The Selmer Mark VI Soprano Saxophone
had a very unusual palm key configuration.

There were some good things about this design.
To play a high E-Flat all you needed to do is push the palm
E-flat key and the palm D key is automatically opened when the instrument is in adjustment.

The direction the palm keys work is the same as the direction of the upper stack keys. Making the finger motion the same.


The drawback to this design is it makes it hard to double.

The soprano did not feature a front F or harmonic key.

The Selmer Mark VI
originally had a range from low B-flat to high F.
Later models added the high F#.


When they added the high F# they did not take into consideration the position of the palm E key. The post placement for the high E / F# and Bis post made it hard to reach the palm E key.

The Selmer Mark VI Soprano
little finger keys were easy to reach.

Yanagisawa
made a very good copy of the Selmer Mark VI
in the early eighties.

This was a good instrument. The only problem was this was the first soprano to use a hot glue gun and it was hard to keep the pads seated.


The Yanagisawa also used stainless steel rods on many of the long keys and the palm keys.

They also added an adjustment screw
on the B key to make the adjustment of the
double B1 keys easier.

The soprano did not have a front F or harmonic key.