Alto Sax Tests Selmer La Vie

Selmer ‘La Vie’ Alto

This is the most recent addition to the Selmer range. Made in Taiwan for Selmer USA (not to be confused with the Selmers made in Paris) they are able to compete in price with the mid-priced Yanagisawa and Yamaha models. Two models are available – a red brass (with yellow brass bell) and a bronze (also with yellow brass bell). First, let’s take the red brass model.

AS250 Red Brass
My immediate impression was of a well made, quality instrument. The construction is solid and just running your fingers over the key-work you can feel that it is even and well-sprung. It has that typical fullness of tone that you associate with the Selmer brand. Overall, I felt that the red brass had a real presence of tone, offering power in abundance and plenty of ‘sting’ when pushed to the limits! In saying this, the core of the sound is not sacrificed and overall you feel there is a nice blend of power and body. In comparison to the French Series II and III models you feel as if it doesn’t have the same focus of sound, but it makes up for it with breadth and power. Another feature of this sax is the high G – a lot of players will prefer to ignore this fingering and go for an altissimo equivalent but it could be useful in certain chromatic situations. The intonation was accurate in general - the middle E was blowing a little sharp, but nothing that can’t be remedied with a bit of lip adjustment. Selmer have also incorporated double key arms on the low C, B and Bb keys to give added strength. Generally speaking this sax has a lot to offer, plenty of character and I’d say the buzz word here is ‘resonance’.

AS240 Bronze
Just as in the red-brass model I knew I was dealing with another well made and set-up saxophone. The action had a smooth and ‘positive’ feel to it – not too heavy, and nicely balanced. As for the tone, again, it is very impressive. It had the same presence of sound that I found on the red brass model, but overall it was a little darker and heavier. When you really push the air down the sax (and you notice this higher in the range) I feel you get 5% less ‘sting’ (to use that word again!) than you do on the red-brass model. This is pretty much what you’d expect, based on the effect that we’ve found bronze has within the Yani range – I’m thinking of A902 against the A901, etc. I found the sound of the AS240 a little more open and slightly brighter than the bronze Yanagisawa A902, but when stacked up against the AS250 you could feel that extra element of resistance and ‘featheriness’ that you associate with bronze. As in the red brass model, Selmer have gone for the high G key and the double key arms on the low C, B and Bb keys.