1952 Selmer SBA Tenor Sax
ProShop Overhauled | Re-Lacquered

The Selmer SBA Tenor Sax (Super Balanced Action) is revered as one of the best tenor saxophones ever made. Made from 1946 through 1954, the Selmer SBA Tenor marked the first appearance from Selmer of the “modern” saxophone. The Selmer SBA Tenor offers the revolutionary off-set tonehole system – which is used by every manufacturer today – allowing for a more natural ergonomic hand position than had ever been achieved with the traditional “in-line” tonehole designs employed by every other maker.

About this Selmer SBA Tenor – Serial 47,043

This horn came to us as a wreck! It came to us in need of a full overhaul. It had already been re-lacquered in its life but was done well enough. The horn also has its original neck, but it arrived to us with a pickup installed in the top of the neck. Not only that, but the installation of that pickup was AWFUL! So we needed to do some major surgery on this horn to turn it from Beast into Beauty!

Neck Surgery!

The neck pickup that was installed just had to go! Most technicians will simply remove the pickup and throw a patch over the top, but that leaves a distortion to the interior of the tube where the hole was. Luckily, this sax came to our shop as we don’t do “patch work” (see the pun there?!), we do surgery!!

Mr. Kessler performed this neck surgery himself. First, the old pickup and wads of solder were removed. Then after everything was cleaned up, he measured the thickness of the brass tubing and a small sheet of brass of the same thickness was then selected and carefully rolled over the neck tube where the hole was. This was done to make brass match the same curvature of the neck tube. After the brass was measured & contoured to match the neck, the hole diameter was measured and a round plug was cut from the brass. This round plug was now the same size of the hole, same thickness of brass as the neck and the same contour of the bore. This plug was inlaid into the hole and silver soldered in to place.

The end result is that the neck hole was plugged and the shape of the brass, both on the exterior and the bore’s interior, were matched to the original neck and the neck’s original design was restored. This helped to restore the neck to as close to its original performance as possible!

Neck Upgrade Options

The new Selmer Supreme Neck CAN be fit to this horn. The older model BA/SBA models tended to have larger neck tenons than Mark VI’s & later production. The new Supreme shares this feature. We tested the Supreme neck on the horn and it is a MASSIVE upgrade to the horn! We will still have to custom fit the neck to the horn AND build a key extension on the octave key to make this fully work, but it added more depth, power and response to this already amazing sax!

Right Hand Thumbrest

In the photos, you will notice that the right hand thumb rest has a large plate of brass under it. This was installed before the relacquer. We assume this was done as a result of a previous player either wearing on the brass some or simply wanting it done. We can confirm that this is NOT A PATCH as the body tube is un-damaged from the interior of the horn. So whatever the reason for this plate, it is not done as a result of tube integrity issues.

Multiple Financing Options Available!

We have a myriad of different financing options available for your new instrument! From affordable monthly payments over a longer period of time to other options that can include 0% Interest or Deferred Interest options, we can help find a way to make the instrument of your dreams become the instrument of your reality! Give us a call!