This beautiful original lacquer Selmer Mark VI alto has a recent complete overhaul, which means it has all nearly-new pads, corks, felts, complete cleaning, new oil, thorough setup and everything feeling like a new horn under the fingers. Dry, snappy, with a pad pop test sound that is ASMR for the saxophone player. Plink plunk plonk plonk. And the low Bb is soo effortless, saturated and whispers out at ppp. Very satisfying to play. An overhaul means it’s almost like buying a new saxophone, in terms of upkeep, playability, feel, reliability etc.
This Mark VI does it all with a great tone, very good intonation, and excellent lacquer and cosmetic condition. I feel like 1970-72 is a sweet spot for the Mark VI altos, because the intonation is excellent (better than early VI's for the most part) and the tone is really flexible and can go in opposite directions and still sound great. Pop a Brilhart or MC Gregory on there and you sound dark (either dark and dry cool jazz or dark and projecting like Maceo), or use something aggressive like a Beechler metal, and you can get that Eric Marienthal zing out of these (his alto is one of these). Plus the price is much more affordable than it should be for this quality of alto. I would pick this over a new Yamaha 82z every day of the week, despite the similarity in price. It's kind of wild. Plus the VI will hold its value or go up in price while you play and enjoy it! Hard to beat.
