Tech/maintenance SHWoodwind Updates

[Stephen Howard]

How to be a not-saxophone player : "The second stage is to have your mouthpiece refaced. That's pronounced ree-faced...NOT reff-aced. You needn't really know what it means, it's enough to say 'I had it opened up a tad'. There are several craftsmen who can not do this work for you"

I couldn't see a typo in there...so I'm guessing it's the 'who can not do this work for you'?
If so, that's down to the, er, 'notness' of the article....but I'd agree it doesn't scan very well. I've re-jigged it a little to make it clearer, and it'll go up at the next upload.

While I was there I had a read through and found another one!

"For example, let's assumed you've been buttonholed by a sax player"

 

[vries1]

Yes, I felt that "There are several craftsmen who can not do this work for you" was an unusual idiom.

 

[Stephen Howard]

I think that's a fair description of the whole article.
I remember starting it and thinking "This'll be good for a laugh", and then finding I'd written myself into something of a 'not' corner.
Still, folks seem to like it - it often gets referenced around the web.

 

[vries1]

A review of the Grafton plastic alto saxophone :
Guide price: Variable, heavily dependant on condition

 

[vries1]

Yamaha YAS21 alto saxophone review : (Czech built, also sold as the Lafluer)

- should be Lafleur I guess

 

[Stephen Howard]

More good finds! Cheers!

 

[Ivan]

More good finds! Cheers!

Nice to know the fault-finding isn't getting under your skin

But if they keep this up, I reckon in the end they'll break ya...

 

[Stephen Howard]

Nice to know the fault-finding isn't getting under your skin

But if they keep this up, I reckon in the end they'll break ya...

Nah, not a chance! I often read through the articles, and it really bugs me when I find a typo - especially one that's been sitting there for years, telling the world I don't know how to spell 'incidentally' or 'subsequently'.
And it's really quite hard to do your own spell-checking because you wrote the words and you know what's coming - so your brain automatically reads ahead.
I really do appreciate people taking the time (and it really does take a lot of time) to read through the site and pick up the odd errors. I'm frankly amazed that there are so few (though you should see the drafts!).

 

[vries1]

The "defect density" is very low indeed!

 

[Veggie Dave]

And it's really quite hard to do your own spell-checking because you wrote the words and you know what's coming - so your brain automatically reads ahead.

The first rule of Journalism Club is that you don't talk about Journalism Club.

Actually, that's not true. The first rule is making sure you spend as much time as possible in the bar while never spending a penny of your own money. The second rule is 'never sub your own copy.'

 

[saxyjt]

The second rule is 'never sub your own copy.'

Then you're never credited!? And someone else takes credit for all the work you've done...

 

[Veggie Dave]

No, subbing is just checking grammar and the overall flow and comprehensibility of the article. There are times, though, when you sub something to the point where you end up completely rewriting someone's feature - they still get the credit, though. And some of those people are incredibly famous journos.

There are also times where a sub does such a good job that the original writer's stuff gets used more often, and then they start demanding more money even though some poor sub in the office has had to spend hours sorting out their barely understandable drivel, without whom the article would never, ever be published.

The sub still doesn't get credited. Well, not unless they demand to be, in which case they usually get a shared credit.

 

[vries1]

Just 1 more typo: Myths and materials : Remember the flute maker who said that gold has ""a sound with brilliance"? (double opening quotes)

 

[richardr]

when I find a typo - especially one that's been sitting there for years

This reminds me of a tale told to me by the former MD of a manufacturer of drinks cans. He and his wife were entertaining the top brass of a major brewer for whom he had placed a display of their products in his cans on his sideboard. His wife spotted an error on the labelling of one of the cans and told him after the party. Aghast, the MD dashed off to London the following day to meet the MD of the brewery company. He drew attention to the error, apologised and asked what could be done to put it right. The MD of the brewery company replied, we've had it on the market like that for six months and no-one else has noticed. Let's leave it as it is.
The thing about checking my own work that I've found is that I read what I intended to write, not what I have written.

 

[vries1]

Pan American ( Conn ) bass saxophone review: "What and incredibly imposing and impressive instrument this is!"

 

[vries1]

Selmer Reference 54 alto saxophone review: no amount of tightening up the crook socket screw would resolved the issue.

 

[Stephen Howard]

Excellent finds! Keep 'em coming!

 

[Stephen Howard]

No, subbing is just checking grammar and the overall flow and comprehensibility of the article. There are times, though, when you sub something to the point where you end up completely rewriting someone's feature - they still get the credit, though. And some of those people are incredibly famous journos..

I went through that process with the sax and clarinet manuals. Bloody scary.
I had visions of all my work being torn to shreds and rewritten - so it was a very tense few weeks while I waited for the copy editor to file the revised draft.
When the draft came back, the editor dropped me a line to say that it was one of the easiest jobs he'd ever had. A few typos, some house-style corrections and a handful of minor changes. We struck up a correspondence, and he told me that it wasn't uncommon to have to almost completely re-write some drafts.

 

[richardr]

I went through that process with the sax and clarinet manuals. Bloody scary.
I had visions of all my work being torn to shreds and rewritten - so it was a very tense few weeks while I waited for the copy editor to file the revised draft.
When the draft came back, the editor dropped me a line to say that it was one of the easiest jobs he'd ever had. A few typos, some house-style corrections and a handful of minor changes. We struck up a correspondence, and he told me that it wasn't uncommon to have to almost completely re-write some drafts.

I used to make a paying hobby of writing magazine articles. No matter how hard I tried to proof-read and re-read, I'd always find some hideously embarrassing error in the published result. The error was usually mine but not always. Very occasionally the Editor altered my wording (for reasons that I never understood) so that it either said something different or was ambiguous.

 

[Targa]

I went through that process with the sax and clarinet manuals. Bloody scary.
I had visions of all my work being torn to shreds and rewritten - so it was a very tense few weeks while I waited for the copy editor to file the revised draft.
When the draft came back, the editor dropped me a line to say that it was one of the easiest jobs he'd ever had. A few typos, some house-style corrections and a handful of minor changes. We struck up a correspondence, and he told me that it wasn't uncommon to have to almost completely re-write some drafts.

They missed a few typos and printing errors though, you should have asked for a refund.