Selmer Saxophones
Since the very first horn Adolph Sax made, which may actually have been made from wood, people were waiting for French made Selmer horns. The best all round horns available,
even the modern horns have great tone and intonation with good fingering patterns and good projection. Coupled with a big bore mouth piece, bright resonators and big lungs, my Super Action 80 Series II can actually play as loud as guitar, drums, bass and keyboard on stage. Impressive that I do not need amplification.
Selmer Saxophone Serial Number Chart. Check Here
HISTORY
I started playing saxophone when I was 9 years old. When they were assigning instruments, three girls in my class were chosen to play the alto and I got clarinet, I think. I wanted to play sax so bad that I asked to play tenor, and they let me! Only problem was I couldn't carry the horn home, I was too small, so my parents bought me one for home so I could practice. As I progressed through the grades, I started some pretty crazy bands as I became more bored with classical music which I was actually playing bass clarinet on, not sax. My real experiments in sax began when I reached the west coast of Canada and discovered my roots are in funk, R&B and jazz.
EXPRESSION
I really believe that saxophone is the very best solo instrument for expression, thought there are many others that do more, the sax can sound mad, sad, soulful, funky, hard rock hard bop, what sounds can you not make with a saxophone. I once said to a fellow sax player "I would love to have some effects on stage" and his response was "but you should be able to make all those sounds with your horn already". I agree.
WHAT I PLAY
I use Selmer Super Action 80 Series 2 Alto, a Series 1 Tenor and a Mark VI Baritone, synthetic reeds on all three. For mouthpieces, I use a Claude Leakey or Dukoff Metal on Alto, a Dukoff Metal or hard rubber Autolink on Tenor and a Selmer metal or Rico Graphite on baritone. Drop me a line and let me know what mouthpieces you use.