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For sale is a unicorn Selmer Balanced Action tenor saxophone!
This horn is a prime pre war golden era Selmer BA serial #27,xxx with its matching #27,xxx neck!
This saxophone features gorgeous Selmer Elkhart dark nitrocellulose lacquer and highly elaborate sprawling engraving with a lake side mountain portrait scene!
This saxophone includes a mind blowing factory candy package!
Included with the saxophone is the horns matching serial # number warranty card, red Selmer factory quality control hang tag, Selmer mouthpiece chart, Selmer branded warranty card envelope, wood Selmer end plug, Selmer badged case and Selmer Air Flow mouthpiece w/cap & ligature!
Finding a Balanced Action with paper work like this is an absolute mythical creature need in a hay stack find of a horn. The chances of a Balanced Action staying in this condition and coming to market with all the matching candy is a nearly impossible find. Its truly baffling this horn even exists how it sits!
This horn comes with a very nice condition Selmer Air Flow mouthpiece with the "table B* Medium" on the table, and the batch number blank info 5 digit number on the side. This mouthpiece is the large round chamber design. Overall this mouthpiece is in great shape with a very nice precise tip! Mouthpiece has its matching Selmer ligature and cap also in nice shape! These mouthpieces by them selves are highly collectible and nearly impossible to find, worth a huge amount of money by it self.
Included is the saxophones extremely rare closed top BA grenadilla wood end plug. Balanced Actions matching wood end plug is different then the Mark VI end plug. The top of the plug is fully closed off solid wood. These end caps are hard to find and by it self is worth hundreds and hundreds!
The saxophone comes with 2 cases. The vintage Selmer case still has its Selmer badge intact inside! This case has classic vintage smell and is somewhat falling apart. The saxophone it self is perfectly fresh smelling, fully cleaned, so we are including a modern second clean case. This case will work great for shipping and to bring the horn around town.
Balanced Action tenors can play all over the place in many directions. Every once in a while a true stand Balanced Action emerges and this is that horn!
This saxophone is an amazing playing piece!
This saxophone plays loud and proud with a strong focused core, yet also highly flexible and maneuverable with that pillowy lush Balanced Action tone/feel. This horns playing experience is highly enjoyable, the horn plays extremely whimsical, lyrical, almost a vocal like quality how it speaks plays compared to a Mark VI.
This saxophone has just come out of the saxophone repair shop!
This horn has just had the full repair treatment.
This sax was completely broken down all pieces separated, cleaned, degreased, freshly oiled, pads floated/adjusted, fresh adjustment material as needed, new neck cork, tightening fitting of key work, a full next level setup on the horn.
This sax is currently playing top to bottom with no clicks, clanks, metal on metal, extra noise, extra motion.
The horns key work is leak free, slamming and clamping down tight on the tone holes just right!
Saxophone repair work is not cheap these days. It can take a long time to get done and not everyone can be trusted with a horn like this. The fact that this horn has just had a full repair servicing treatment for this sale is a massive value add.
While this saxophone is an absolutely jaw dropping beautiful this horn is still sold as used and has its fair share of various used marks, scratches, knicks, flea bites, metal wear, engraving wear, patina, repair marks and other anomalies associated with a near 100 year old antique! The horn is sitting on used pads.
Overall this horn is in great condition, but this is not a brand new saxophone. There are 3 main things to mention in the condition report.
Please check out picture #23 & 24 the horns bell to body brace was soldered at one point leaving a solder mark. In that same general area on the upper back of the bell there is a large patch of strong patina in a dot like pattern, almost like someone left there swab against that section. The next owner can choose to remove this if they want. Its very quick to have your tech lightly buff that area and take that top layer patina right off. We are choosing to leave as is to keep the horns historical integrity. It will be up to the next owner to decide. The low Eb key guard has a very light solder mark
This saxophone has an extremely nice neck with it! No patches, pickups or major problems. The neck has the last 3 digits of the serial number etched inside the neck tenon clear to see!
Up till now this horn was a true 1 owner horn. The original owner played saxophone up till the day he died at 103 years old.
The original owner purchased this saxophone directly from Selmer and actually played the horn, but overall kept it in very good condition.
The most interesting thing about this horns history passed from the original horns estate is that the at the end of World War II in 1945 the original owner actually performed saxophone for General George S Patton's funeral.
Its important to note how impressively rare of a saxophone this is.
The vast majority of times Balanced Actions come for sale they are in not working condition.
There were only approximately 4,500 Balanced Action tenors ever produced. Many of these horns were fully destroyed, lost in fires, natural disasters, random occurrences, sent to the dump during house demolition, etc, etc.
Think how hard it is to even find a Super Balanced Action SBA tenor sax like this... Except there were roughly twice as many SBA tenors produced as BA tenors.
When talking about a blue chip collectible Selmer Balanced Action there are many levels to it. Balanced Action tenors in any form what so ever are highly scarce to find and dont come to market very often. There really very small numbers.
The vast majority of times these saxophones do come to market they are almost always various problem child horns. They are typically relaq relacquered horns, missing the neck, pickups or patches on the neck, missing crucial parts, all sorts of weird red/green patina, horns with fully seized key work, horns needing extensive full overhauls and the myriad of other conditions they typically show up.
Back then these horns were not collectible and were made to just be played. When talking Mark VI era it becomes easier to find minty horns. But Balanced Action horns like this just do not come to market and are highly scarce.
Within this upper echelon nicer condition BA tenor category there are a number of things that make the horns less valuable. They could simple Euro engraving, non portrait engraving.
Within these top .001% nice condition portrait engraved horns its an extremely small remaining pool of saxophones. Then within those horns its nearly impossible to find one including the factory warranty card, hang tag, envelope, mouthpiece chart, end plug, mouthpiece, lig, cap...
All of this to say, what your left with is there cant be more then a few handful of horns even in the comparable pool to this sax.
This horn is a 1 of 1 collectors grade saxophone.
This horn has some patina and honest wear and tear, but overall this sax is an extremely special piece of Selmer saxophone history that looks amazing and plays even better!
This horn is on sale at our Los Angeles, California saxophone showroom store and can sell at any point so if you have been looking for an investment grade Balanced Action please buy and pay confidently we will ship ASAP upon payment!
