Comparison of Two Selmer
Balanced Action Tenors
Serial Numbers 230xx and 235xx

I just happened to have two 1937 Selmer Balanced Action tenors in the shop which had serial numbers within 500 digits of each other. I noticed some differences and thought I would document them.

 

Picture 1 - The 230xx BA Tenor above has a Cabin Engraving

 

Picture 2 - The 235xx BA Tenor above has Cabin and Sailboat Engraving.
Both are lovely, but they're both old relacquers.

 

Picture 3. One difference is that the bellkey keyguards on the 230xx horn each have 3 feet attached to the body as shown above.

 

Picture 4. Whereas the 235xx horn has just two feet or anchor points for each bellkey keyguard.

 

Picture 5. Likewise the low C keyguard on the 230xx horn above has 3 feet.

 

Picture 6. Whereas the low C on the 235xx horn above has just two feet on its keyguard.

 

Picture 7. But more interestingly, the 'stops' that limit the upward travel of the lower stack keys (and thus the key height openings), are very different. On the 230xx horn above, there is an arm attached to the D keypan that extends over to above the E keypan. Thus when the D key is closed, the arm would close the E key as well (if it wasn't closed already).
You can see that there is also an adjustable stop right above that arm that limits the upward travel of the the D and E keys.

 

Picture 8. Still looking at the 230xx horn, there is a seperate stop above the F key.

 

Picture 9. The 235xx horn however, has a stop or foot for each the D, E, and F keys, on the back side of the horn. This is is more in line with modern horns except in that the foot hits the keypost instead of the body to limit upward travel of the keys .