Selmer Bass Clarinet

ryanhiggins

My grandfather was a professional musician who passed and left me several instruments. One is a Selmer bass clarinet. I'm trying to get an idea of how much I could sell it for in its current condition as well as any other information I should know in order to sell it. I don't play clarinet so I know nothing about them. It's serial number is 862 but I cant find anywhere that will tell me what year it was built. If you can give me any information it would be appreciated. Also, if you need more pictures and/or video please let me know.

Pictures:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...17&authkey=!AMhJoKCBdX3FT_U&ithint=folder,JPG
 
That damage in pic #6 (DSC05294.jpg) looks bad. You also look like you've got a crack in picture 7 (DSC05296.jpg). Depending on how deep, that could be very bad. One of the folks here that have repair experience would have a better idea of how much that'd cost to fix and/or if it's worth it to fix.

Serial number? [MENTION=146]Steve[/MENTION] probably could help. Bass clarinets generally don't go by the Bb soprano clarinet chart, but I could be wrong. I do think it looks newer than 1927, based on the Selmer logo.
 
The damage to the key guard doesn't look that bad, at least from the photo it's only possible to see some cosmetic damage which doesn't mean much. The crack would definitely affect price. What's even more important is the mechanical condition and how it plays. That could make a very big difference. I'm not about the serial number or when Selmer started making bass clarinets, but I think I remember bass clarinets from the 50s already with a letter before the number. I think that changed, but not sure if they had such low numbers then. Someone else might remember more. So depending on condition, prices in your area and when it is from, a rough estimate is probably $800 to $2,000. I don't know if my local prices are relevant to you and they are pretty high (also difficult to sell here) but it would probably be a minimum of about $1,600 here and after a good overhaul possibly close to $3,000. OTOH you might have to wait a very long time until someone is interested at all. Probably different prices in other countries.
 
Selmer was making bass Clarinet at least since 1910
see the various catalogs on this page ==> http://www.clarinetperfection.com/clsnSelmerParis.htm

I don't track Bass Clarinet serial numbers, but with a low serial number anyways I would guess that it's pretty old.
Looking at the emblem it's the "newer" emblem which is 1931ish and newer (from the oval to the wreath)


Looking at the damage. It does affect price. normally significantly to end buyers. "visually" people don't like to see damage such as the wood issues, and somewhat bad repair and addition of that keyguard. A repairer will hold it at higher value as they'll repair it, make it look good then resell it.
But I would sell it "as-is"

checking ebay a 1968 selmer paris bass clarinet in good working condition sold for 1200 USD (no cracks ,playing condition, checked over by repair).

So I would think $600 and up would be appropriate depending upon the auction, etc.
If overhauled/repaired even more but normally one doesn't get back money they put into an instrument just to sell it. Let someone else pay for it.
 
It looks really similar to the one I use, [HASHTAG]#N897x[/HASHTAG], from 1951, except it has a low Eb, which shows me that they never simply changed the bell mechanism for low E Basses, not that it was different at some time between the N Series and late Q Series, the next most recent Selmer Basses I've been able to handle. Also, none of my school's Selmers have that keyguard, nor any signs of having had one there, which is interesting.
I don't like that crack though.
 
I think someone fabricated that keyguard there from regular band metal (such as if taken from a metal tightening band or even fabricated from a flat metal strip as the holes are uneven manually drilled and edges are rough).

Then installed it a couple times (just by screwing into the wood) after it got loose. And leaving behind a bad visual looking area on the wood. Looks like they tried to fill and area too of broken wood which some stuff epoxy-like fill can be seen covering the one post foot.

Also looking at the # 3 pic. looks like that one tonehole was damaged at somepoint (under the Right hand thumb)
Seeing the one tonehole with the "guard" up close and seeing the lower 3 toneholes from # 3, it looks like some repair was done to those 3 lower larger toneholes too from the cut from a circular to a router bit cutting in from the side to flatten the toneholes.

It's hard to tell everything from photos. But you may want to get some input from a local repair person.

but that keyguard has to go and that area needs some good work to make it look good visually.
 
Thanks everyone for the information so far. It is much appreciated. I will probably get in touch with a repair shop to find out how much a complete overhaul will be and then go from there.
 
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