 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Todd Horton
Date: 2009-03-19 22:31
Picked up a Selmer Depose serial number K6336 any idea of the year of this instrument.
Todd
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: thedean
Date: 2009-03-19 22:58
Hi Todd,
This link might help you locate the approximate year of production for your selmer...
I used it for buffet they have heaps of serial numbers and years and dates and stuff.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Molloy
Date: 2009-03-20 00:01
Old Selmers are tough to date. I'd guess K6336 is 1930.
The earliest Radio Improved I've seen was around K7900, and I believe the RI was introduced in 1931.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2009-03-20 00:50
My 1932 Selmer R I {F B} has the R I stencilled below the U J logo. Don.
Thanx, Mark, Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Todd Horton
Date: 2009-03-20 01:01
No markings just the serial number and on the upper section is stamped 1001
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Molloy
Date: 2009-03-20 13:46
Todd, what's the thumbrest like on your Selmer? Is it held by one screw above and one below, or two above?
"No markings just the serial number and on the upper section is stamped 1001" (TH)
Yes, your clarinet is from before Selmer used any 'names', of which RI was the first. Well, technically they did call their metal clarinets the Master Model, but they were not physically marked as such.
Your lower joint, too, should be marked 1001, probably under the rods just below the RH4 F/C [edit -- I previously incorrectly said F#/C#] if it's boehm. Around K5200 they started marking clarinets with a second, sort of hidden serial number which I refer to as the production code (just to distinguish it from the serial number proper -- I have no knowledge of its actual purpose). I'm not sure when that practice stopped, I mostly look at K-series and pre-K Selmers. My BT, serial L7394, has production code M4306. I'm pretty sure my neice's 55, serial M8xxx (don't know the exact number), has no production code.
"My 1932 Selmer R I {F B} has the R I stencilled below the U J logo." (DB)
I'm curious how you date your RI to 1932.
It's weird. When I look at Selmer *saxophone* serial charts, the Radio Improved is listed as beginning in 1934. I'd swear I saw a pamphlet dated 1931 at the auction site that advertised the new Radio Improved clarinet. Could the 'official' dating of early Selmer sax serials be as wrong as the 'official' dating of the early clarinet serials certainly is? Doesn't it seem likely that the RI clarinets would be marketed at approximately the same time as the RI saxes? And that the Balanced Tone clarinets would more-or-less coincide with the Balanced Action saxes?
Post Edited (2009-03-20 16:23)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-03-20 16:00
Centered Tone clarinets are meant to coincide with MkVI saxes, but there are CTs all fully stamped up that predate this by around four years or thereabouts.
And with that, there are also MkVI saxes that predate the official launch year of 1954 too - they have the usual MkVI keywork features that seperate them from the SBA, but with some keywork differences not seen on SBAs or other early MkVIs, such as the considerably long LH main action key feet that make contact with the body tube and not the post rib.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2009-03-20 20:29
Hi - Molloy , RE: my R I FB, it's ser # is L1206. As shown on the clar perf listing , L1000 eneded at 12/1/31 and the next entry is L2000 for 1932. From that ?ambiguous? info, I decided to use 1932. If I can find another chart, I'll recheck. Looked, but didn't remove keys, for other #'s, found an E on the low Eb spatula . If of interest, I'll look up the ser# for my 1929 Sel A [with the HS on both joints and bell, ?tuned by HS??]. As shown above, there was a lack oif consistoncy, in date/ser/model #ing. IMHO, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Molloy
Date: 2009-03-21 00:22
Yeah... the 'official' serial number chart is pretty much nonsense before 1935, maybe even until after WW2, although for the L series I guess it must be pretty close, say a year or two off. Clarinet Perfection offers some proposed improvements to the official chart, partly based, I think, on some information I shared with Steve a year or two ago.
There are various reasons the official chart cannot be right, including most notably the complete absence of the K series and the rump A series (not to be confused with the much later, usual A series). I'm pretty sure that after serial 9999 came A1000-A1400? followed by K1401?-K9999. The 1400 cut-off is an estimate; the latest A I've seen was A13xx and the earliest K was K16xx, if I remember right. I've got all the data on the hard drive of a computer that died a couple of months ago... The 10000 instruments in the A/K series must've been spread over at least six years, I'd think, maybe more. I wonder, were Selmer's clarinet sales (and production) accelerating thru the 1920s, and did they decline during the depression?
Based on the advertised September 1931 introduction of the RI, I guess K8000 must be right around the end of 1931. The L series did not start at L1000 but rather, I think, L1. I have seen photos of L47. So L1206 is about 3200 clarinets after R8000, which must be, what, two or three years later?
The 'production code' on the upper joint should be under the rod that connects the LH1 ring and the tonehole above it. On the lower joint it should be under the rod going down from the F/C key, just below that key. You should be able to see they're there without removing any keys, although sometimes they're tucked in enough that you can't make out the exact numbers without taking keys off. But, who knows, maybe not every clarinet of that era got a production code.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: daustin
Date: 2009-03-24 11:24
For what it's worth, I have an RI L2913 that my father bought for me new in 1934 and I have had every since. It cost $165 and was paid for on time. It is the seven ring version.
Donald L. Austin
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: 15bundey
Date: 2009-06-01 04:41
I have a plastic bundy resoninte from the selmer Co. I have no clue of it's age but the onily seral i found was 1233949 if somone could tell me an aproxamate age that would be very cool.
Thanks!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
