We recently worked on an old Selmer alto saxophone that had been left in an attic for the last 50 years. It belonged to man called Clarence West who bought it in 1945 and played in various dance bands throughout the 40’s and 50’s until he lost a finger and had to give up, when he died the saxophone was passed on to his son who stored in his attic and forgot about it  until rediscovering it nearly 50 years to the day it was last played.
When he brought it in to us the saxophone was in a terrible state the pads were rotten, the keywork  seized up and the silver plating badly pitted and tarnished, but he was determined to get it restored to it’s former glory in memory of his father. Interestingly he mentioned that the night before he brought the saxophone into us he had a vivid dream in which his dad rung him up and reminded him to get the mouthpiece replated, we’re happy to report that we did get it replated along with the rest of the saxophone.
Mr West was extremely happy with the end result and hopefully Clarence if he’s up there looking down is as well.

One of the joys of working here is the numbers of unusual saxophones we get to see, one such being this factory lacquered electric blue mk 6 tenor. The owner contacted Selmer shortly after he bought it ,to see if they could tell him anything about it’s history, Selmer denied any knowledge of it until he sent them the serial number. They examined their records a little more closely and discovered that in 1970 they had made a limited number of red, white and blue saxophones and confirmed that it was indeed all original.

Jim Muirhead from the Halle is in the picture putting it through its paces, he liked it but said as a Celtic fan he would never be able to show his face in Glasgow again if he played it on a regular basis, fortunately it’s present owner supports the blue team in his city.

We very much welcome your thoughts and opinions, remember our doors are always open and the kettle ready!
John Clark.