[SiB0717]

Did Selmer change the bore with the transition from the Balanced to the Super Balanced tenor or was it a gradual change over time?

 

[Tharruff]

I can't answer your question with authority but I can say that I own a BA Tenor - SN 29XXX and I once had occasion to trial a 52 or 53 k SBA (can't remember exactly now) and the necks of the 2 horns interchanged and fit well...so...based on that snippet of information it might seem that there is no bore differernce between approximately 29XXX and 52 or 53XXX...

And FWIW...I played each neck on each horn and in this case, the otriginal necks played best with the horns that they belonged to...

 

[SiB0717]

Thanks for your answer. Quite what I suspected. It seems that Selmer changed the bore over time, after all even a M6 neck can fit an SBA.

 

[paulwl]

These matters are typically trade secrets in the saxophone world. It's not the brass family, where players and even manufacturers often speak of certain bore dimensions.

Doing that when talking about a conical-tube instrument like a sax - or even a polycylindrical tube like the modern clarinet - would probably mean revealing all kinds of design and engineering details, stuff even the marketing department has no business dealing with.

And finally of course, once a model is out of production and the mandrel and toolings retired, it is essentially nobody's business. The knowledge is the manufacturer's to destroy.

 

[jicaino]

BA's are wider at the body to bow joint. Necks are pretty much the same from SSS to MK VI's

 

[AMASAX]

My observation has been that the necks differ quite a bit and are responsible for most of the sound diff. I've owned several SBA tenors from early to late serial numbers and have found them to be much more similar to each other than to either a BA or a Mk6. I've only played on a 2-3 BA tenors, so can't say too much about them.

There is definitely a diff in the necks from early SSS up to the Radio Improved and BA horns.

 

[nathan61]

The neck on my SSS tenor is too big to fit on a 203,000 mark VI. There is definitely a difference in the necks.

 

[jicaino]

not saying ther's the same neck between the SSS and the VI's, just saying, there's more variances between necks of neighboring seriales than perhaps from similar necs over the aforementioned periods. That is, you have like 2 or 3 "personality variances" between different tenor necks of that eras, and those "personalities" are recognisable even thru different model marks. (if that makes sense...)