Broken Octave Key

[saxyjt]

@jbtsax offered to recommend a tech in your area. So, you should talk to him and then you will soon be in a position to please your Pastor and all of the church attendees!

 

[Stephen Howard]

The guy that offered that has been offering money since he found out I owned the last one made in the States--he's a collector--and no I am not selling it. It's in its original case and I get what you all are saying--I told him to give me his Selmer Mark VI Tenor and we'd have a deal---I am still waiting.

Seriously - take the money. Forget about swapping it...with $10,000 the (saxophone) world is your oyster.

 

[Tomasz]

Agree all you want...it's a grand old horn, oh and the last one made in the USA, Conn moved to Mexico after this one rolled down the line. It's also still mint--with the exception of being dropped once; by the previous owner. The guy that offered that has been offering money since he found out I owned the last one made in the States--he's a collector--and no I am not selling it. It's in its original case and I get what you all are saying--I told him to give me his Selmer Mark VI Tenor and we'd have a deal---I am still waiting.

Hmmm... If it really was made in Elkhart then it's either a very late model Conn "Shooting Stars" or (possibly) a Conn 6M from the mid-1960s. Even in a best-case scenario and assuming it was a late-model Conn 6M from circa 1968 (with the sheet-metal bell key-guards) you'd never get $10K for it - even if it was in perfect condition without a single mark on it. Sorry to break the bad news.

The most highly sought-after Conn saxophones were made prior to 1947. Anything made by Conn after that date doesn't have quite the same price premium. Being a post-1947 horn doesn't mean it's bad of course. On the contrary, post-1947 Conn 6Ms and 10Ms are truly excellent players. I should know because I have a few in my collection and have test-played others. My avatar shows one of my Conn "Transitional" horns from the 1930s, but I have others besides. Whatever, the values still are what they are - and invariably they fetch considerably less than $10K. That's just how the market works, I'm afraid.

Good luck getting your saxophone fixed.

 

[saxyjt]

Look here for example. Lots of splendid horns to replace yours well under 10K.

Like this full pearls King beauty:

or a gold plated Conn with full pearls too:

Think of it!

 

[LarryTheLamb]

I have a problem; my octave key fell off my Alto Saxophone (a 1970s Conn).
I have all the pieces, just need to know if anyone knows of someone in the North Carolina area that can fix it for a reasonable price. Most people want nearly $500 to fix it.

Buy a propane torch, silver solder and Borax and do what I would do. Fix it yourself

 

[saxyjt]

Buy a propane torch, silver solder and Borax and do what I would do. Fix it yourself

You must be out of your mind!

@Rachel33 don't do that! Unless you are willing to take the risk to ruin an otherwise excellent horn, if I hear what you say. Soldering is not for everyone to attempt and certainly not without prior experience and preparation. In this case, you'd better take the surrounding keys appart to avoid collateral damage.

 

[Stephen Howard]

Buy a propane torch, silver solder and Borax and do what I would do. Fix it yourself

And if you followed that advice you'd be up a certain body of water without a suitable means of manual propulsion.

Body fittings (pillars, stays, guards etc.) are soft soldered in place. If you attempted to silver solder a pillar in place, the surrounding fittings/joints would fall away long before you'd even got the flux to melt.

 

[Tomasz]

You must be out of your mind!

@Rachel33 don't do that! Unless you are willing to take the risk to ruin an otherwise excellent horn, if I hear what you say. Soldering is not for everyone to attempt and certainly not without prior experience and preparation. In this case, you'd better take the surrounding keys appart to avoid collateral damage.

It's a wise man or woman who knows their own limitations. Take me for example - I'm very good at soldering (for plumbing purposes!) but even so would be very wary of resoldering a saxophone without prior practice on an already written-off horn. There are just too many variables to go wrong e.g. unintended heat-flow. You know, I've seen some appalling amateur solder-jobs on saxophones over the years - with rough gobs of solder all over the place. Some examples were truly cringe-making.

The skill lies in soldering things so neatly that you can hardly tell the job's been done, everything is perfectly aligned, and any nearby posts aren't messed up. I'm reminded of a joke told by trainee anaesthetists:- "Knocking someone out is dead easy. Heck, any fool can do it with a wooden mallet. The tricky part is bringing them back alive and unharmed, without any brain-damage."

 

[jonf]

It's a wise man or woman who knows their own limitations. Take me for example - I'm very good at soldering (for plumbing purposes!) but even so would be very wary of resoldering a saxophone without prior practice on an already written-off horn. There are just too many variables to go wrong e.g. unintended heat-flow. You know, I've seen some appalling amateur solder-jobs on saxophones over the years - with rough gobs of solder all over the place. Some examples were truly cringe-making.

The skill lies in soldering things so neatly that you can hardly tell the job's been done, everything is perfectly aligned, and any nearby posts aren't messed up. I'm reminded of a joke told by trainee anaesthetists:- "Knocking someone out is dead easy. Heck, any fool can do it with a wooden mallet. The tricky part is bringing them back alive and unharmed, without any brain-damage."

I absolutely agree with all of that.

About the analogy, I was once talking to a highly experienced consultant anaesthetist. He described anaesthetics as 'the art of keeping someone balanced on a fine line between wakefulness and death'.

 

[Stephen Howard]

someone balanced on a fine line between wakefulness and death'.

...A state I can be found in whenever Simon Cowell pops up on the telly.

 

[valjeanmeister]

I have a problem; my octave key fell off my Alto Saxophone (a 1970s Conn).
I have all the pieces, just need to know if anyone knows of someone in the North Carolina area that can fix it for a reasonable price. Most people want nearly $500 to fix it.

I believe Matt Stohrer (Stohrer Music) is in North Carolina - give him a call for a quote.

 

[aldevis]

I believe Matt Stohrer (Stohrer Music) is in North Carolina - give him a call for a quote.

@abadcliche on this forum

 

[saxyjt]

I PMed Rachell33 a while back already with a link to Matt's contact page. Don't know if she tried him. I think we've all tried to hep, but I'm not sure it's gone anywhere...

We'd like to see this Conn smile and sing again, don't we?