Inhorn Band Instrument Repair

Right in the thick of buisily working on school horns, the shelf over my bench decided it was too heavy and fell down with a tremendous crash.  Luckily, no horns were injured during the episode.

Adjustment screws custom installed on a King Super 20

One of the advances in saxophones keys has been the inclusion of adjuster screws on the Ab/ Bis Bb arm on the lower stack. Prior to that, it was all done with carefully sanded cork. Trouble is, saxophone bodys flex, keys get bent, corks fall off, and generally fall out of adjustment.  Here is an example of a remedy, we installed 2 screws on a King Super 20 tenor to adjust the mechanism.

Installing Bis and Ab Adjuster Screws

Finely honed tone holes awaiting pads

Starting the pad work on the Selmer Mk VI alto.

More forward motion on the Mark VI rebuild.

I purchase my saxophone pads without an installed resonator. It allows me to match a newly installed pad with the style of resonator already in the horn, and buying the pads that way is slightly cheaper.  Above is a set of 2 style resonators: one is flat, the other cone.  Below are the metal resonators I keep in stock.

The following is the process of installing plastic resonators.  Using the iron, you melt the back of the resonator.

blank pad, conned resonator, resonator iron.

Heating the Iron

Melting the back

end result

Stock photo of a Yamaha YAS 275

A first in my shop – an Indonesian made Yamaha Saxophone. It appears to be quite similar to the old YAS-23, with some cosmetic changes and a darker lacquer.  Here is a review of it from an excellent English site, written by Mr. Stephen Howard.

Having finished work on the horn, I find that I agree with most of what Mr. Howard has to say about it.  Especially the issues with the low D key – the pad cup is way too small.  The only point on which we differ is on the high-F# key.  I have always thought it to be wasted on a student instrument, just one more thing junior can create problems with. Overall it seems to be quite similar to the YAS models made in China that are much the rage over here.  I am curious why Yamaha releases horns manufactured in different countries in different markets.

"0000" pseudo-steel wool to make sure all toneholes are as clean as can be.

Further cleaning procedures can be seen here.

Here is day two of the Mark VI rebuild.  The mundane act of cleaning.

body with no keys

Started a new page today regarding a long term project rebuilding a Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone.  If you have ever been curious about the complete job, tune in Here for more details.