Tech/maintenance SHWoodwind Updates

Hmmmn. Head scratching, feeling tired and confused, your brain hurts ?
Relax - it's time for a hot bath.
Dissolve half a packet of original dead sea salt into the water and soak your body for at least 30 minutes.
Rinse or shower with clear warm water and a tantilzing shower gel and dry with a large bath towel, apply an invigorating body lotion. Thereafter donn a warm bath robe (with or without hood) and relax on the couch with your favourite soothing sounds. Cooled fresh cucumber slices on the eye lids are an optional extra. Fruit salad with yogurt as a side dish and fresh fruit drinks to replenish the liquid, vitamin and essential minerals are advisable.
 
Hmmmn. Head scratching, feeling tired and confused, your brain hurts ?
Relax - it's time for a hot bath.

Sounds good to me. What do I do?

Dissolve half a packet of original dead sea salt into the water and soak your body for at least 30 minutes.

I seem to be all out of dead sea salt (again), and I've only got a spoonful of table salt left...and I need that for my chips.
I'll pop some Daz in the bath...I'm pretty sure it's much the same.

Rinse or shower with clear warm water and a tantilzing shower gel and dry with a large bath towel, apply an invigorating body lotion.

OK, well, the water's not exactly clear...but the boiler man is due next week. If I had any shower gel it'd definitely be tantalizing - but I haven't, so it isn't. I do have some Autoglym Car Wax though, which looks like it'll do the business.
As for body lotion, most of the lotions I have say "Use only as directed by your GP" on them - so I'll have to settle for a quick rub down with some Mr Muscle surface cleaner. If nothing else it'll be invigorating.

Thereafter donn a warm bath robe (with or without hood) and relax on the couch with your favourite soothing sounds.

I don't think I've ever owned a bath robe - not unless you count an old quilted dressing gown I once bought for a 'Noel Coward lookalike fancy-dress party'...but it got ruined when someone who (mistakenly) came as Cole Porter set fire to it. I've got a Parka - that's got a hood...and it's even got some fake fur around it.
Soothing sounds? I've got a vast collection to choose from...a veritable cornucopia of CDs. Unfortunately I don't currently have a CD player. Well, I do...but I threw the dressing gown on it when it caught fire, so it's a bit....er..melted.
Not to worry, my wireless doorbell can play 17 different tunes - there's bound to be one in amongst the selection that's reasonably restful.

Cooled fresh cucumber slices on the eye lids are an optional extra. Fruit salad with yogurt as a side dish and fresh fruit drinks to replenish the liquid, vitamin and essential minerals are advisable.

Ah, now, here's where I think I might run into a bit of a problem. Y'see, I'm not really terribly keen on cucumber as a rule - so tend not to buy it. In fact when it comes to vegetables I think I'm what you call 'conservative' - and a quick tally of my larder tells me that I'm rather low on veg...save for a couple of options.
I also tend not to keep yoghurt in the house - mostly because I object most strongly to shelling out for what's essentially a pint of milk that's seen better days. I'm guessing that a glass of whisky probably isn't much cop for detoxing, but I know I've got a tin of something reasonably healthly somewhere.

So I'll stick a slice of Maris Piper on one eye, an onion ring on the other...and I'll toast to your good health with half a pint of mushy peas.
 
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I'm almost hesitating to post something on-topic...

Regarding the Selmer matte or "antique" finish, here's an anecdote. Around 5 years ago, a colleague saxophonist (sitting next to me in wind orchestra) sent the Mark VI he got as a kid back to Selmer to get it re-lacquered - I am not making this up. He chose to have the antique finish applied. This is a finish which is rather uncommon where we live, so I guess he liked the special look. Makes the horn stand out.

Well, 5 years later, the finish is ageing awfully. There are many discolourations, and it looks like the finish rubs off at places. One might think his horn was incorrectly prepped and that new horns fare better, but then I found this discussion: Selmer Reference 54: matte vs. lacquer . So it seems the Selmer matte finish ageing problem is not exactly the exception.

Any experiences here?
 
Well, 5 years later, the finish is ageing awfully. There are many discolourations, and it looks like the finish rubs off at places. One might think his horn was incorrectly prepped and that new horns fare better, but then I found this discussion: Selmer Reference 54: matte vs. lacquer . So it seems the Selmer matte finish ageing problem is not exactly the exception.

Any experiences here?

I've not noticed that they're especially prone to blemishes - but I suspect that the blemishes are more visible.
Quite a lot of lacquer blemishes start off as a sort of mottling effect...a slight darkening. This can be quite hard to spot on a translucent finish...but stands out on a rather more opaque one.
 
Another updated review. This time it's the Yamaha 62 (originally reviewed in 2004). A very nice purple logo example came in, so I took the opportunity to revisit and expand on my old review.
Still came to the same conclusion though. Yup.

Yamaha YTS62 MkI (purple logo) tenor saxophone review

shwwimg_yamaha_yts62_purple_bellbracetw.webp
 
Interesting read about the Mauriat. Filing toneholes, incompletely rolled toneholes. How far can sloppy manufacturing and total absence of QC go beyond that? A few weeks ago I had my horn in for a few small things and had talked to my tech about horns in general and where I end up when testing horns admitting that there are quite a lot of brands I have not tried yet, mentioning Mauriat as an example. He seemed less than impressed by the brand and told me he has had several customers selling off their Mauriat horns. Having read I wonder what the reasons might have been.

Alphorn
 
Interesting read about the Mauriat. Filing toneholes, incompletely rolled toneholes. How far can sloppy manufacturing and total absence of QC go beyond that?

It can go quite a bit further, unfortunately.

What's frustrating about Mauriat is that I know they're capable of making good horns - but it seems to me that there's an element of luck as to whether you get a 'Monday morning' winner or a 'Friday afternoon' special.
It's pretty much why quite a few people have got out of the Chinese horn trade...they just couldn't achieve a decent level of consistency.

I've got a 66R tenor in at the moment - it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up against my original review.
 
Another (happy) new year - and what better way to kick it off than with a handful of reviews.

Top of the pile is possibly the oldest horn I've ever reviewed - the Couesnon 1900 GMN soprano.

Couesnon '1900' GMN Armée soprano saxophone

Bang up to date - the brand new Yanagisawa SWO1U soprano...all naked and (sort of) shiny.

Yanagisawa SWO1U soprano saxophone review

Stuck in the middle with you - the New Super Dearman alto. Not bad...not bad at all.

New Super Dearman alto saxophone review

And yet another Mauriat takes a short walk into the hall of shame

P.Mauriat 66R tenor sax review

Finally (phew), one for the techies - a re-write of my article on warped toneholes. Now with added colour and fresh typos.
Dead handy if you've just bought a Mauriat...

Warped Toneholes

That's it for now folks - enjoy!
couesnon1900_soprano_bell_tw.webp
 

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