Mouthpieces PPT soprano MP acting strange on vintage Borgani

[sidenius]

I just bought a vintage (seventies or eighties I think) Borgani Macerata soprano.
Up until now I've been playing a Bauhaus Wallstein curvy on which my PPT 6* has been working just wonderful.

But something strange happens with the PPT on the Borgani.
When I push the PPT in on the cork to play in tune it gets stuffy from upper octave and the intonation is hard to control.
When I pull it further out on the cork (playing flat) everything is better but the PPT is not at all playing as good as on the BW

I've read in other threads about truly large chamber mouthpieces solving this kind of problems on older saxophones, but I would really prefer to keep my PPT if there's some sort of a fix for this problem

Bertil

 

[sidenius]

Just tried my spare Bari MP on the Borgani and it seems to play with no issues at all!
So maybe the PPT and the Borgani is just no match made in heaven?
Unfortunately the Bari sound is not to my liking

 

[jonf]

I've got a PPT, a curvy BW and a vintage sop. My thoughts:

I wouldn't consider your Borgani to be vintage in the sense of being helped by a large chamber mouthpiece. By the seventies saxes were generally of pretty similar dimensions as today, largely due to the influence of the Selmer Mk VI. However, Borgani Macerata saxes do have a reputation for poor intonation due to their design. If this is correct, putting a large chamber piece on is unlikely to help matters. There have been a couple of threads on SOTW about it, and the Borgani saxes from the 1970s and 1980s don't seem to anything like as highly regarded as the current range. However, this is not based on personal experience, as I've never played a Borgani, so I can't claim any real authority on this.

I've never really bought into the idea that you can't play modern pieces on vintage saxes. I've played a Bari Gold metal piece on my 1920s Buescher True Tone sop for years. I also use a modern metal Yanagisawa piece on my Buescher True Tone alto, and a Brilhart Level Air on my Conn C Mel. Both these saxes are also from the 1920s, and all three of these oldies play well in tune.

I really like the PPT on my BW, and intonation is good (although you do need to shove the piece a long way on to the cork, so that only a couple of mill of cork is visible). However, on the True Tone I much prefer the Bari. The PPT doesn't play out of tune or get stuffy or anything, it just doesn't seem to suit the True Tone as well as the Bari. This was a surprise to me, as the Bari has a smaller chamber and a bigger baffle than the PPT.

So, while I find that the PPT suits some saxes more than others, my guess would be that the intonation issues you face are down to the sax.

Jon

 

[Pete Thomas]

I just bought a vintage (seventies or eighties I think) Borgani Macerata soprano.
Up until now I've been playing a Bauhaus Wallstein curvy on which my PPT 6* has been working just wonderful.

I can't think why this would happen, PPT sopranos are fine on every horn I've tried them on. I'm currently using a Buescher TT, before that a Bauhaus.

When you bought the Borgani, did you try it with various mouthpieces?

 

[sidenius]

When you bought the Borgani, did you try it with various mouthpieces?

No - I bought from a SOTW member and had it shipped.
He told me that his Selmer E was not working on the Borgani but a larger (than Selmer) chamber mouthpiece worked very well.
As mentioned earlier my Bari works. So does my Absolute Resin.
Today I've been experimenting some more with the PPT and it seems that reducing my air flow/speed (compared to what I'm used to on the BW) helps a lot.
It seems like the Borgani does not like the same kind of air flow that the BW does.
I have only experience with the BW until now, so maybe thats a well known issue with sopranos?
Maybe I should just give the horn some time I really like the tone

 

[sidenius]

Just to follow up on this:
I never got the PPT to work on the Borgani.
The intonation was still totally crazy after giving it some time and it was a very stuffy blow.
So - though I really liked how the PPT played on my prior BW soprano, something had to be done.

I ended up sending the PPT to Joe at Sopranoplanet for a rebalancing.
It came back just before Christmas and what a change Joes rebalancing has made!!
Everything is just perfect and even the intonation on the the high left palm key tones (which were sharper than usual with every mouthpiece I tried) is now much better.

 

[Nick Wyver]

I ended up sending the PPT to Joe at Sopranoplanet for a rebalancing.

Don't tell Ed.

As a matter of interest, why didn't you try Mr Pillinger first?

 

[sidenius]

Don't tell Ed.

As a matter of interest, why didn't you try Mr Pillinger first?

That's a good question!
Acually it never entered my mind that I could send it to Ed Pillinger instead :-(
I would have done that, if it had entered my mind that the maker himself naturally could have made the rebalancing
That would indeed have been a lot easier - I actually had to pay danish import fees for having the mouthpiece worked on outside the EU!!! - but that's a another story