Fabulous "Dick Dale" Selmer MkVI s/n 219xxx for Sale - original lacquer, fresh pro set-up!
This is a fabulous MkVI - while the "5-digit" horns get all of the attention, these later MkVIs have quite a cult following and can be every bit as good or better than an early horn **when set up properly**.
Now this horn certainly falls into that category! It was given a complete mechanical restoration and set-up by none other than Scott Manderville in 2007 and has only had limited play by a "weekend warrior" since. If you aren't familiar with Scott's work, ask your tech about him... Scott is the former president of NAPBIRT (the national association of instrument techs) and a master clinician. Take a very close look at the detail of the setup in the pics - you'll notice that the corks are perfectly sized and aligned, there's teflon shims for fast action at the friction points, tech-cork material was used for durability and maintaining the setup, the rods are swedged to perfectly fit the posts with no play... all of these little details make a big difference over time about how the horn continues to play, and there aren't many techs out there that do work of this caliber (and believe me, Scott's work isn't cheap!). Many of the other horns out there are given a quick set of pads and adjusted to play - but this is a whole 'nother level... this horn is ready for daily gig work for the most picky sax pro.
This MkVI also has an interesting history... it was previously owned by professional sax player and singer Dick Dale from the Lawrence Welk show. If you don't know who he is, your parents probably do... he was one of the core cast of the show and most likely played this very horn on it! That doesn't mean it's only capable of playing in the "champagne ballroom" - it'll purr, growl, moan, scream, whisper, talk dirty, sing, sigh, motor, whatever you ask it to...
So, the obvious question is, "if this horn is so great, why am I selling it"? Well, there's two things at play... the first is, I just became unemployed and still have to pay the bills. The second is that this horn is so perfect I'm afraid to take it on gigs, so its not getting used to its full potential.
I've tried to capture everything with the pictures - there are a few minor cosmetic items that you would expect from a horn of this age that's actually been played, including a couple of re-solders that were done before I bought the horn, one barely visible dent on the back of the bell (that could be smoothed out in a flash) and a couple of minor places where the lacquer is gone. Again, I've taken close-up pictures of all of these items so you can see for yourself. Overall, the horn is cosmetically very good, with 95%+ of its original lacquer (and this is conservative as you can see from the pics.
I'm looking to get $4950 for this great MkVI, less than you'd pay for a new Selmer Ref54 (which tries to imitate the MkVI), and WAY less than the $10k eBay MkVIs with crappy setups that go for big bucks for no reason other than the misguided hype of the "low serial number". Yes, I'm asking more than some other MkVIs of similar vintage that are out there, but most of those need work... this one is as good as they get!
Shipping is free to the lower 49. Horn ships out of Sacramento, CA. Locals are welcome to come by and see and play this great horn for themselves...
e-mail inquiries to pagaylord@yahoo.com.
Click on thumbnails for larger view...
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