This is part 1. Check out part 2 here.

*Note: The gallery at the very bottom of this post is a slide show with subtitles, so click it to watch it (read captions) and get most of the information from this post! You only get the subtitles on desktop format or on a tablet, in landscape orientation to see the text. On mobile, you see only images, no text.

I very often get asked whether someone’s vintage Selmer Mark VI, Balanced Action, Super Balanced Action or other Selmer saxophone has its original lacquer, or is relacquered. There is no existing guide on the internet that I have yet seen that does a good job of answering this question for people. So that’s what this is.

In this guide, I’ll show you what original Selmer lacquer looks like, and I will show you examples of relacquered Selmers. This is important, since the originality of the lacquer has a lot to do with the value of a vintage Selmer. This article is Selmer-specific, for a few key reasons.

Vintage Selmer lacquer looks quite different depending on WHERE the saxophone assembled and finished. Selmer lacquer looks quite different depending upon WHEN the saxophone was made. Many relacquered Selmer saxophones were refinished at the factory, and they were done so well that it is hard for the non-specialist to tell if they are original or not. The only specialists I know are either full-time vintage saxophone dealers, and a handful of experienced private collectors. Learning about vintage Selmer lacquer identification is not really part of saxophone repair, so this is not a question that your local repair shop is likely to answer reliably. If you study this guide carefully, you will know enough to identify whether a Selmer is original or relacquered with more certainty than was possible before this guide.

The image above is of a Selmer Balanced Action tenor saxophone from around 1939. The engraving is very sharp and clear, but it is all filled in with a red material. This is red rouge, which is an abrasive polishing compound used to shine up saxophones when they are relacquered. Red rouge is difficult to remove from the grooves in the engraving, as well as from the nooks and crannies of the saxophone. You can look around the feet of posts and key guard legs for it, and in the scroll work along the body and bow seams, and it is often there. An original lacquer vintage Selmer almost never would look like this, with lacquer everywhere, but red in the grooves. It’s good to be able to spot these things if you are buying a vintage Selmer. This guide should help people to buy and sell with more confidence about what your Selmer is. I know every seller wants the horn to be original lacquer, and this wanting is a powerful thing.

Some horns were relacquered without their owners’ knowledge! Some were actually relacquered before being sold the first time! Some were relacquered in their first few years of use. It was common practice back in the day, and it only cost a few bucks!

But repeat after me: “It is what it is. It is what it is. It is what it is!” You have to be ok with the possibility that your vintage Selmer was relacquered. So let’s see what it is. This post helps you narrow down where your horn was made, and when. The next post will help you get a feel for what relacquered Mark VI’s (and other Selmers) look like.

The first question you need to answer is where your Mark VI was assembled, engraved, and lacquered. You can tell this by the engraving pattern.