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I just got a Selmer classic. I have been thinking of getting either a piece that is brighter than my Runyon Custom Spoiler or more mellow than my S-80E. I saw a note that WWBW was closing out their stock of wide Selmer Classics at a discont of 1/3 so I bought one. I have written this type off as too expensive. But the discount brought it down into my range. The piece arrived today. I tried to play this afternoon for and hour and a half and this evening for an hour. I think it is defective. I get plenty of squeaks and can barely play between G1 and G2.
A little over a year ago I did a trial of Supersessions starting with F, G and I. I liked them all a fair amount and could play them over the entire range of the horn. It took me a while to choose between the I and the F. I liked all but the two extremes were the most interesting. I ended up keeping the F because it had the fuller sound. The I was a bit too much like a trumpet.
So I thought the G Classic would be a little wide but not beyond what I could handle, though I would have preferred the F size which WWBW did not have. But this thing was just plain strange. After trying out those Super Sessions last year I also bought a Rousseau Studio Jazz 6 and a Runyon Custom Spoiler. The Runyon is the same outer diameter as the Classic so I am not troubled by that. (The Runyon is one of my present favorites.) I had worked exclusively with the Super Session F the last few days thinking the step up to the G would be no big deal. I found out again how nice the SS is.
But the Classic gave me trouble from the start. It seemed very sensitive to reed placement. I was using the Rovner Dark that I ordered for use with the Classic. I tried my favorite reed - ZZ 2.0, then I tried ZZ 2.5 and V-16 2.5. None of them helped though the 2.0 ZZ was best when I did get a decent tone with extra effort. below G1 the notes would often break up. Above G2 they would give some weird upper harmonics - squeaks. I tried briefly the metal lig Selmer supplied being careful not to scratch the piece. It did not help. I found a tone and slightly increased the range when I put the Rovner lig half off the back of the reed. But it still was not right.
Close inspection of the piece showed that it has large slope for a baffle from higgh to very low. Measuring with a reed held butt-end down into the piece next to a rail, At one reed width back from the tip, the depth is about the same as my S-80 and less than the SS. The Runyon with sppoiler is much shallower.
But what I see as a defect is the section between the rails. It is very rounded rather than cut straight into the material and is uneven. The rounding on the right is much sharper than on the left side.
It may be possible for someone to fix this. But I don't even know if this will be the right piece for me when fixed. After paying even 2/3 normal price for this piece, I would not want to pay someone to fix it.
So it goes back unless someone comes up with an idea for something I have missed.
A little over a year ago I did a trial of Supersessions starting with F, G and I. I liked them all a fair amount and could play them over the entire range of the horn. It took me a while to choose between the I and the F. I liked all but the two extremes were the most interesting. I ended up keeping the F because it had the fuller sound. The I was a bit too much like a trumpet.
So I thought the G Classic would be a little wide but not beyond what I could handle, though I would have preferred the F size which WWBW did not have. But this thing was just plain strange. After trying out those Super Sessions last year I also bought a Rousseau Studio Jazz 6 and a Runyon Custom Spoiler. The Runyon is the same outer diameter as the Classic so I am not troubled by that. (The Runyon is one of my present favorites.) I had worked exclusively with the Super Session F the last few days thinking the step up to the G would be no big deal. I found out again how nice the SS is.
But the Classic gave me trouble from the start. It seemed very sensitive to reed placement. I was using the Rovner Dark that I ordered for use with the Classic. I tried my favorite reed - ZZ 2.0, then I tried ZZ 2.5 and V-16 2.5. None of them helped though the 2.0 ZZ was best when I did get a decent tone with extra effort. below G1 the notes would often break up. Above G2 they would give some weird upper harmonics - squeaks. I tried briefly the metal lig Selmer supplied being careful not to scratch the piece. It did not help. I found a tone and slightly increased the range when I put the Rovner lig half off the back of the reed. But it still was not right.
Close inspection of the piece showed that it has large slope for a baffle from higgh to very low. Measuring with a reed held butt-end down into the piece next to a rail, At one reed width back from the tip, the depth is about the same as my S-80 and less than the SS. The Runyon with sppoiler is much shallower.
But what I see as a defect is the section between the rails. It is very rounded rather than cut straight into the material and is uneven. The rounding on the right is much sharper than on the left side.
It may be possible for someone to fix this. But I don't even know if this will be the right piece for me when fixed. After paying even 2/3 normal price for this piece, I would not want to pay someone to fix it.
So it goes back unless someone comes up with an idea for something I have missed.
