Selmer has made a new line in it's arsenal for those who desire the features and sound of the Selmer Paris horns yet without the cost. These saxes are called the Selmer LaVoix (pronounced literally "La-Vwa" which means "The Voice" in French) line of saxes. These horns boast all the Selmer Paris features yet with some things the Paris horns don't have; such as a red brass body, bow, bell and neck which are made with 15% more copper content in the metal which gives the sax a brighter sound. This different metal plus a new, slightly flatter bell known as the "Ultra Bell" design makes this horn project like none other. These horns also have "double cup arms" on the low B and C keys for added durability. Also on the lines of durability these saxes have what's called a "table arch" over the G keys and flaps to prevent any type of harmful contact to those keys or pads or rods in that general area. The Selmer LaVoix comes in an alto and tenor version and comes in the standard lacquer, a black lacquer, and a silver plated version.
I purchased the Selmer LaVoix tenor (original lacquer version) and after an agonizing two months I finally got it. The horn comes in a Bam Trekking case (which ultimately Selmer has contracted Bam to make the Selmer Trek-Lite case) which surprisingly does have a harder shell. I thought the case was a gig-bag type case, which just contoured the horn, but obviously I was wrong. I almost fell off my feet when I opened it up to find my new gleaming beauty. The bell has a handsome engraving pattern on it. Enough about cosmetics, let's move on to the playing qualities of the horn.
This horn is ergonomically solid. No clunkiness whatsoever. The horn is very free blowing, giving the player a pleasurable horn to play. I also had a harder time hitting the altissimo at first, but after some adjustments to my air flow I was able to hit the max out F# consistently along with the other upper register notes. I mentioned something about this horn being able to project. Wow; projection might be an understatement. This horn just about knocks over everything in it's path.
A small sidenote; the first LaVoix I got from WWBW was defective. The G# key had a bent rod causing the key flap to stick open about 50% of the time used. Therefore, after taking the horn through two concerts, it was returned to WWBW for a replacement. I must note that the first horn mentioned above was NOT wrapped and did NOT have corks sealing the keys in place like most new saxes bought today (with the exception of play tested horns) and the sax lacked a tube of cork grease. The replacement horn came just in time for my pit placement in graduation and the horn did come wrapped with all the accessories (the neck was wrapped as well) and
performed flawlessly.
That's about it for the review. My setup with this horn for is listed on the right with my setups. The audio clip that is featured here on this site was played on the jazz setup listed. You may take this review as you like, but either way, take care and happy saxophoning!
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My music page
My setups:
Alto
Armstrong or Empire by King
Bari Gold 85
To-be Meyer 5M
Rovner Dark
Reeds un-declared
Tenor
Selmer LaVoix
Selmer Soloist D (classical)
Dukoff D6 (pre-modern) or Otto Link 6 STM NY (jazz)
Rovner Dark (Soloist)
Rovner Mark III (Dukoff)
Vandoren Java 3's (Dukoff)
RJS 3M's (Otto)
Classical reeds un-declared
Bari
Yamaha YBS-52 (actually owned by the school district)
Yamaha 5C
Stock Lig
Rico Royal 3's
Clarinet
Future Buffet E11
Rovner Dark
Vandoren V12 2.5's