greenstripe
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 773
- Location
- UK
Cork sanding done -I hope I've got the right balance so I can still play the Yamaha but don't feel like I'm going to bend or break something forcing on the smaller metal mouthpieces.
I decided to employ a mix of techniques from watching a few videos:
Cleaned the cork with lighter fluid to remove as much grease as possible
I removed the crook key and wrapped painters tape around the neck adjacent to the cork to protect the finish.
Then, I fitted the neck to the sax and lay it it in the case, I then cut two strips of sandpaper 2cm wide (P180 and P400 grit). I then used a flossing action with the sandpaper and kept wiping off the dust and test fitting mouthpieces. P180 took the cork down very quickly, then P400 grit to smooth. I'd probably have preferred a finer start like say P240, but it's what I've got.
I then put on a surgical glove and massaged cork grease in with my fingers and left it. I use D'addario All Natural Cork Grease which is very soft and extremely slippery compared to normal cork grease (like the regular Rico) it also has a strange property where it seems to vanish. I don't know if there's is a good thing or a bad thing.
Watching Stephen Howard recently -he uses silicone grease that looks like the stuff plumbers use on plastic pipework.
The Bancher has an extremely thin tip rail so reed placement needs to be absolutely exact which is a little tricky as the mouthpiece has protective tape on it that I can't remove if plan to return it. I've wrapped some painters tape over the plastic to help stop the ligature sliding around.
I decided to employ a mix of techniques from watching a few videos:
Cleaned the cork with lighter fluid to remove as much grease as possible
I removed the crook key and wrapped painters tape around the neck adjacent to the cork to protect the finish.
Then, I fitted the neck to the sax and lay it it in the case, I then cut two strips of sandpaper 2cm wide (P180 and P400 grit). I then used a flossing action with the sandpaper and kept wiping off the dust and test fitting mouthpieces. P180 took the cork down very quickly, then P400 grit to smooth. I'd probably have preferred a finer start like say P240, but it's what I've got.
I then put on a surgical glove and massaged cork grease in with my fingers and left it. I use D'addario All Natural Cork Grease which is very soft and extremely slippery compared to normal cork grease (like the regular Rico) it also has a strange property where it seems to vanish. I don't know if there's is a good thing or a bad thing.
Watching Stephen Howard recently -he uses silicone grease that looks like the stuff plumbers use on plastic pipework.
The Bancher has an extremely thin tip rail so reed placement needs to be absolutely exact which is a little tricky as the mouthpiece has protective tape on it that I can't remove if plan to return it. I've wrapped some painters tape over the plastic to help stop the ligature sliding around.
