Sometimes we can experience that the neck fits too tight into our saxophone. It can be caused by buildup of “gunk” on the tenon and the tenon receiver, it could be that you had the neck fitted by a repair person but now feel it is too tight or it …
The short answer is YES. The finish does have a small but significant effect on the sound and response. The raw and untreated metal will sound the most spread and feel the most open (less back pressure/resistance). The lacquer finish tends to feel slightly more focused and often perceived brighter …
“They sound the same/similar to me. I am not sure I can hear any difference ….” Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference when listening to demonstrations online. My suggestion is first make sure to set the video to the highest quality allowed (like 1080 HD) and try …
To approach this question, first a few things about sound and response of a saxophone. One of the areas of saxophone sound and response besides tonal color that is affected by both the saxophones neck and the body (i.e. the rest of the horn) can be called tonal width. This …
Your saxophone would, when new, have come with a neck that was made to be at a certain height/angle and for nearly all manufacturers, a close to round shape throughout the length of the neck tube. A neck pull down has occurred when the neck has a lower height/angle than …
Saxophones and saxophone necks can be made of various materials. The most common is brass. Less common is bronze, nickel silver and sterling silver. Rare (and expensive!) would be gold. Alloys are mixed metals. Brass is an alloy of primarily copper and zinc, and the proportions of these two metals …
I have been fortunate enough to meet and do some work for one of my all time musical heroes, Wayne Shorter. The phone rang just before closing time on Saturday April 16, 2016. Esparanza Spalding was on tour with Wayne and at the last show in Germany the night before, …
A brand new saxophone – just like almost all brand new things, will always have a certain devaluation as soon as you start using it as your horn. A rough guide would be to say it is worth around 80% of the original new price, even if it looks like …
When you are looking to trust your saxophone to a repair person for an overhaul, I would suggest you consider the following questions: Does the repair person have a good reputation? This should cover both the quality of work but also if the person is professional and easy to deal …
One day back in 1991, when I was still living in Denmark, my friend and mentor Robin Watson (UK expat & great saxplayer) called me and insisted I go hear this sax player coming to town that night. I had never heard of Jerry Bergonzi before but trusted my friends …