Selmer’s Premium Student Baritone Sax
At the top of Selmer’s student saxophone range is the 300 Series. These are premium student instruments with upgraded components and features that nurture the advancing student’s development. An ideal step-up saxophone from a beginner model, the Selmer SBS311 baritone includes pro features such as ribbed body construction and a rose brass neck that produce a rich, warm sound with powerful projection. Another readily noticeable upgrade is the elegant hand engraving that adorns the bell. The SBS311 student baritone saxophone incorporates design elements from the company’s renowned professional Selmer Paris horns to provide students with reliable, well-made, and easy-to-play instruments that foster proper playing technique and support their continuing progress as musicians. Selmer has been an industry leader for well over a century, and they know how to make a superb student saxophone. Make a wise investment in your student’s future with the Selmer SBS311.
Related Videos: SBS311 Baritone Saxophone - Lacquer
Outstanding value
The SBS311 leverages Selmer’s industry-leading expertise to provide students with superior ergonomics and responsiveness that delivers classic, rich and warm Selmer tone with robust projection. Student saxophonists love the SBS311 for its smooth playability, great intonation, and expressive, full-bodied sound; band directors love it for its rock-solid construction, which keeps it in the classroom and not in the shop. And parents will certainly appreciate its impressive value! With its beautiful lacquer body finish and nickel-plated keys, the SBS311 looks like an instrument that costs considerably more. And it plays like one, too. Selmer’s unique double setup process ensures that your saxophone plays optimally, straight out of the box. In this process, your SBS311 is is professionally set up, play tested, adjusted; and then allowed to rest before being painstakingly reinspected and adjusted again by Selmer’s expert quality assurance team at the Conn-Selmer Woodwind Center in Elkhart, Indiana. Your saxophone comes complete with a premium Selmer mouthpiece and a durable protective case.
An advanced design worthy of the Selmer name
Selmer’s expert design of the SBS311’s neck, tone hole system, and bore taper facilitates perfect intonation and tonal flexibility, with the instrument’s post-to-rib construction generating a nimble, muscular response to produce that inimitable signature “Selmer sound.” To guarantee long-lasting pad-seating accuracy, the tone holes have been precision leveled using a proprietary 3-phase process. Lavish attention has been paid to the key layout’s advanced ergonomics to ensure ease of reach, even for smaller hands. Enhanced by an adjustable thumb rest, improved palm key placement, and angled left-hand spatula keys, the light and responsive action is powered by blued steel needle springs — the professional standard for durable, perfectly tensioned keywork. Featuring a full range to high F#, the SBS311 uses high-quality power-forged keys (with double arm bracing on bell keys) and the iconic Selmer tri-point bell brace to provide reliable, consistent seating of the acoustics-enhancing Pisoni leather pads — another pro industry standard. The SBS311 also features metal resonators that work in tandem with the Pisoni pads to provide a leak-free, airtight fit while delivering a big, assertive tone that brings your notes to life.
Designed for the advancing student saxophonist
Taking its cues from Selmer’s esteemed professional saxophones, the SBS311 is a premium student baritone horn that delivers the responsiveness, precise intonation, and solid tonal core required to help developing saxophonists achieve success. Specially designed with the requirements of advancing student players in mind, the SBS311’s rose brass neck features a bore taper that promotes a ready response and greater control, focusing notes and providing a compact landing zone for intonation. Whereas beginner saxophones typically have their key posts affixed directly to the body of the horn (post-to-body construction) for ease of blowing; it is common for more advanced instruments to have fully ribbed (post-to-rib) construction, which provides slightly increased wind resistance. This is important for proper development of wind control, and will serve a student well in the years ahead. Indeed, many seasoned pros credit the formative time spent with their Selmer student model as foundational to their successful careers.
The benefits of ribbed body construction
Integrating the multiple key posts into a single plate, so-called “ribbed” body construction gives the tube higher mass (and hence more rigidity and durability), and requires somewhat more effort from the player. This makes the horn blow with moderate resistance while delivering a solid fundamental with rich tonal color. For experienced student, intermediate, and pro saxophonists with a more developed embouchure and sound concept, it’s a definite advantage. Although post-to-rib construction typically presents a slightly increased initial resistance, it effectively gives you another level of resonance — an extra “gear,” if you will — to blow through for additional dynamic range and expression. Simply put, you can push the Selmer SBS311 further, and it will go exactly where you want it to go.
The Selmer legacy of quality and innovation
As all modern saxophone designs are based on the Selmer platform, it’s instructive to take a look at the company’s history to understand its considerable influence on the instrument as we know it today. Conservatory-trained clarinetist Henri Selmer founded Henri Selmer Paris in 1885. Fashioning reeds and mouthpieces in his small workshop, he soon took on instrument repair and modifications, which eventually let to the design and manufacture of clarinets. In 1900, Selmer opened a retail shop in New York (the beginnings of Selmer USA). In 1922, Selmer introduced its first saxophone: the Model 22. In the ensuing decades, Selmer released industry-leading designs such as the Balanced Action, Super Action, Mark VI, and Reference 54, which have set the standard for what a modern saxophone should be. Listen to any iconic jazz recording by John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond, (late period) Cannonball Adderley, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, Branford Marsalis, or Joshua Redman, and you will hear one of these legendary horns in action. Delivering exceptional value at every level, from student to professional, Selmer USA and Henri Selmer Paris offer a full line of woodwind and brass instruments. Sweetwater is proud to bring you Selmer’s rich legacy of quality and innovation.
Selmer SBS311 Baritone Saxophone Features:
- Post-to-rib to body construction
- Lacquer body and nickel-plated keys
- Rose brass neck
- Aux keys: front F, high F#
- Elegant hand engraving
- Blued steel needle springs
- Adjustable thumb rest
- Angled left-hand spatula keys
- Double arm bracing on bell keys
- Advanced ergonomics for ease of reach and playability
- Pisoni leather pads
- Metal resonators
- ABS stackable case
- Selmer premium mouthpiece
- Range: low A to high F#
- Professionally play-tested and adjusted in Elkhart, IN
- Selmer premium mouthpiece and ABS stackable case included
