Ben SaintP
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- Saint Petersburg RU
I’ve been doing experiments on sockets and I would like to share my experience because I found out that there is a big misconception about its operation.
Socket is a weak part on saxophone, most of them leak and the reason for that is just the way they operate. The general assumption is that one puts the crook into the socket and tighten it to get a seal. But the function of the clamp is not to seal the joint, only to prevent the crook to move. In fact the more you tighten the clamp the more it will leak. So we have got to the main point : the clamping function of a traditional socket operates against the sealing function.
To obtain a seal on socket the only important parameter is the precision of both female (socket) and male diameter (crook tenon). If the inside diameter of the socket is more than 0,05 mm bigger than the outside diameter of the tenon, it will leak. They is no way to correct that by tightening the clamp, it will only make things worse. The clamps makes the socket oval and the leak will happen at the bottom of the slot.
Let’s take the Super Action as an example because with them Selmer has introduced the worse ever socket on the pro market . On a new SA the crook will fit with a good seal before you tighten the clamp. During the first months if you tighten only very slightly you may also get away without leak. But as time goes the socket will become oval and the fit won’t be as good anymore, so what will you do ? You will tighten the clamp a bit more and it is already over, your socket will leak. After a few years you may even see a crack forming on the bottom part of the slot because there is far to much stress on this spot.
People will still buy and play saxophones with cracked socket as it were a triviality. Technicians spend hours to pad an instrument to prevent any leak but nobody worries about a leak which is happening before the vibration has reached even the first tone hole.
Not all sockets are as bad as the Selmer SA ones. Among all traditional sockets I’ve found the early MKVI with the nickel silver ring soldered on being the most effective. Yamaha took the idea on their custom line and there are very good too. But anyway it is the same clamping system which operates against the sealing function.
So the clamping system dwon't create the seal but we need a system which doesn’t work against it. So to say, a clamping system which doesn’t make the socket oval. You’ve already guessed probably. Such a clamping system was developed by SML with its four slots socket tighten by a ring. I came across it on a Youtube video by SaxWorks Denmark where he recreates the SML socket on a Conn New Wonder. That was a really good idea and I liked the design with the ring very much. The only question was why did SML four slots to clamp a cylindrical piece ? To clamp evenly a cylindrical piece one would better use a 3 jaws chuck, so 3 slots would have been more appropriate. That is what Selmer has done with the Supreme but I was not going to spent 7000 euros for a socket and I liked the idea to put a ring socket on already existing models and being maybe able to replace old cracked sockets with this system. So I decided to try it to see if it really does the job and everything that I have written in this article comes from this experiment.
So far I’ve done a few sockets for baritones and tenors and one for soprano is in process. I am really happy with the result, they really don’t leak once tightened
Socket is a weak part on saxophone, most of them leak and the reason for that is just the way they operate. The general assumption is that one puts the crook into the socket and tighten it to get a seal. But the function of the clamp is not to seal the joint, only to prevent the crook to move. In fact the more you tighten the clamp the more it will leak. So we have got to the main point : the clamping function of a traditional socket operates against the sealing function.
To obtain a seal on socket the only important parameter is the precision of both female (socket) and male diameter (crook tenon). If the inside diameter of the socket is more than 0,05 mm bigger than the outside diameter of the tenon, it will leak. They is no way to correct that by tightening the clamp, it will only make things worse. The clamps makes the socket oval and the leak will happen at the bottom of the slot.
Let’s take the Super Action as an example because with them Selmer has introduced the worse ever socket on the pro market . On a new SA the crook will fit with a good seal before you tighten the clamp. During the first months if you tighten only very slightly you may also get away without leak. But as time goes the socket will become oval and the fit won’t be as good anymore, so what will you do ? You will tighten the clamp a bit more and it is already over, your socket will leak. After a few years you may even see a crack forming on the bottom part of the slot because there is far to much stress on this spot.
People will still buy and play saxophones with cracked socket as it were a triviality. Technicians spend hours to pad an instrument to prevent any leak but nobody worries about a leak which is happening before the vibration has reached even the first tone hole.
Not all sockets are as bad as the Selmer SA ones. Among all traditional sockets I’ve found the early MKVI with the nickel silver ring soldered on being the most effective. Yamaha took the idea on their custom line and there are very good too. But anyway it is the same clamping system which operates against the sealing function.
So the clamping system dwon't create the seal but we need a system which doesn’t work against it. So to say, a clamping system which doesn’t make the socket oval. You’ve already guessed probably. Such a clamping system was developed by SML with its four slots socket tighten by a ring. I came across it on a Youtube video by SaxWorks Denmark where he recreates the SML socket on a Conn New Wonder. That was a really good idea and I liked the design with the ring very much. The only question was why did SML four slots to clamp a cylindrical piece ? To clamp evenly a cylindrical piece one would better use a 3 jaws chuck, so 3 slots would have been more appropriate. That is what Selmer has done with the Supreme but I was not going to spent 7000 euros for a socket and I liked the idea to put a ring socket on already existing models and being maybe able to replace old cracked sockets with this system. So I decided to try it to see if it really does the job and everything that I have written in this article comes from this experiment.
So far I’ve done a few sockets for baritones and tenors and one for soprano is in process. I am really happy with the result, they really don’t leak once tightened