kevgermany
ex Landrover Nut
- 21,184
I've been thinking about posting this for some time, but what happened yesterday convinced me. I've had more than one, including ones rated OK by knowledgable people.
Before I go into details, it looks as if they're built down to a price, corners are cut, they play because of bodges, and some don't ever play well. So really cheap entry ones including some played by members like me, may have underlying problems that you're unaware of. OK if you're aware and treat it as a starter, but if there's a problem and you're a beginner, how do you know if it's you or the sax?
No names.
A sax has been giving me problems for a while now. Pads wouldn't seal, neck was loose and leaking. Not sure why/how the neck was loose, but it came to me like that. So I had the neck refitted, now seats properly, doesn't leak. But it still didn't play too well. After checking with a leak light I found that many of the pads were leaking, some badly. I decided to adjust them, but many wouldn't seal, looking more closely I noticed a tone hole had a dip in the top, this was causing one of the leaks. So I dismantled all the keys from the lower stack down. I found that not one tone hole was flat. Some were really bad, had clearly been badly sawn off in manufacture by someone in a rush who didn't care or didn't have time to sort it. After quite some time filing down the tone holes to get them flat, time to reassmble (hoping I could get away without replacing pads, cos many I didn't have). Cleaned off all the old stiff grease. Checked the remaining keys - upper stack was poor, but the soft pads were compemsating reasonably well and I'd been able to adjust. However I then noticed a very small leak on one of the LH palm keys - didn't reseat properly after opening. I opened all the small high keys. A couple, with a tone hole height of less than 2mm, had dips in them of about 1mm. The spongy pads had compensated, sort of... More filing, and starting to get worried about cutting back too far.
Eventually it was back together, re-regulated and.... What a difference. Most of the problems were gone. There's still a problem in the upper stack which I didn't dismantle. I'd been able to play through the problems with an expensive moutpiece and good technique, but it was always tricky, despite the sax having a good tone. Lubricated jeys were a lot lighter/faster (the grease had stopped previous oiling attmepts from working).
This was a premium model from a well known supplier of cheap saxes that's often recommended on the forum. I was told by the previous owner that it'd been checked over by a well known tech before sale from the supplier. Hmmm...
This isn't unique. On another one, I knew the horn was poor before I bought it (seller warned me). Similar problems, only worse. With another the price told me - I bought horn and S80 mouthpiece for little more than the price of the mouthpiece. Looks as if a young girl had stuggled with it for a year or two, then given up. This shouldn't have been like that. But it was, disguised by super soft pads. In total I've had 5 cheapo chinese. Only one has played properly, all the rest have had problems that require a technician to fix.
So what's the message?
You may get lucky buying cheap, but..... Make sure you have a decent guarantee. Treat the sax as a throw away. Get someone who really knows what they're doing to check it out properly. Any doubts, send it back. Better still buy a decent, well known make, used if you can't afford new. As soon as you're paying someone to sort out problems like this (especially when you factor in postage/transport) the savings are quickly eaten away. And this after the frustration of struggling with a problem instrument, not knowing if it's you or not. Those bright shiney saxes may be little more than just glitz. Despite stories that the cheap saxes are OK now.
Before I go into details, it looks as if they're built down to a price, corners are cut, they play because of bodges, and some don't ever play well. So really cheap entry ones including some played by members like me, may have underlying problems that you're unaware of. OK if you're aware and treat it as a starter, but if there's a problem and you're a beginner, how do you know if it's you or the sax?
No names.
A sax has been giving me problems for a while now. Pads wouldn't seal, neck was loose and leaking. Not sure why/how the neck was loose, but it came to me like that. So I had the neck refitted, now seats properly, doesn't leak. But it still didn't play too well. After checking with a leak light I found that many of the pads were leaking, some badly. I decided to adjust them, but many wouldn't seal, looking more closely I noticed a tone hole had a dip in the top, this was causing one of the leaks. So I dismantled all the keys from the lower stack down. I found that not one tone hole was flat. Some were really bad, had clearly been badly sawn off in manufacture by someone in a rush who didn't care or didn't have time to sort it. After quite some time filing down the tone holes to get them flat, time to reassmble (hoping I could get away without replacing pads, cos many I didn't have). Cleaned off all the old stiff grease. Checked the remaining keys - upper stack was poor, but the soft pads were compemsating reasonably well and I'd been able to adjust. However I then noticed a very small leak on one of the LH palm keys - didn't reseat properly after opening. I opened all the small high keys. A couple, with a tone hole height of less than 2mm, had dips in them of about 1mm. The spongy pads had compensated, sort of... More filing, and starting to get worried about cutting back too far.
Eventually it was back together, re-regulated and.... What a difference. Most of the problems were gone. There's still a problem in the upper stack which I didn't dismantle. I'd been able to play through the problems with an expensive moutpiece and good technique, but it was always tricky, despite the sax having a good tone. Lubricated jeys were a lot lighter/faster (the grease had stopped previous oiling attmepts from working).
This was a premium model from a well known supplier of cheap saxes that's often recommended on the forum. I was told by the previous owner that it'd been checked over by a well known tech before sale from the supplier. Hmmm...
This isn't unique. On another one, I knew the horn was poor before I bought it (seller warned me). Similar problems, only worse. With another the price told me - I bought horn and S80 mouthpiece for little more than the price of the mouthpiece. Looks as if a young girl had stuggled with it for a year or two, then given up. This shouldn't have been like that. But it was, disguised by super soft pads. In total I've had 5 cheapo chinese. Only one has played properly, all the rest have had problems that require a technician to fix.
So what's the message?
You may get lucky buying cheap, but..... Make sure you have a decent guarantee. Treat the sax as a throw away. Get someone who really knows what they're doing to check it out properly. Any doubts, send it back. Better still buy a decent, well known make, used if you can't afford new. As soon as you're paying someone to sort out problems like this (especially when you factor in postage/transport) the savings are quickly eaten away. And this after the frustration of struggling with a problem instrument, not knowing if it's you or not. Those bright shiney saxes may be little more than just glitz. Despite stories that the cheap saxes are OK now.
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