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Selmer Super Action 80 Serie I Altos

Ed

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I finally got back from my tech an alto I purchased from one of our members (although when I purchased it this site hadn't been created yet - I got it from him on SOTW). The horn had been PLAYED. I knew this going in. The pearls were severely worn to the point where I quickly determined that I needed to have them replaced. Given time constraints and financial considerations I asked my tech to not replace the pearl holders and to instead simply epoxy them to the existing holders. It doesn't look the greatest (which was expected) but it allowed me to not have to have a full repad done on the horn since removing the pearl holders takes some serious heat to the pad cup. So now I have a horn that has still been played quite a bit but the pearls feel great.

My first impressions of the horn when I received it were quite good. I could tell that this was a special horn. The intonation was very good and the tone was bright but it had a lot of interest to it. It felt good in the hands as well. Like all good altos it possessed a lyrical quality that keeps me coming back to the horn. Again, there were some pads that were a little older that needed to be replaced at some point so I had them done. It also had a couple of minor setup issues that were probably due to shipment and the aforementioned pearls.

I've always been of the mind that the best used horns are generally the ones that have been seriously played. There's a lot of opinions about what impact playing and continued resonance has on the brass. I don't have a reason for any of this other than to say that my experience says that good and great horns tend to be played more than average horns. With that said I also think set up plays a huge role in how a horn plays.

I finally got to spend some serious time with the horn last night and all of my first impressions were confirmed. This is a very special horn. Great tone, intonation, and with the new pearls it feels great in my hands. I purchased it with the intention of giving it to my son at some point as well as using it as a backup to my 87k Mark VI. I could easily play this horn or the Mark VI and be very pleased. Now the only question remaining is which of my other altos needs to find a new home.
 
Well, if you just wanna send me an alto, go for it.

The thing that both my wife and I didn't like about the S80 was that it was too stuffy -- very resistant to playing. She uses a C* mouthpiece and I, of course, use the Sigurd Rascher.

She ended up with the Selmer Omega. I ended up with a YAS-23 (long story).
 
This one seems well balanced in terms of resistance.
 
How's the palm keys and altissimo? I thought the S80 was particularly difficult for that.

Don't get me wrong: the S80's not a bad horn, but I have to agree with my wife that the Omega's nicer.
 
The palm keys are fine. The horn is pretty even up and down the stack. Altissimo (or at least the small bit I can do on alto) seems fine. My Mark VI fingerings seem to work. I have to play the VI and S80 some back to back but I'll probably still mostly play the VI because I've bonded with it and it has a lot of sentimental value to me.
 
My first Selmer was a new SA80 Series 1 when they first came out, and it was a fine horn indeed. I did end up selling it while in college, but remember it fondly.
 
i recall playing a pre Series I (the ones before they started marking them Series I). I didn't find too many differences between that horn and my mark VII except it had engraving, smaller table keys, and a small variety of other differences. I really liked the engraving. Of course, that was 28 years ago now .. i could have sounded like a bassoon and i probably would not remember. :geezer2:
 
The VII ans S80 "Serie I" are visually almost identical. That "ergonomic" sculpted Eb/C evolved over the life of the VII and became a lot flatter.

I've had one person e-mail me about an S80 alto that wasn't marked "Super Action 80", serial number was close enough -- but on the VII side -- and everything else looked like a VII: so I told him it was a VII. He wrote to Selmer and they pulled the records: it was sold as an S80.
 
My alto was made, according to the serial number chart, in 1983 and has no mention of series on it.
 
Nice write up Ed. The SA80 alto has been eluding me and I haven't tried one yet. I would love to eventually get my hands on an alto to match my tenor, but I have several other horns before it on my "wish list". I've also heard of the rumors of this series being "stuffy" that was supposedly the fault of the neck. I don't know if I would have called my tenor "stuffy", but I'm using a III neck on it now so evidentally there was something that I didn't care for.

SteveSklar, that is the standard engraving for the Serie I. All of these horns are engraved the same way throughout their entire run. It wasn't until the Serie II was introduced that players refered to these horns as the Serie I. IMHO, the differences between the I and II are cosmetic. Some claim that the II is slightly brighter, but I don't really believe this. After comparing a tenor Serie I to a Serie II, I'm left with the impression that the playability differences are limited to what you would experience playing two horns of the same series.
 
I haven't played a Serie II horn in a year or two but my recollection is that the table keys are different and obviously the front F is different. I even think the key spacing and the way the horns feel in the hands is slightly different. Tonally they seem more similar which says to me that they probably tweaked the design.
 
I believe they also played with the spring design in the Serie II. In other words, lots of construction differences.

And, for all, yes, it really is "Serie" not "Series".
 
Horn is simply great. But not every horn is for every player.
 
Gandalfe said:
And not every horn is created equal. But a good tech can make most name-brand saxes play extremely well. Ergos, now that can be harder to fix.
The ONLY reason I sold my Couf Superba tenor. Right Hand Ergos.
 
The only "ergos" I've really hated are the ones on some Martin Committees ("The Martin"), particularly the variants with the "roller and that's it" low Bb. I have some problems with other horns because of my left-hand pinky haven been broken for me a couple times, so Bueschers with the Aristocrat/400 style G# cluster are literally a pain. I don't know if I'll love or hate the G# cluster with low A on my Beaugnier-made Vito bari.

I don't like keywork that's too close together.

I don't consider the S80s to be that bad, ergonomically. I think the Yamahas feel a bit nicer, but there are people that feel it's the other way around. Of course, I'm right and they're not, but it's so hard shaping people's minds.

:p
 
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