Saxophones Selmer no longer supreme!

jazzdoh · Friday at 1:19 PM

Trigger said:
it’s just the badge on it most people don’t like once you’ve got past that you begin to realise that price and branding aren’t everything

This is true, but with me its goes further, i don't care about the badge or name, the horns i have are just tools that allow me to play the way i want, and it's all about the player, does it really matter what the brand is.
I always look at it like this, " i could buy the best and most expensive wood chisel in the world but it wouldn't make me a carpenter".

turf3 · Friday at 2:23 PM

teen37 said:
Guys, this all makes for very interesting reading, and I'm sitting here in bed wondering now if I should even be considering going all the way to Warwick to see this Selmer SA80I tomorrow 🤔🤷

Well, that would be a 30-45 year old horn, so not affected by recent developments at the Selmer company. By all accounts, and the few times I've had a chance to try them, the original SA80s are very very good horns.

turf3 · Friday at 2:25 PM

teen37 said:
It's approximately 80 mile ish round trip. 🤔 It's woken me up early this morning thinking about it... Am I rushing into something here?.... I really wish I had a better sax player to take with me.... Not sure I trust myself enough 🤷... I haven't played many other horns but I think I would be able to tell if it didn't suit my playing style 🤔

Ah, you Brits. I'm a Texan; I've driven from Dallas to Austin for lunch (200 miles each way). Go try the thing. Every additional data point means something.

teen37 · Friday at 2:40 PM

turf3 said:
Ah, you Brits. I'm a Texan; I've driven from Dallas to Austin for lunch (200 miles each way). Go try the thing. Every additional data point means something.

You're not wrong Tex 🤔😂😉 but British traffic is a nightmare most of the time, it can take nearly an hour to go 5 miles down the road round here 🙄 not kidding either 🤔🚗🤷

Stephen Howard · Friday at 3:16 PM

teen37 said:
It's approximately 80 mile ish round trip. 🤔 It's woken me up early this morning thinking about it... Am I rushing into something here?.... I really wish I had a better sax player to take with me.... Not sure I trust myself enough 🤷... I haven't played many other horns but I think I would be able to tell if it didn't suit my playing style 🤔

Well...I did say you could carry on with your Arbiter for now, but I think for the price it's worth going have a look at the SA80.
An 80 mile round trip is just within what I call my 'walk away radius'. Much further than that and there's often the temptation to buy something simply because it's a long way back empty-handed.

I also feel there's a better than average chance that it'll suit your playing style. If it was, say, a YTS-23 I'd say perhaps not so much. Selmers are noted for their generous midrange response, which is pretty much right up your street.

But there'll be other opportunities - so either way it's not the end of the world.
Worst-case scenario...treat it as a rehearsal 😉

teen37 · Friday at 3:24 PM

Stephen Howard said:
Well...I did say you could carry on with your Arbiter for now, but I think for the price it's worth going have a look at the SA80.
An 80 mile round trip is just within what I call my 'walk away radius'. Much further than that and there's often the temptation to buy something simply because it's a long way back empty-handed.

I also feel there's a better than average chance that it'll suit your playing style. If it was, say, a YTS-23 I'd say perhaps not so much. Selmers are noted for their generous midrange response, which is pretty much right up your street.

But there'll be other opportunities - so either way it's not the end of the world.
Worst-case scenario...treat it as a rehearsal 😉

Well Stephen, after long deliberation I've decided to follow your advice for now and I'm going to stick with what I have until I can do a little more homework on used tenors. I love the idea of having a Selmer so I'm not giving up on that but, I feel I'm rushing into it a bit. So I'm just going to wait for a bit longer before committing to anything. I'll keep looking though 😉 you guys have all been great! 😘

jazzdoh · Friday at 3:24 PM

teen37 said:
You're not wrong Tex 🤔😂😉 but British traffic is a nightmare most of the time, it can take nearly an hour to go 5 miles down the road round here 🙄 not kidding either 🤔🚗🤷

You are not kidding, and the roadworks are an absolute nightmare.

teen37 · Friday at 3:29 PM

jazzdoh said:
You are not kidding, and the roadworks are an absolute nightmare.

Yeah we've got them popping up all over the shop here. Literally trying to avoid one set of temp lights just to get stuck at another. Took me over half hour to go about 500yds the other day 😳🙄

jazzdoh · Friday at 3:36 PM

teen37 said:
Yeah we've got them popping up all over the shop here. Literally trying to avoid one set of temp lights just to get stuck at another. Took me over half hour to go about 500yds the other day 😳🙄

Doesn't surprise me.

turf3 · Friday at 3:47 PM

Come to Houston and enjoy the Gulf Freeway, y'all! Been under construction since 1947 with no sign of completion yet.

teen37 · Friday at 3:49 PM

turf3 said:
Come to Houston and enjoy the Gulf Freeway, y'all! Been under construction since 1947 with no sign of completion yet.

😳😱 No way!

Trigger · Friday at 5:30 PM

Walk away distance doesn’t exist
I’m 45 saxes strong , think I need therapy not
Walking shoes 🤣🤣

teen37 · Friday at 5:34 PM

Trigger said:
Walk away distance doesn’t exist
I’m 45 saxes strong , think I need therapy not
Walking shoes 🤣🤣

Where on earth do you keep them all? 😳

Saxlicker · Friday at 6:53 PM

Trigger said:
Walk away distance doesn’t exist
I’m 45 saxes strong , think I need therapy not
Walking shoes 🤣🤣

I think it's a real thing but extremely difficult to grasp. I've never had much luck tracking it down.

Trigger · Friday at 7:22 PM

teen37 said:
Where on earth do you keep them all? 😳

3 bedroom house and live alone ( my choice not the saxophones 🤣) but I reguard them as a pension scheme which I won’t get taxed on if I choose to sell them ,

teen37 · Friday at 7:36 PM

Trigger said:
3 bedroom house and live alone ( my choice not the saxophones 🤣) but I reguard them as a pension scheme which I won’t get taxed on if I choose to sell them ,

I'm sure you're all very happy together ☺️😂😉

Targa · Friday at 7:46 PM

Trigger said:
3 bedroom house and live alone ( my choice not the saxophones 🤣) but I reguard them as a pension scheme which I won’t get taxed on if I choose to sell them ,

CGT

Stephen Howard · Friday at 8:01 PM

Trigger said:
3 bedroom house and live alone ( my choice not the saxophones 🤣) but I reguard them as a pension scheme which I won’t get taxed on if I choose to sell them ,

You might need to check on that these days.

Stephen Howard · Friday at 8:06 PM

Had a new client in today - young chap, a very fine player already. Brought in a MkVI tenor for a proper shakedown.
The conversation turned to the Supreme. Having tried one he couldn't believe how stuffy it was.
Is this going to be the MkVII all over again?

Stephen Howard · Friday at 8:12 PM

teen37 said:
Well Stephen, after long deliberation I've decided to follow your advice for now and I'm going to stick with what I have until I can do a little more homework on used tenors. I love the idea of having a Selmer so I'm not giving up on that but, I feel I'm rushing into it a bit. So I'm just going to wait for a bit longer before committing to anything. I'll keep looking though 😉 you guys have all been great! 😘

If you feel you're rushing a bit then go with that feeling. It's 'only' a saxophone...and at two grand that's a LOT of 'only'.
It took me ten years to find my 'next tenor'...and that's because the damned thing hadn't been invented yet.

Like I said before, there'll be other opportunities. There always are.