MarkSax
Member
- Messages
- 342
- Locality
- UK
Thank you @Stephen Howard. Your book was the perfect Xmas gift and boy do I need it!!
So today I decided to ameliorate the intonation on the high A to Altissimo F on my alto because my digital tuner finds them a bit flat. I take off the cork on the floating lever that pushes the octave key up. I thought that by augmenting the gap between tonehole and pad I would make the notes sharper. I stick on a thicker bit of cork and start tuning up. ‘Wow!’ I think. ‘ I am now a sax tech!!’ From 10 cts flat I am now at 5 cts....EXCEPT that my Middle D is now playing high A all the time. I change mpc but the problem remains. What to do? I spend an hour trying to adjust, change the cork bit again but nothing works. My D is an A. And I am an ASS. ‘You fool!’ I curse myself, no longer the sax tech new wonderman,’Get the book!’
And I read about regulating the sax and realise that I screwed up. And I learn quite a bit about proper sax maintenance and adjustment. My 2019 resolution: to read the manual from start to finish before I even think of tinkering with the sax again. Lesson learned and looking forward to open fire, bottle of wine and sax. Happy new year!
So today I decided to ameliorate the intonation on the high A to Altissimo F on my alto because my digital tuner finds them a bit flat. I take off the cork on the floating lever that pushes the octave key up. I thought that by augmenting the gap between tonehole and pad I would make the notes sharper. I stick on a thicker bit of cork and start tuning up. ‘Wow!’ I think. ‘ I am now a sax tech!!’ From 10 cts flat I am now at 5 cts....EXCEPT that my Middle D is now playing high A all the time. I change mpc but the problem remains. What to do? I spend an hour trying to adjust, change the cork bit again but nothing works. My D is an A. And I am an ASS. ‘You fool!’ I curse myself, no longer the sax tech new wonderman,’Get the book!’
And I read about regulating the sax and realise that I screwed up. And I learn quite a bit about proper sax maintenance and adjustment. My 2019 resolution: to read the manual from start to finish before I even think of tinkering with the sax again. Lesson learned and looking forward to open fire, bottle of wine and sax. Happy new year!
