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My new Selmer K-Series

TrueTone

College Student who likes wind instruments & music
So I bought another Clarinet recently on ebay, believing it was in Bb, and it came in yesterday, it plays well as is.
Now, I brought it to Clarinet Choir rehearsal, and found out that it's in the key of A by holding it next to a 1910 Buffet A to compare the logos, as they are very similar looking logos. Thankfully I play Bass in there, so I didn't make a very bad dissonance.
Serial [HASHTAG]#K171x[/HASHTAG], and has an Articulated G#. I'll take pictures of it soon. (which may be tomorrow)
 
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...or it might be over a month later. Well here's a few pictures of it in it's case, alone, and with my Series 9 Bb.
And also a photo of the "repair kit" with it that is probably from around the same time period it was made
Selmer A 1.jpgSelmer A 2.jpgSelmer A 3.jpgSelmer A 4.jpgSelmer A 5.jpg
 
Well I'm in the local youth orchestra, I just haven't gotten a part for an A Clarinet, so I'm being prepared, even if I usually am on Bass Clarinet in there. The fact that it was under $200 helped a bit, too. (Of course, it's still very leaky, but that's what I get for buying a Clarinet that hasn't been played in a few decades at least.)
 
I've gotten this overhauled since I made this (well, earlier this month) and got it back from the repairman today, and I have to say- this has a GREAT tone, possibly better than my S9. Intonation's not as good though.
 
I emailed Thierry Doublon at Selmer about this, he thinks 1925-26.
@Steve your chart is pretty close to what someone at Selmer itself thinks, so that's a good sign then.
Didn't some catalog show the Selmer Clarinets had their logo change to the modern one a year or so later than the saxes? If so that would be a good estimate for how far off you are.
Anyone have a Selmer from the K series or earlier with some record of when it was sold? Very long shot but it could find something helpful...
 
I emailed Thierry Doublon at Selmer about this, he thinks 1925-26.
@Steve your chart is pretty close to what someone at Selmer itself thinks, so that's a good sign then.
Didn't some catalog show the Selmer Clarinets had their logo change to the modern one a year or so later than the saxes? If so that would be a good estimate for how far off you are.
Anyone have a Selmer from the K series or earlier with some record of when it was sold? Very long shot but it could find something helpful...
I tried to analyze that once as I had an early K series once as I'm a Selmer sax player.
It had the new logo. But I came across another, later SN that had the old logo. Go figure ?

I found that SN/emblem issues common with Leblanc/Noblet but only that time with Selmer Paris.
 
I tried to analyze that once as I had an early K series once as I'm a Selmer sax player.
It had the new logo. But I came across another, later SN that had the old logo. Go figure ?

I found that SN/emblem issues common with Leblanc/Noblet but only that time with Selmer Paris.
Well that's plain weird.
Maybe they misstamped the serial or something?
 
I tried to analyze that once as I had an early K series once as I'm a Selmer sax player.
It had the new logo. But I came across another, later SN that had the old logo. Go figure ?

I found that SN/emblem issues common with Leblanc/Noblet but only that time with Selmer Paris.
Well that's plain weird.
Maybe they misstamped the serial or something?
I'm guessing that it was on a shelf somewhere with the old emblem and they gave it a new serial number to sell. It was just a couple years off.

As I mentioned Leblanc/Noblet was notorious for this for decades. I swear they make xx amount of clarinets. Of the ones they don't sell they put the rest up on the "shelf". Then later pull them down when someone comes across them to make more room then sell them as new. Sometimes you can tell by the emblem, or SN or keywork that they are not as new as you think. Usually around the time of management changes I would think, if I really wanted to dig down on specific ones to a timeline. I remember my Noblet A clarinet I got when Leblanc was closing down. It was a total clone of my old Leblanc LL A clarinet except for SN and emblem. Had the old style trill key guide, same tonehole design, etc. I would have loved to do one of those tests to determine how old the wood was.

Every so often I get an email of one of these where I go by keywork design to determine age instead of SN/emblem.
 
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