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The
overhaul:
With
the overhaul the saxophone will be taken apart and cleaned
entirely.
All the dents will be removed and, if necessary, the corpus
straightened,
This is necessary before removing the play in the key work.
I also check that the soldering is still in good order and
that there are no leaks, (this is crucial for saxophones
where the tone holes are soldered on the corpus) .
You can choose from different kinds of pads.
I use Pisoni or Chanu, with plastic or metal resonator.
Needle springs that are in bad condition will be replaced
and all the axes straightened to make sure the action will
work as smoothly as possible.
When that's achieved I put the pads with shellac in the
cups.
I then glue the cork and felt in place, and the adjusting
starts.
Once the pads close well I make sure that the keys open
enough without disturbing the tuning.
The spring tension of all the keys should be more or less
the same.
Last
but not the least the neck will be checked for dents or
other irregularities.
The neck should fit perfectly into the corpus.
The last part of the check-up is the playing test.
All the notes should speak really easily!!
There are mechanical tricks to make your saxophone more
in tune, but this is only done on special request.
The overhaul has a one-year guarantee.
The
annual check up:
To keep
your saxophone in good condition it's advisable to give
it a regular check-up.
Once a year should be enough.
With an annual check-up the saxophone will be taken apart
and thoroughly cleaned.
All the cork, felt and pads that are in bad condition or
missing, will be replaced.
(All the pads above C# 4 and the low Eflat need to be cleaned
or replaced more often than other pads. Those pads stay
wet the longest and thus deteriorate the quickest!)
Also play between the keys will be removed, and finally
I readjust the saxophone.
Nothing should stand in the way of a good performance!
Damage:
In the
case of damage I first make a report for the insurance.
Work usually involves removing dents and / or re-soldering.
To solder parts of a saxophone is a delicate job. Most of
the time the lacquer is very soft and doesn't withstand
much heat.
I cover the area around the place I want to solder with
"brusselse aarde", to cool the lacquer as much
as possible.
My experience is that most saxophones will return to their
original self.
The guarantee is valid as long as nobody else apart from
myself has worked on the saxophone.
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