Selmer Balanced Action (1938) Alto Saxophone

This 1938 Selmer Balanced Action alto was saved from a horrible demise and is now gig ready. It was pulled aside at a local recycling centre by some eagle eyed employees and made its way to me for a complete restoration. I had to throw out the case as it had obviously been lived in by a family of mice for a very long time. As with most of these Balanced Action saxes, it is a relacquer, but was not overly buffed in the process. It is an American engraved horn with the sale boat / lake / mountain scene.  The horn received a complete restoration / mechanical overhaul, with all new pads.  The body and keywork were dipped in my ultrasonic cleaner twice and also cleaned by hand to make sure any trace of the prior residents was removed. The sax was actually in pretty good shape considering its age and neglected life. There were a couple of minor resolders plus the bell / body brace had been poorly resoldered in the past, so that has been redone. The main body tube had a slight bend, which has been corrected, and also the mouthpiece end of the neck had split and has been silver soldered back together.  There was no evidence of a pull down on the neck.  The (re)lacquer is probably 90%+ intact, but there are a few runs in the lacquer from when it was resprayed.  There were no major dents, but there were a few minor dings. All of the keywork was straighten and tighten to better than new condition, and a few springs were changed in the process.  The keywork now feels light a quick, as it should.  The Pisoni pads were installed with seamless domed metal resonators similar what it would have had originally.  I have had a few of these through the shop and the intonation can be challenging, but I am happy to report that this one is actually pretty good.  It’s not perfect, no vintage Selmer is, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It comes with the original granadilla wood end plug, and in lieu of the original case I will include a vintage Selmer tri-pack zippered case.  This sax is ready to go for anyone looking for a vintage pro quality horn!!