That bargain bari...

[h4yn0nnym0u5e]

😱

Right, OK, so I know "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is". And it might still be better that it could have been, but it's probably worse than I'd hoped...

So, got it off eBay, Gear4Music one with straight from G4M with known "flat" high G and stuffy notes around that area - absolutely fair enough, no gripes there. Played it, seemed not too bad. Took it to Wood Wind and Reed, no obvious faults found apart from "not really worth fixing" leaks.

This weekend, very variable results - sometimes it's OK, sometimes absolutely diabolical, couldn't really get anything out of it.

Took a closer look around the top end, and I've found that the joint at the top of the main body looks a tad suspect. Outside, the two screws which hold the "jubilee clip" type piece in place show minor damage, and inside there's a bead of what looks like hot-melt glue around most of the internal circumference. The glue isn't smoothed into place (how could it be?), so it projects into the bore say 1 or 2mm. By the look of it, a leak was detected at this joint and someone whipped it apart, stuffed a bit of hot melt in and slammed it back together!

My technical question is, does our Assembled Congregation of Saxophonic Luminaries and Tinkerers reckon this could reasonably be the cause of my woes? If so, is it advisable to test the theory by popping off the nearest key and "having a go" (with something not too fierce) to try and get some of the glue bead off, or is it definitely a job for those Nice Folk at WWR?

Oh, and if Stephen Howard is listening, shall I try for a picture for your Black Museum?!

Cheers

Jonathan

 

[Pjonah]

The guys at WWR are pretty good, I would take it to them and ask them to sort it.

When its set up its a pretty good (for the price) baritone, I wouldn't play around with it unless you're feeling particularly adept at pulling an instrument apart and putting it back together again in regulation.

The stuffiness/flattening of notes SH talks of, affects a lot of baritones, not just the G4M, this instrument appears in many guizes around the world and gets pretty good reviews, as it should really when you consider the instruments from which it draws inspiration.

Simon

 

[stephen_howard]

Not sure what constitutes "not worth fixing" leaks - any leak will affect a horn's performance, even a baritone's ( though they're usually quite forgiving ). I generally recommend the G4M is given a good setup before using it in anger - it seems to need it all the more these days.

The bead of sealant sounds excessive and could result in a few problems, though I suspect they'd be the kind that were evident all the time rather than something that gradually gets worse.
It's probably a case of there being lots of small things wrong, and they're slowly getting worse.
I wouldn't advise having a go at the bead via the tonehole ( but if you do you'd probably be best off using a hot blade of some kind...so be careful. A soldering iron might do it, if you don't mind the pong! ) - the best bet would be to have the joint taken apart, cleaned up, reassembled a resealed. It's perfectly acceptable to use a sealant, but it should remain largely in the joint rather than spill out into the bore.

Shouldn't cost more than about ?20 to have that sorted out.

I'd also recommend getting the top end action looked at - I suspect there's a problem there that's causing the horn to pack up completely.

Regards,