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Vintage Saxophone Value Guide

Nikki

Formerly SaxyNikki
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Canada
Vintage Saxophone Value Guide | Sax Gourmet

I’ve got a 1958 SML alto and found this while I was looking up its value. I hope it’s ok to add helpful links for others.

When I took my saxophone in to get fixed, the technician said it might not be worth fixing which surprised me.

Of course I’d already gotten my soprano so blown any money I had saved for such things but someday I’d like to fix it up. It really IS a nice saxophone.
 
Yes do NOT use Saxgourmet.

It'd be NICE if online valuation guides actually remain updated (particularly nice in cases where the originator STILL controls their site...which Saxgourmet DOES, ahem...)

Those values were always high, and they were also from the "Salad Days" of the first decade of 2000, when everyone was living on a bubble which many knew would eventually burst...

With ALL that said...Nikki...your tech is an idiot (no not really ;) , but perhaps nicely suggest to him that he refrain from offering any further valuation information to anyone on vintage horns).

An late 50's SML alto in serviced condition with no significant body damage ? Worth $1000-1200usd, eeeeeeeeasy....

So, given that MOST overhauls do NOT cost that $ these days (varies depending upon your geographical location, but still)....an SML is certainly worth having worked up....
 
Thanks guys. I’ll trust you on this as I have no idea. :thumb:
 
Since the value of something is typically the amount buyers are willing to pay, searching on Ebay for that make and model and selecting "completed listings" can give you a rough estimate based upon the sales for the last 30 days. To see the sales for a 12 month period one can subscribe to Terapeak Research which costs $12 per month paid annually or $19 per month with no committment. I kept a membership for several years until the company was taken over by Ebay and you could no longer see the full original ads, but just the description and the price.
 
Here’s one a few years older than mine with the original pads. Mine have been replaced twice already and need many replaced again . Mine also looks in FAR better shape than this so I’m hanging onto it. I’d say it’s worth a decent $2,000 Canadian dollars including the new awesome fitted saxophone carrying case. I’m fairly sure I won’t have a problem selling it if I need to. I’m really impressed with the way it’s made. The keys that need to roll are really well made. Here’s an example.
Check out the craftsmanship.
6159828C-0AFF-436E-A176-82A4DC0FF070.jpeg


This is the closest to mine.


Here’s the same key connections for the SML soprano

FC572B6B-64FA-4DE1-9859-C755A62CC51F.jpeg
 
Since the value of something is typically the amount buyers are willing to pay, searching on Ebay for that make and model and selecting "completed listings" can give you a rough estimate based upon the sales for the last 30 days. To see the sales for a 12 month period one can subscribe to Terapeak Research which costs $12 per month paid annually or $19 per month with no committment. I kept a membership for several years until the company was taken over by Ebay and you could no longer see the full original ads, but just the description and the price.

^ Completely agree with that. IMO that is how you dependably come up with a "wholesale value" for any vintage horn, though you have to become a bit literate in understanding condition and how it is influencing the results you see.

Knowledgeable shoppers will make their bottom-line pricing based on things they will observe that serve as indicators of other things. Example: if i see a neck tenon slot on an old Conn tenor that doesn't have bulge, and that looks exceptionally clean in a photo, I can make some other general judgments about other things that are likely to be true of the horn -- same for something like total lack of pulldown. There are quite a lot (maybe thousands?) of things like that in play, though the main things are maybe only a few dozen or so (e.g. pulldown, dented bows, recut engravings, etc. etc. etc.).

I've had SMLs from #9000 and higher, and everything in that range up through the early runs of horns that do not have rolled toneholes merits restoration. They are exceptionally good saxophones. Until the Reference 54 arrived, for me, an SML in the 8000s or 9000s (I can't remember the exact serial number now) had the most dead-accurate intonation of any tenor I'd ever played.

The only thing I think that would lead players to abandon an SML tenor is that the scale's balance is unusual and not like Selmer or Conn -- they tend to be very full and luscious down low, thinner through the middle, and good but not great through the high palms (Conn, Buescher and Martin tenors, for example, are great through the palms, Selmer just OK, and the Selmer scale is almost the opposie of SML in terms of how it's balanced).

They are special, though, and not in the way that some of the lesser known European vintage brands that have developed small followings are special. They are great saxophones.
 
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