Saxophones Martin Medalist... DONE!

[DavidUK]

Yes, I have been busy...

Mainly watching my Windows laptop die a slow and painful death after the IE/Adobe hack got to it.
Secondly, entering the world of the MAC with a Macbook Pro Retina. A whole different world indeed.
But I'm (almost) up to speed with the Mac now and so managed to finish my Martin Medalist Tenor "restoration".

I took it to Matt at Connolly-MIR a while back as it was severely dented. If I say he charged me £85 to get it as straight as possible, that should give those in the know an idea of how bad it was... bad!

I'd taken off the lower stack when I handed it over and so when back I decided to strip it, clean, and re-build (my second one, after YTS-23). Once you have done one it is almost a doodle to put them back together.
By strip I mean dis-assemble as I haven't touched the speckled lacquer-worn patina you'll be pleased to hear. The crook is entirely bare, brownish, brass.

As I stripped it and cleaned the pads (Auto-Glym leather reconditioner once again) I also replaced any worn or missing corks, and noted those that looked compressed but didn't replace these yet.

Once rebuilt I checked the interaction of the mechanism and could see that half a dozen corks, although intact, were preventing normal play due to compression. A strip down of the offending areas and re-corking by mainly guesswork sorted these areas.

Confident I hadn't overlooked anything, I put on my Soloist MP and tried a few reeds, Rico Royal 2's being the best somewhat surprisingly. Plays top to bottom with the only problem being low D, but that's down to my not playing tenor so much.

How does it rate next to my Grassi 2000 Professional? Well, it doesn't match the Grassi, but it's easy enough to play and enjoyable. Most of all it's another old Martin saved. Oh... and I have to say what a well constructed horn too. No fear of bending key work on this one. No doubt that is how it's managed to stay leak free apart from some very minor lolly stick adjustment on one or two keys. No re-padding! Hooray!!

 

[Jeanette]

Nice to see you back

Jx

 

[trimmy]

This thread is useless without pics

 

[DavidUK]

This thread is useless without pics

Almost useless.

It looks no different, at a distance, from how it did when it arrived: Saxophones - I sense a Martian coming....

However, these are the seller's photos, so not up to what you're used to from me. I'll try and take a few arty onces for you tomorrow.

 

[ProfJames]

Aaaah...............Mister UK! Good to have you with us again!

 

[kernewegor]

Indeed it is - and good to hear about the Martin!

Any interesting lawsuits at present?

And what's that worrying sounding aside about the laptop?

 

[DavidUK]

Good job you mentioned lawsuits. Phoned the court this morning to see what's happening with my 2nd NPower case. They'd sent the notice of hearing in May (not received) and I had until tomorrow to pay the hearing fee! Been to court just, paid fee, all is well. Ta.
Otherwise, a couple of cases against solicitors, but that's all.

A month ago the press reported a hack via IE involving Adobe. The day mine started to die I'd clicked on the "update Adobe" bubble, my browser was hijacked, and it went downhill from there. Hence the move to the non-IE, non-Microsoft world that is Apple. Expensive, yes. But when compared to the pile of Windows laptops in my loft, hopefully not. My niece has had her MAC 20 years and still going strong!

 

[kernewegor]

Good job you mentioned lawsuits. Phoned the court this morning to see what's happening with my 2nd NPower case. They'd sent the notice of hearing in May (not received) and I had until tomorrow to pay the hearing fee! Been to court just, paid fee, all is well. Ta.

Whew! Glad to have helped - I hate to see crooks and sharks get away with it. A case I had an indirect interest in was settled modestly out of court rather than the aggrieved parties getting their full whack. Those conducting the case missed a deadline due to a management wobble which meant the lead guy was taken off the case and no-one covered....

Otherwise, a couple of cases against solicitors, but that's all.

I like your style!

A month ago the press reported a hack via IE involving Adobe. The day mine started to die I'd clicked on the "update Adobe" bubble, my browser was hijacked, and it went downhill from there. Hence the move to the non-IE, non-Microsoft world that is Apple. Expensive, yes. But when compared to the pile of Windows laptops in my loft, hopefully not. My niece has had her MAC 20 years and still going strong!

Thanks for the information. I use Firefox, but it could benefit others.

 

[Ads]

David - OT I know but have you tried a Grassi 2000 Alto ?

 

[altissimo]

Sounds like it was the Adobe Flash Player vulnerability that got you. They released a patch for it, but too late for some.
Firefox, Chrome, Opera and other Mozilla based browsers automatically update Flash when you close and reopen them, so may be less prone to such problems, but there's no substitute for a decent firewall and antivirus software - Windows firewall isn't good enough and there's enough freeware out there that's better- Comodo and Avira are the one's I've used.
I gather that Apple products aren't immune to viruses and hacking, but I don't know enough about their stuff to comment further.
Once a virus has taken root in your computer it can be a devil of a job to get rid of. Scanning with antivirus software in safe mode will only do so much and it's often quicker just to back up all your documents etc and reinstall windows and all the drivers for your computer. Of course some viruses install themselves in the boot sector of the hard drive so even if you reformat the hard drive they're still there and boot up before Windows does, but there are ways of rewriting the master boot record and getting rid of them.
Installing a new hard drive may be the only solution in some cases - a bit of a fiddle with a laptop, but cheaper than buying a new one.
In my experience, laptops only have a limited lifespan - I'm on my third one. They're all made in China and the Apple products are made in the same factories that make all the others

Anyway, glad to see the Martin tenor's up and running, while it won't be as good as your Grassi - few horns could compete with that one - Martins are fun instruments with a big fat tone. It'll be interesting to see what the Orsi turns out like, I gather they have a good tone as well

 

[Ads]

Laptops last longer when they`re used as portable machines for occasional use and not used as Desktop replacements (which many are thesedays) - and even longer with an SSD drive fitted as 2.5" HDDs aren`t as long lived as their 3.5" cousins ..

