Wonderful!
I could use try to reuse the odd improvisation with a synthetic material, instead of cork; which simply fell off just days after receipt of the restored instrument.
This looks like porous core closed cell plastic with a thin, hard sheeny surface-tacked in place with some small amount of adhesive on the body of the sax.
Instead of on that perpendicular foot at the bottom of the long low-C rod with a round ending, the round cork is normally attached to.
The instrument was part of a large backlog of work, with the tech from the fall of 2023 until finally finished last month April of 2026.
One helpful koan from Carlo Cennamo [ who did a restoration for me of a near identical TrueTone during 2014 for $1350 cash when the normal price was $2,000
www.cennamowoodwinds.com ] is that: "inexpensive work done well takes time, while good work done quickly may be more pricey..inexpensive work done quickly, may be poorly done."
The second restoration was only $450, but for the odd low-C fix an immaculate rendering of an instrument, in brand new condition once completed.
Just as an aside here: I created a surprisingly fine home made case for $2 with a pair of 99 cent cedar fencing slat seconds.
First, using a fine, sharp crosscut saw, I cut one of the two slats into three pieces each exactly the same length as the other. Then using a pair of gallon tin cans as temporary spacers to determine an arbitrary width, I built a three sided wooden box about two feet long; with the tin cans between two slat pieces, to determine the distance between them, and the third slat piece on the bottom between the two other slat pieces..with wooden squares on each end, to hold the sides & bottom together.
My idea was a flower box for my apartment's kitchen window, [ built during the 1880s as part of a local brewery's horse facility, my land lady's family got in 1954 ] though some serendipitous impulse got me to try putting the TrueTone in the flower box.
This stunningly to me, had what machinists call a 'spring fit' so that I soon made a lid with improvised handles on top and one end, made from chunks of 1" x 2" fir about 4" long crossing over holes made using a smaller size tin can as a template.
What was totally priceless, is once the improvised case was finished; I found a $5 Scandinavian military surplus duffel bag that fit over the flower box sax case as snug as a condom. The brass grommets for the duffel's drawstring, closing exactly above the handle on the top of case, easy to grasp and carry that way.
During 2016 given to some Sinti neighbors, a young blond woman ended up with, proudly. I hope they think to line the case with something..Bert Wilson suggested leather..since apparently the cedar reacts with the sax's finish that's gold-plate. From an ad during 1997 in the Berkeley Flea Market Want Ads newspaper, a freebe there published twice monthly, with sidewalk stands downtown.
Interestingly I disassembled the sax soon after purchase, and using a fine copper bristle brush I shined up the saxophone, fully never reasoning this wouldn't of worked on a a lacquer finish. The second TrueTone the seller thought bronze, due patina of 100 years.
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