Working with a professional player is among the most rewarding experiences we have in the repair shop. Very often we are forced to find ways of 'repairing' an instrument that borders on re-manufacturing. Our most recent overhaul certainly falls into that category.


When professional saxophonist Wayne Leechford first came to our shop, he was excited to have his Keilwerth SX90R Alto saxophone overhauled. When the overhaul was complete, Wayne let us know that he was really-really excited about the way the instrument came out. We worked with Wayne for some time setting up the instrument to match his playing both in tone and intonation. After seeing how the Alto went, Wayne started asking what we could do for his Keilwerth SX90R Baritone. Overhauling Wayne's baritone sounded like a real treat to us as we certainly enjoy Wayne's visit and working with him again.


Wayne talked about the possibility of making his high notes speak more freely. When playing the palm keys, the notes wanted to speak an octave lower. Basically the only way to get the notes to speak properly was to voice them as though they were altissimo notes. Playing these notes with a strong articulation, very softly or with any force was more difficult than playing altissimo notes and basically impossible. We figured that this was a problem that would be solved during the normal course of a professional overhaul, So we took on the project of overhauling Wayne's SX90R Baritone.


When the mechanical overhaul was complete the high note problem persisted. It soon became apparent that the problem was related to the location of the second octave pip, the one closer to the mouthpiece, and that fixing this problem was not going to be easy. It would require changing the location of the octave pip from the body of the instrument on to the neck. If you consider the way the octave pad moves, you know that the geometry is not as simple as drilling a hole and adding a pip. This would take some planning.


First we snapped a few photos with a cell phone in the shop. Then we sent Wayne home while we designed the new key.


Here is Wayne's original key taken in the shop.


Note that the original (pre-modification) neck has no key or lever on it.

Here is original neck with an added pip and a Leblanc style octave lever. The lever is 100% fabricated from brass stock.

Before the neck would work on the instrument the old octave pad needed to be removed and a new lever was brazed in it's place. The entire mechanism working like a champ!


Shortly after we sent Wayne home with his new octave mechanism this letter showed up.

Curt,
Thanks so much for all of your and Matt's hard work on my horn. I just finished playing it for about an hour and it plays great!! Even without the tuner, I can tell that the intonation is SO much more even than it ever has been. Those high F#s are magical! You just turned me into a much better player. This kicks ass!
-Wayne


We know that Wayne is the real-deal. He's a 100% pro and very picky about how his horns work. So, we take this compliment very personally.

To learn more about Wayne and his playing check out his website
Thanks Wayne for your kind letter and your great music!

Well, we've done it. MusicMedic.com is now twittering. None of use know where it will go but we hope you follow us there!

After I posted the last neck extension that saxophone repair technician Matt Scott made for My Conn Baritone, we received a number of calls and emails to do the same, or similar, to other mouthpieces.

Well, we've done a bunch. The most recent extension was put on a stainless steel mouthpiece and the extension was also stainless. As this client had no reason to remove the extension, it was made permanent.

This work was done, start to finish, by Matt Scott here at the MusicMedic.com sax pro-shop. If you have any questions, ask me or send an Email to Matt@MusicMedic.com.

Here are some pictures of Matt's beautiful work!


Here you see the original Berg Larson Mouthpiece and the stainless stock that will become the the extension.



The stock was cut and brazed to the mouthpiece.



Nice Job Matt!

-Curt

My computer went down and took my inbox with it. If you have not gotten a response to an Email recently, please resend it to me.

As you can see, I'm tooling up to fix the computer.

Thanks!

Curt

Carl and Travis Thacker from Carl's Pro Band

Today I received a call from my good friend Carl Thacker at Carl's Professional Band Instrument Repair in Bloomington, IL. If you're anywhere near Bloomington or if you've ever had the pleasure of having Carl and Travis work on your horn, you know why I'm honored to know these guys.

Some of the finest players in the country are having their work done at Carl's Band Instrument Repair in Bloomington; a few of which are list on their site here

Carl and his son Travis have been repairing professional woodwinds for longer than I've been around, and using RooPads before RooPads were cool. When I first started offering RooPads for Saxophone Carl was one of first, if not the first tech to call me. So it was no surprise that Carl was one of the first techs to try our RooPads for Bass Clarinet.

It is a surprise when you see the instrument in which they installed our RooPads for Bass Clarinet.

Check out this keyed Bugle with RooPads for Bass Clarinet brought back to life by Carl's Pro Band!



Carl and Travis did some serious work to this baby. They replaced some of the tone holes. Leveled the ones that were OK, and installed RooPads for Bass Clarinet.



Travis tells me that he likes the way the RooPads worked on this bugle because of the, "Nice firm feel" and that they, "seal up well." -Of course, these are RooPads and it's your work Travis!

Tons of body work was done including the fabrication of various parts, stripping the lacquer dents etc.. I'm told that a new pigtail is being made for this Bugle as we speak. This will allow for the use of a 'regular' trumpet mouthpiece.

If you would like to learn more about Carl, Travis and Carl's Pro Band, check out their site:
http://www.carlsproband.com/index.php

If you need some horn work done, do not hesitate to call these guys!

-Curt