 

[altissimo]

Laptops last longer when they`re used as portable machines for occasional use and not used as Desktop replacements (which many are these days) - and even longer with an SSD drive fitted as 2.5" HDDs aren`t as long lived as their 3.5" cousins ..

yeah, it's the lack of adequate cooling that shortens the life of the hard drives and processors on laptops - fan inlets get clogged with fluff and core temperatures rise...

 

[Ads]

I de-fluffulated the cooler and replaced the HDD in mine a couple of weeks ago . like new again - better as it`s now a 500Gb fast drive instead of a 160Gb slowie, I didn`t do the SSD thing due to needing more space than speed and it`s not a D.T replacement .
I only use it as Mfr intended (as a Laptop) taking out to clients to preview their wedding books etc .. but its nearly 5 years old ..

 

[DavidUK]

The dead laptop (Compaq) had already had a new HDD 15 months ago. Enough is enough....

I have to use IE still as our IT people only support that one browser currently. So I use Windows 7 Pro via Parallels on the Mac but only use IE to go onto our own network site and those of two insurers, hoping that the lack of browsing other sites will protect me a little. Windows is "protected" with MSE only, as recommended by various Mac users running Parallels.

Windows has grabbed 64GB of the Mac's 256GB SSD drive, and currently uses 30GB of the 64GB. I can vary the amount of space for each system if I need to. I also still use a 1TB external HDD to store my Windows stuff and another 2TB external drive to back up to using the Mac's "Time Machine" auto back up (which also backs up all the Windows stuff on the Mac too.

Apple were very good. I asked them if I could use my son's university ID to get a student discount and they said yes. 15% off the Mac, free Applecare 3 year warranty (usually £199) and 3 year phone support for an extra £48. I've phoned them half a dozen times already and they are excellent at explaining things, as are Parallels too (30 days support). Would you ever think of phoning Microsoft to help you? No.

 

[Ads]

Support has always been easier with Macs because the OS and the Machine came from the same place .
PCs from Day one have have been made by varying makers including of course cobble-ups , homebrews and bitsas - there`s also been a choice of OSs pretty much from day one too (remember OS2, GEM etc) , this hardware michmach must have been a nightmare for Microsoft despite compatibility guidelines given .

 

[ProfJames]

In the early '80s there was..............CPM, DRDos, PCDOS, MSDOS, VPiX, Prologue, Holland Automation and then along came Xenix...........

 

[DavidUK]

Don't forget I-APL, written by my brother!

 

[altissimo]

The dead laptop (Compaq) had already had a new HDD 15 months ago. Enough is enough....

I have to use IE still as our IT people only support that one browser currently. So I use Windows 7 Pro via Parallels on the Mac but only use IE to go onto our own network site and those of two insurers, hoping that the lack of browsing other sites will protect me a little. Windows is "protected" with MSE only, as recommended by various Mac users running Parallels.

Windows has grabbed 64GB of the Mac's 256GB SSD drive, and currently uses 30GB of the 64GB. I can vary the amount of space for each system if I need to. I also still use a 1TB external HDD to store my Windows stuff and another 2TB external drive to back up to using the Mac's "Time Machine" auto back up (which also backs up all the Windows stuff on the Mac too.

Apple were very good. I asked them if I could use my son's university ID to get a student discount and they said yes. 15% off the Mac, free Applecare 3 year warranty (usually £199) and 3 year phone support for an extra £48. I've phoned them half a dozen times already and they are excellent at explaining things, as are Parallels too (30 days support). Would you ever think of phoning Microsoft to help you? No.

having to install a version of Windows 7 just to use Internet Explorer seems like madness, as does the notion of making a website that's only compatible with IE. It's the lack of compatibility between rival companies that's bedeviled computers for years and it's getting worse, not better. Windows eats up RAM...
Imagine if Selmer made saxes that you could only use Selmer mouthpieces on and Selmer reeds and the old mouthpiece you bought 10 years ago won't work with a new sax..

 

[DavidUK]

having to install a version of Windows 7 just to use Internet Explorer seems like madness, as does the notion of making a website that's only compatible with IE. It's the lack of compatibility between rival companies that's bedeviled computers for years and it's getting worse, not better. Windows eats up RAM...
Imagine if Selmer made saxes that you could only use Selmer mouthpieces on and Selmer reeds and the old mouthpiece you bought 10 years ago won't work with a new sax..

Yep, is IS mad!
Our IT people are working on a solution for Safari, Chrome, etc but it all costs money and resources. We have 2,500 financial advisers in our network company, which runs the IT dept. I'm guessing 99% use Windows machines. It's a slow move to anything else, despite security holes in IE like the one a month ago.

 

[DavidUK]

Anyway Dave... do you want another Martin!?
Low interest instalment plan?