Kessler & Sons Music

Official Selmer Paris Pro Shop

Kessler & Sons Music is proud to be a Selmer Paris Pro Shop. Selmer Paris Pro Shops are carefully selected in order to offer the professional setup, experience and knowledge that Selmer Paris owners need. They are not chosen based on sales numbers but rather by expertise of the shop. Selmer Paris honors us with this designation and we work very hard to provide this expertise to every customer.

Every Selmer Paris instrument goes through a complete and thorough Professional Setup in our ProShop prior to shipping to make sure that you receive only the best!

3rd Generation Neck Design
While Selmer Paris has kept the design of the neck tube itself the same since the Reference 54 alto release in 2003, there have been now 2 significant changes to the design of the neck overall that affect the performance.

• 2nd Generation Neck: In 2006, Selmer changed the thickness of the metal used for the tenon on the bottom of the neck. They went from using a gauge of .75mm down to .55mm thick. Since the outer diameter of the neck stayed the same, this switch actually increased the bore through the tenon of the neck by .40mm (.20 on each size). In terms of acoustics, this is a rather noticeable difference. The result is that the horn played a bit bigger and responded easier than before, especially in the lower range of the sax.
• 3rd Generation Neck: This change was primarily in the octave mechanism. The neck tube and the tenon thickness stayed the same as the design changes from 2006. The 3rd Generation neck brings in the octave key and mounting bracket implemented in the 2010 “Jubilee” release of the Serie II & III saxophones. The octave key itself has been reshaped to look more elegant and uses a slight revision to the appearance of the classic Selmer “S” logo on the neck. This series also saw the design of the octave key’s mounting bracket completely changed. The new design is one that gives much better stability to the octave key and also is a smaller overall footprint. This lighter mechanism decreases the weight of the neck and allows for better vibration and response from the neck tube itself as the overall weight of the neck was decreased by 7%. The tenon mounting design was also improved. The new design guarantees a better fit of the tenon on to the neck tube and eliminates some of the imperfections that can be caused to the bottom of the neck tube inside the tenon. This change was more of a manufacturing quality improvement rather than a performance change.

Is the Reference 54 Alto a Copy of the Mark VI?
No. Early in the Reference 54’s release, many people took Selmer’s marketing of “Made in the Spirit of the Mark VI” to mean “Copy of a Mark VI”. The Reference 54 alto is a horn that is designed to give tonal similarity to a Mark VI but to combine it with a more modern horn (modern intonation, modern mechanics).

There are many things about the Reference 54 alto that are better than the Mark VI – primarily the build quality. The Reference 54 altos are assembled today to a higher overall quality level than the Mark VI was. The toneholes specifically are manufactured better than the Mark VI. This allows for the use of the better Pisoni Pro pad – a pad that cannot be used on a Mark VI without the Mark VI having all of its toneholes diamond levelled first.

Professional Setup
Every horn we send out to a customer is not released from us unless it has been completely setup in our shop first. This is because the setup on the horn is of the utmost importance! Sometimes, a saxophone (regardless of who the manufacturer or the price point is) comes in needing 20 minutes of adjustments and then the very next one can require 2 hours! So if you were to get 5 of the same model right out of the box, they will all play different which leads people to believe that they are “good” or “bad” saxes… but the reality is that the one that was the best out of the 5 was likely the one that needed the least amount of work and on the flip side, the “bad” sax was the one that needed 2 hours worth of adjustments!

Once the same 5 saxophones are properly regulated and adjusted to perfection, they become near identical saxophones that even the pickiest of players would be challenged to pick a true “favorite” horn. However, since most stores do not or even can not perform this setup, the player never knows this and is simply relying on the luck of the draw. This is why we perform our setup (in our www.SaxophoneRepairs.com ProShop) on them before delivering your new sax to you. You trust us with your purchase and we want to make sure that you are rewarded by giving you your ideal saxophone setup flawlessly!