The following chart shows how rare each Selmer saxophone is. This is brand new information that has never been available before. It is thanks to friend of GetASax, Douglas Pipher’s painstaking work digitizing the handwritten Selmer archives that have not been widely accessible before now. So if you want to know exactly how many Selmer Radio Improved baritone saxophones were made (really not many), or how many Selmer Super Balanced Action Tenor saxophones were made (surprisingly few), this is the place to find out! How many Selmer Mark VI tenors were made? 83,530! Quite a few. Too bad they can’t all be 5-digit serial numbers, haha.
What kind of Selmer do you have? What are the biggest surprises from this chart? Let us know in the comments!
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Selmer Paris RI tenor
#19095
Still playing strong
I have a SBA tenor 54,499. I met a guy with a Mark Vi with an earlier number than that, which supports your charts.
Mine has the rounded Bb spatula, wire-style octave mechanism on the neck, high F# key, and the simple, mitre-shaped badge on the front of the neck. Serial numbers are stamped on the body, bell brace, and neck.
Your chart puts my horn at 1954. Thank you!
wow… I have an Alto Mark VII that is out of the finish range, is 318xxx…
I have a Alto Mark VI with a serial number 240906. Which is outside the range for VI’s on most serial numbers lists but it is clearly marked VI not VII.
Correct! Selmer models typically overlapped for a while at the borders between models, because they had strong demand for the previous model, and because they had some parts left over. The latest VI alto I’ve seen is around 244k or so. But the latest VI baritone is in the 300k serial range, and soprano even later. That’s because they didn’t make a fully new model Mark VII soprano or baritone.
I have a Mark VI with nickel keys and rods. Did they make many of these French options?
I have an early Mark vi tenor 565xx. Where is the Sci logo placed on the neck?
It would be on the top of the octave key.
My alto Mark VI has a serial number M 1703xx. When was it made?
Thank you!
The best Selmer serial chart is right here at GetASax: https://www.getasax.com/new-improved-selmer-saxophone-serial-numbers-list/ Yours is from 1969. Thanks!
I have a Large Bore Era tenor with silver plate and fairly elaborate engraving on bell and bow and a Gold wash bell. No.13961. It is in very good condition, near mint. A pal of mine has a Radio Improved tenor in bright gold plate, very good condition with quite elaborate engraving and a serial in the 20k range. Seem very rare.
Cool horns!