[Giganova]

I have this Selmer metal mouthpiece that came with a 1925 soprano saxophone.

The silver plating is worn, the bite plate missing, but other than that it is in great shape. It reads "H Selmer" on the top, on the table it says "Precisiongarantie -- table HS**". It apparently used to have a slide-on ligature as there is a rail above the table. The chamber is large and as you can see from the pictures, it has a Clarinet-type window. The table is much longer than soprano reeds and the shank is very long, too. According to Theo Wanne's web site, the first Selmer metal mouthpieces were made in the 1940s, but there is reason to believe that this is actually a much earlier metal Selmer mpc, probably from the 1920s -- something I have never heard of.

Have you ever seen such a Selmer metal mouthpiece?

Thanks!

 

[Martinman]

You sure it is not supposed to have cork wrapped around the shank ?

 

[Seasax]

yer, looks like it's meant to be for clarinet

 

[Giganova]

Are you serious?? Oh boy! It plays well with my soprano sax, though

 

[bruce bailey]

HS** is a clarinet facing for sure BUT the taper of the beak looks like a sax. If it hadn't been refaced, it could be worth some serious money.

 

[Giganova]

These are the verdicts that I received so far:

- Valuable first production Selmer metal soprano mouthpiece
- Early Selmer Clarinet mouthpiece that was refaced for a soprano mouthpiece
- A worthless mess

Beats me! :?

I tested it with my soprano (fits perfectly on the cork) and it plays well in tune and sounds great. If you have more info or if you want to take it on a test drive, let me know. If not, I might put it on Ebay and see what happens.

Thanks!

 

[AmSaxPlayer]

I'm pretty sure that's the first type of Selmer metal mouthpiece, though I've never seen a soprano version. Certainly a really cool piece. As to the HS, I have no idea on a Selmer what that means, but I had a very early tenor Slant Sig Link that was an HS facing which was Hawkins Special.

 

[Giganova]

I agree that it is rather similar to the first Selmer metal mouthpieces like the one on Theo's web site:

However, note that the window looks like that on clarinet pieces, the shank has no bands, and the Selmer signature looks dramatically different.

"HS" could mean "Henri Selmer" or Hawkins Special", which would date it back to the 1930s.

 

[AmSaxPlayer]

My guess is that the shank was added on afterwards. Obviously it isn't plated the same, but also appears to be soldered on, which wouldn't make sense (to me, for what that's worth ) if it were original. Maybe it was an older mouthpiece with a short shank that someone had extended to get their horn in tune? Same could be said about the window, maybe that was part of the reface, or it could be just an older design/special order (to go along with the facing). Either way, a cool and very collectible mouthpiece, regardless of what instrument its for

 

[bruce bailey]

HS did stand for Henri Selmer as it was a facing that the company supplied with the clarinets for many years. A bit close in the facing however.
The metal one we are talking about really seems to be for soprano and not clarinet. The slope is too mild for clarinet.

 

[Merlin]

Selmer's metal clarinet pieces had a much wider shank portion, with a cork. That looks like a clarinet mouthpiece that had the shank turned down.

 

[stevesklar]

Selmer had an anniversary run of mpcs for both sax and clarinet with the HenriSelmer in scroll with the Precisiongarantie on the table. and selmer did have their metal mpcs that came with their metal clarinets.

The table window would be the key identifier (saxes are U shaped, clarinets are rectangular). plus the HS* .. chamber shape .. i'd say it's a clarinet mpc for sure

shank cut off and replaced maybe .. turned down as mentioned
http://www.saxmaniax.com/CLgallerympc.HTM#Selmer

the chamber shape would be reminiscent of hte Woodwind melliphone mpcs where they incorporated a clarinet throat. It gave a really mellow sound .. even on a Vito tenor (& CB, 875, Series II). I've been thinking of doing the same thing to an old small throat sop piece to get that mellow tone .. jsut haven't ever tried (plus i'm short a sop right now anyways).

 

[stevesklar]

i'd love to give it a trial run (on my clarinet)

 

[Seasax]

i would quite like to give it a trial on my soprano aswell

 

[Giganova]

Thanks for the info, Steve. Remember that it doesn't have a cork for a clarinet, so I am not sure how you could try it. :|

If you want I can send it to you so you can check it out.

 

[Seasax]

Thanks for the info, Steve. Remember that it doesn't have a cork for a clarinet, so I am not sure how you could try it. :|

If you want I can send it to you so you can check it out.

why not tape round the shank for now so then steve can add/remove layers so it would fit to any bore of clarinet for the time being?

 

[stevesklar]

fyi, "the first selmer metal mpcs made in the 1940's" is prob true for saxophones. but not for clarinets, those came with the Selmer metal clarinets which i believe predated the sax metal mpcs by about 10 years .. but i could be wrong on that ...

 

[stevesklar]

make that at least 1927 to be more precise

the answer to your question .. a beauty isn't it !!
http://www.uark.edu/ua/nc/NCCollectionPage/Page/SelmerMetalFullBoehm.htm

 

[stevesklar]

Thanks for the info, Steve. Remember that it doesn't have a cork for a clarinet, so I am not sure how you could try it. :|

If you want I can send it to you so you can check it out.

Giga
being a clarinet mpc refacer and tech .. adding cork isn't a problem. Plus I could fill in the bite plate too ... silver or gold plate it .... the endless possibilities

 

[Giganova]

make that at least 1927 to be more precise

the answer to your question .. a beauty isn't it !!
http://www.uark.edu/ua/nc/NCCollectionPage/Page/SelmerMetalFullBoehm.htm

Your nailed it -- fantastic!!
Thanks a lot, this answers all questions.