Saxophones Folk Lore or Fact? Selmer Stencil...

[DavidUK]

Bumped into a chap in Brum last week, Steve. His cousin is married to David White, once sax player for David Essex. David White's brother is Michael White.

Steve once visited Michael White's shop and discovered that the saxophones he sold under his own name with "Michael White" or perhaps "MW" engraved on the bell were stencilled by Selmer for him.

What "discovered" means - told; compared; saw invoices; etc... who knows?

I can't find any similar conjecture of a collaboration between these two companies. Does anyone know of a reason Michael White may have been able to persuade Selmer to make horns for him?

And... no, I'm not going to rush to buy the one on eBay, or this one in NZ: http://www.trademe.co.nz/music-inst...-instruments/saxophones/auction-878824119.htm

 

[MMM]

That sounds like a tall story to me: why would selmer Paris (who have never stencilled any saxes for anyone) risk their reputation stencilling for MW?
Unless we are talking about Selmer USA or Selmer England... In which case it may be possible.
M.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Maybe Selmer Shanghai

 

[DavidUK]

Maybe Steve's memory has forgotten that what Michael said was his horns were "based on" or "copies of" a Selmer, like many others? He's in the instrument "business" so this seems unlikely?

 

[kevgermany]

Looks like bog standard chinese to me.

 

[Colin the Bear]

And nothing wrong with that. Some Chinese horns play very well. A good horn is a good horn.

 

[DavidUK]

Looks like bog standard chinese to me.

I've had a look at a few MWs and tried to guess which Selmer model they'd be based on. There are some similarities of course, but no perfect match with any Selmer.

If you had a shop in London, who would you go to for your own brand? Selmer would be charging waaaay too much for a stencil. And then you tell nobody it is actually a Selmer? No, it has to be a far eastern copy.

 

[majordennis]

If the case went with the horn the 081 telephone number code was used from 1990 to 95, that might help you date it.

 

[Colin the Bear]

And then start a rumour it's actually a Selmer and a solid gold one got lost in the mix.

 

[DavidUK]

Colin, you sussed me!

I have 20 MW horns here, all ready to sell at £1000 a pop! I'll have to scrap them now.

 

[altissimo]

Selmer UK sold the Selmer Pennsylvania stencils so probably stencilled stencils

some info on Selmer UK here - http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/gallery3/stor.html

 

[ProfJames]

Is it a pruple logo Selmer?

 

[jonf]

I've had a MW horn. It was a standard Chinese made sax. Nothing vaguely Selmer-ish. It played OK, though.

 

[kevgermany]

Selmer didn't make for others. No Selmer made stencils. Selmer started sax production after selling stencils from other makers. Later they bought saxes in from other European makers. Even later are the far east sourced saxes. Far east sourced saxes are so similar that it's difficult to tell them apart. No way of telling from a couple of photos if the same sax was sold under different names.

 

[ProfJames]

They are pruple I tell you!

 

[jazzdoh]

I can't remember Selmer Paris making horns for anyone else,but they did make mouthpieces for Stentor.

 

[aldevis]

No way.
I've seen many MW horns, and own some excellent to-be-refaced MW mouthpieces.
Bill Wrathall was their resident repairer and he would have mentioned such a thing.
As would a few more friends.

Greay Chinese horns, but not more than that.

It could be worth interviewing Michael White, one day; he knows his stuff.