Saxophones My new one-of-a-kind tenor

[turf3]

Well, resale of one of these conversions is always going to have a limited market. The buyer needs to be someone who really wants to play an SML and really wants Selmer style keywork. If it's just about the keywork you can buy a nice Selmer for less money.

Conversions of this general sort are sometimes done on low brass - converting a Bb tuba to C, or high pitch to low pitch, or replacing the valve section with one from a different make. I can't characterize how well they tend to work or what happens to market value.

 

[rhysonsax]

Does an instrument like this become a collector's piece, or, through use, does its appeal slowly wear away?

Interesting question. I think that such an instrument doesn’t really have a “market value” - the number of potential buyers is tiny but the pool of similar instruments is also very small.

At the end of the day it will sound like an SML tenor so what is any additional value related to ? Either the cost of getting similar mods done to another donor horn or else the value that someone would attach to having a very rare and interesting horn to boast about.

I get the impression that the interest in SML saxophones is maybe less than it was five or ten years ago. So possibly potential buyers will move onto the next brand and the next cutting edge technologies or whizzy modifications.

Rhys

 

[turf3]

I think the key thing here is whether you feel that this horn, personally tailored to your preferences, is what you wanted and suits you better than an off-the-rack model.

Personally I haven't ever felt that I needed a customized saxophone (although I've added key risers and moved a key here and there, but that hardly bears mention) - but I also wear off the rack suits and my shoes don't come from a custom cobbler.