture a St Louis clarinet that is very definitely a high-end professional model.

I can't find a reference to a Selmer St Louis saxophone anywhere, that coupled with the lack of branding makes the claim that it is a Selmer a bit suspect - I'd try asking your contact where his evidence is that the sax is a Selmer, you could also try looking up the serial number on the charts on the Selmer website to see what model that number is supposed to be.

agree totally Tsax!

I have a feeling I have heard of a St Louis, but it's only an inkling, a hunch

have you tried asking online Sax on the Web? for example.
if you are thinking of buying it - does it work well, do you like the sound ....
and if it's not a Selmer, don't pay the Selmer price

Sallyanne, if you do a search for Selmer St Louis on Google, lots of sites come up - I've only quickly looked at one of the sites but it did seem as if St Louis was a genuine Selmer brand. You'd need to look into it a lot more than I have though in order to be sure.

If you look closer you'll find that these are pretty much all for the Selmer St Louis clarinets though, no mention of a St Louis saxophone.

Thanks for all your comments so far. They pretty much bear out what my gut feeling has been. I haven't tried Sax on the Web though. I'll see if I can post on one of their pages.

If it really is a Selmer, the serial number says it would be a 1959 Mk VI

As for sound and playability, I'd have to get my teacher to try it out for me as I have no experience of saxophones. Won't see him again till mid January.

I found that too, Tsax



if that's what it is, it could be good..

Thanks to you all for the good advice. I put the same question out on the Selmer pages of the "Sax on the Web" forum and got similar answers. Obviously not worth the risk!

you'd want to try it wouldn't you - and if you liked it and it played well then it's up to you to decide what price you would pay for it.

Thanks for this SaxFan. You were absolutely right, of course, and you will be pleased to know that the owner and I came to a common mind. We doubt if it's really a Selmer, but it sounds very nice and a price was agreed.

I own a Sax!!! Now all I need is some lessons . . .

Congrats. Enjoy

that sounds really good.... get playing!!

MY guess is that it's a 'stencil' - a horn made (probably) by one of the American manufacturers for a distributor or wholeseller who wanted to put their own name on it. If so, it'll be equivalent to brands like (older) Elkhart or PanAmerican. But I could be wrong.

Anyway, if you like it and paid a fair price that's all that matters.

best
nick

That sounds feasible Nick, thank you. After all, modern day manufacturers of all sorts of goods have their items "badged" by other companies. I guess it would be hard to know which factory it originated from and whether it might have been a decent brand? I can't help thinking I'll trip over some good information somewhere and solve the mystery.

I've bought it of course so this is now just a matter of being interested in the background of my new "friend". She has a couple of sticky keys and needs a small joint re-soldering so is going to the Saxophone Doctor tomorrow for a check-up and minor op. I hope he doesn't tell me I've bought a chunk of junk

Well, the end of the story is that I took this instrument to a (reasonably) local expert/repairer. He said that not only was it not a Selmer but it was nothing near that quality either. He could have fixed the sticky keys and made it playable for a smallish sum, but it was clear I had actually bought rather a "chunk of junk". To the vendor's credit, he has agreed to a full refund which just reached my bank account, so the dear "St. Louis" is heading home. Which leaves me with a newly recharged sax fund. This time I'll take good advice BEFORE I part with the cash. I might not be so fortunate next time. Maybe I should just concentrate on getting more proficient with my

Thanks to all the forumites who pitched in with advice. Your interest and suggestions were most welcome.

Ah well, never mind. I started off with a Parrot (horrible first gen Chinese sax). Several years of torture....you can get bargains 2nd hand (I play six instruments, and have only once bought a new instrument - and I no longer play that) but you do need to know what you are doing.

Nick

My first sax was a second hand La Fleur tenor. Czech made, clunky thing. It was one of the standard student models when I was at school - but I got this one almost 10 yrs after I left! I've still got it, it's worth next to nothing now, it would cost more to fix up than one of the cheap Chinese horns and still not be as good.

I now have a Selmer series III tenor which I love, and the same alto which I have reservations about - though I think it could do with a trip to the repair shop at the moment and that might make it more manageable.