Problem With New Sax.

[griff136]

Linky_Lee wrote:
these guys sure take their time. I got an overhaul done in 1 day, though I did have to wait three days until they had a spare repair man. It's quite a good booking system really, you put it in for a booking and they tell you exactly when the work will be done and who by, or you can ask specifically if you care to wait longer, and then you can drop it in the day before, and collect the day after. Marvelous.

we run a diary system at JohN Myalls where I work very similar but we couldnt do an overhaul in one day!! replace all the pads, cork felt, silencing material de dent, take up play in keywork, grease rollers, leak test the neck tenon, clean and polish reassemble adjust regulate and test play all in one day - nah you're pulling my leg.

 

[Linky Lee]

it wasn't a full overhaul, it didn't have any dent work done, it was just a very major service really. The thing hadn't been serviced for a good 5 years and had been played very regularly.

still a week is quite a long time.

 

[griff136]

I agree a week is a long time.
If you take your sax to a repairer - he/she should be able to give you a very close estimate to :

a. what is wrong.
b. how it will be rectified.
c. roughly what it'll cst and how long it will take.

If a customer comes to me with a sax thats "playing up" and doesnt need a service then i put the leak light down the sax and the customer sees the leaks, i finger all the notes to feel if its ok and generally can tell the customer what corks, felt are compressed /missing/noisy, also any double action - this is done while the customer is in the shop - they then get a really good estimate and a maximum figure of what it will cost no more than.
the customer goes away:
a. reassured you know what youre doing.
b. understanding what is wrong and what needs to be done to rectify the problems.
c. what it may cost.

 

[jambo]

Good Day to you all! Hope you are well!

I just got back from a College trip to Paris... it was quite enjoyable.

The sax is repaired and will be collected next week 🙂

 

[Linky Lee]

Good to hear Jambo!

many of us have been enjoying the snow, though I bet Paris had snow as well!

Hope you get a honking soon!

 

[Bobby G]

I was thinking about this only today. I hope when you get it back it's been worth the aggravation. Happy tootin' Jambo

Cheers, Bob

 

[jambo]

Hello!

I collected the Sax toaday and it seems to working fine.

I will write a review of it withing the next few days, once ive ad chance to have a real good play of it!

 

[Linky Lee]

one word for it.

Woooooohooooooooo!

go and play, you deserve a decent horn back after the time, effort and money gone into that.

 

[tris]

Fingers crossed for you! 😉

 

[Bobby G]

🙂 hope it plays and sounds fine after all the trouble with it. Looking forward to your comments.

Cheers, Bob

 

[quercy]

Hey Jambo, like all the others I hope you're roaring on that alto now. Look forward to hearing how you're getting on.

I guess the moral of all this is to be very cautious about buying on Ebay. I've had two very good buys from there, one of which I was able to examine before I finally bought it, which was ideal, and I would always do this if I could. The other was a very cheap Conn New Wonder alto which I thought I'd have to do a lot of work on, but blow me after evicting the spider that lived in the crook and replacing one small pad that was missing it played like a dream!

I have also however turned down a horn that I 'won' after the guy, who lives about two miles from me, flatly refused to allow me to collect it, and had one very bad buy from a guy who buys in from American Ebay (he must have some way of getting them sent over cheap) and turns them round very fast with seductive ads although he doesn't really know what he's talking about. He disappeared for a while, but has turned up again with a new Ebay identity. Needless to say he's on my blacklist.

So Caveat Emptor!

 

[griff136]

I agree with Quercy re caveat emptor (buyer beware etc)
when i buy on ebay i always expect to do some work and factor that into the overall cost.
Some vendors say that instruments play - often theyre not even players themselves!!
I have had some wrong uns but conversely I have had my fair share of absolute gems. I guess one has to be cautious and expect the worse and then if it turns up and all is fine its a bonus.

I hope your alto is now playing as sweet as it was when it left my workshop 2 years ago

 

[Linky Lee]

I'm slightly happy that Jambo hasn't been around much since he got is sax back. Must mean it's a beaut and he hasn't stopped playing it yet to make up for all that lost time whilst it was being fixed.... Hopefully.

 

[jambo]

Good Day To all!

I agree with the 'being careful' about ebay.

Anyways, my news on the sax.

Im still deciding whether I like it or not. It seems to be working (has been fixed well), but it is not the easiest sax to play! The bottom end of it is really lovely... it sounds really deep and i can feel all teh vibrations when I play it. The main problem im currently having with the sax is being able to play it smoothly, (especially long notes). Its not so bad for playing fast scales, but when I try to play a nice, smooth soft ballad it doesnt seem to want to play how I want it to. Octave G is the worst. Its a bit of a Dog!

Im still playing it with a crappy metal lig, so im hoping that a rovner will make a difference (once I get one)

I have done a sound clip, im just waiting for my friend to put it into a file

 

[Linky Lee]

Talk of the devil!

Sounds like general teething problems.

All new saxes which are new to you respond in different ways and it takes a while to learn their ins and outs.

glad you like the bottom end. Can't wait for the sound clip.

 

[griff136]

stick with it jambo!

if you can manage the awkward left pinky table then i say stick with it - dolnets are lovely saxes and theyre french.
I love mine

 

[jambo]

Awesome news!

Last night a Strapped a Rovner Copy Ligature onto the mp. It was slightly too big, but it made the sax play about 100% better! Maney less squeaks and much easier to bllow!

 

[Linky Lee]

Rovners are very good. I find them to work great on all my saxes.

Glad it works great now! Enjoy!

 

[griff136]

i hate to point it out but maybe part of your problem with this sax from the begining was not having a decent reed/mouthpiece/ligature combination.

I would invest in a rovner lig and not a copy.

Q - what make of mouthpiece do you use and what lay is it?

 

[Pete Thomas]

It certainly sounds like that might be part of the issue.

If a change in ligature results in such a vast improvement I'd say either your mouthpiece table isn't as flat and even as it could be, or (more likely) the old lig was damaged/bernt and/or didn't fit the mouthpiece very well.