Woodwind repairer, author of the Haynes Saxophone Maintenance Manual and the Haynes Clarinet Maintenance Manual
UK
Joined January 2010
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On the bench today - a Keilwerth SX90R alto. In for the usual tonehole tweakery. Nice horns, but the black nickel finish is a sod to light and photograph!
I found a 'Gotcha!'
You can't remove the low B key without first removing the low C# lever...the low Bb's lower pillar gets in the way, and there's not enough space to squeeze the Bb through the gap. I've seen this before on another horn, I'm sure. Quite a tell-tale feature...
Another 'interesting' horn on the bench - a Saxgourmet tenor. The use far-eastern fare, with a few tweaks and a bit of bling...and what looks to be quite a problem with flux (acid) bleed...
Time for another review - and this time it's something a little bit unusual. It's a modern Chinese C Melody...with a Conn Microtuner fitted. That's different!
shwoodwind.co.uk/Reviews/Sax…
Nifty little job earlier in the week. A Conn 10M with a cracked crook receiver. The slot combined with the crack means that there's barely 5mm of tube left for the crook to seal against...and the joint always wears at the bottom first. Leaky, leaky, notes not peaky. Not anymore!
On the bench today - a rather tatty-looking Yamaha 62 alto. Got a few bars under its belt, and on at least its second set of pads. Time for its third.
Fun job on the bench today - the Superglue Weltklang bari. Poor old thing's held together with superglue...but has made it to almost ten years in this state before it all got a bit too much. Time for some proper solder!
Just up on the site - a review of the new (2024) TJ Evo alto. Full of surprises, this little beastie...
shwoodwind.co.uk/Reviews/Sax…
Working on the YAS-62 that's been 'repaired'. Now I knew the pad job was bad, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. I don't think any new shellac has been put in the cup...it just what was left after the old pad was removed. Just dreadful.
Getting down to the nitty-gritty on this SX90R - and I can see I've got my work cut out for me. Some of the toneholes are showing half a millimetre gaps. That's almost 20 times the size of a gap that constitutes a leak (0.0245mm - or 1 thou).
On the bench today - a rather sleek-looking Keilwerth SX90R tenor... in for, you guessed it, tonehole levelling!
Another day, another Yamaha. This one's just had £200's worth of work done to it. Yep. Leaks like a sieve. A broken sieve, at that. Played properly it craps out at A - with a gorilla-grip it won't go past low D. I've seen this guy's work before...and he ain't getting any better.
OK, it's not the neatest job I've ever done - but it worked, and it's at least tidy. After all these years...you never stop learning.
Umm...it's not coming off! I wonder if it was silver-soldered on...but then the solder wouldn't have rotted away at the lugs. I think I might have to etch the surfaces with acid then solder whatever I can...otherwise I'll have to get the whole thing red hot.
Here's one of the first jobs to do - the crook clamp's solder has deteriorated, which means the clamp no longer snugs up the joint. It's a common problem on old Selmers but quite rare to see it on a Yamaha. But I guess it happens on all horns eventually.
Interesting job on the bench today - a stripdown service on this fine old Yamaha 61 tenor. It's in remarkably good shape for its age, but needs a bit of TLC. Soon have it up and running again.
Now that my finger injury is more or less healed I've started to call in the backlogged work. And a couple of the first past the post are this early SX90R (in for tonehole levelling) and a rather grubby YAS-62 Purple Logo...in for a repad.
Why 'worked on'? A careless repair often makes further repairs more difficult - and nothing says 'careless' more than leaving tooling marks like this on a horn. There's just no need for it.
