Selmer Mk6

Selmer Mk6, the holy grail - the one and only - the saxophone that all other manufacturers have tried to reproduce. The one to buy to complete the ever difficult quest to being a accomplished player and have a romance that no other sax can create.

Approximately 185 thousand Mk6 saxophones were made in the 20 years reign between 1954 and 1974. In my opinion there were roughly 50 thousand altos and 50 thousand tenors and the last 85 thousand were all the rest of the range.

After all this praise not all of the Mk6s play well !

If your saxophone has escaped being dropped squashed or just abused by big hairy biker type players then there are still pitfalls and problems that can foul that dream and shatter your expectations after parting with huge amounts of money.

The following can explain this……….

These next few pictures show some of the keywork and the wear to the barrels and pearls.

B natural lefthand.

A natural lefthand.

Wear to F natural righthand.

Wear to E natural righthand.

Wear to low D natural righthand.

Wear to low Eb / C.

Wear to octave m/c.

Wear to low C#.

Below is the reconstructed key barrels bringing the sax into line with modern playing.Once this work has been done to the keywork it makes the sax feel like a new horn.

B natural barel extension

A barrel extension

F barrel extension

E barrel extension

D barrel extension

The following pictures show how the pearls and the pearl holders can wear leaving the sax feeling tired and difficult to play.

Wear in lefthand pearls

This is what I have to do to replace the pearls.

Remove the pearl cup from the arm.

Remove pearl cup from pad cup

All 7 main pearl cups removed.

Replacement pearl cups

New pearls fitted to righthand pearl cups

New pearls fitted to lefthand pearl cups.

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This kind of repair is very long lasting and will serve you well for many years to come.