Repair Tip of the week: 6.22.2011
For a long life of your saxophone it is important to maintain your saxophone regularly. Old and hard pads will wear the tone holes of the instrument decreasing the life of the saxophone.
Repair Tip of the week: 3.27.2011
Always tell your repairman if your are having special problem.
Remember your repair person is not a mind reader.
Repair Tip of the week: 8.10.2010
Check your instrument often. Keeping your instrument in good shape will add to the life of the instrument and when paying an instruments that is in good shape you will enjoy playing a lot more.
Marlon Reeve Saxophones
Sept. 16, 2010
Business tip for repairman:
The big problem with being a professional woodwind or any kind for musical instrument repairman is that the clients become friends or at least very good acquaintances. This creates a business problem for the repairman.
1.It is important to remember that even though you have become friendly with your client and it is very important to build a friendship with clients for a long-term relationship. You make your living doing repair. Not being a friend.
2.It is important never to do a favor for a client. EXAMPLE: You have a client that has come to you for a few years. One day they come to you to pick up an overhaul. They owe you $895.00 and tell you they do not have the entire amount so can they give you half and the rest in a few days. ***The correct answer from you should be no… You must pay for the repair in full when you pick it up.
Now you ask what harm can it cause to give them a few days to pay me the rest. Well here it is… They leave with every intention of paying you the balance of the money. But times are hard for them… you know that because they could not pay the full amount for the overhaul. A week or so goes by ad they have played the horn a lot but still do not have the money to pay you the balance. Now the sax will need a little adjustment as all overhauls do so what do they do. They owe you 450.00 they do not have. So if they come to you they will need to pay that $450.00. They go to another guy to make the little adjustments and he charges them $45.00 and they have that money. They still want to pay you the balance but it just never comes in for them. They need the new stereo so they can listen to the great saxophonist and get the real meaning of the music. They need a new TV so they can see the movies and study the scores. Anything but bring you the money they owe you…. Now they have started a relationship with the other repairman and it will never cost them the money they owe you to go to him. So for doing him a favor you have lost a client…. Just the start of what it is going to cost you… Another saxophonist asked him where to get their saxophone overhauled. Well he is now going to the other guy so he tells them his name. You loose another $895.00 at this point. Now you have lost $1,345.00 so far. So if he tells 2 more guys this year you loose.. $3,135.00… and it just keeps going and going. Over 5 years you can loose thousands of dollars for helping out the saxophonist… I the recommends 3 saxophonist a year for 5 years to the other guy for overhauls it has cost you $13,425.00 to do him a favor. Not small change!
Aug. 7, 2010
Remember you are not paying the repairman for only his time but his knowledge…. I just love it when a saxophone player talks about the time it takes to get work done… “He only spent 10 minutes and charged me $40.00” “He only changed two pads and charged me $60.00” These are the things that have always amazed me about saxophone players.. If they go to a session and play one solo the producer likes and it only takes a couple minutes…. they keep the money for the entire session… when you are good at something… the time it takes to do the job is usually the thing that improves.
From the standpoint or a repairman there is nothing like a cheap saxophone player to make you not want to ever see them…. I have told this story many times about the guys that came in and told me he went to another repairman and he wanted $50 to fix his sax so he came to me… Now at this point I know the guys is cheap… he is however a famous saxophone player and i am a sap… so I start working on the saxophone… In comes a friend of his… they start talking and the guy ask him what is going on … well while I am working on his sax the thing that makes him his money… he starts to tell about the new $750,000.00 house he just bought. Now I really do not care much if the sax works… the story continues… His new wife wanted a car .. so he bought her a New Mercedes…. just great… I basically stopped working on the sax and gave it back to him….. cheap is the nature of the saxophone player…. cheap is not the way to get good repair work done….
I can’t tell you the number of times saxophone players came to me and said I am short on money can you do me a favor and fix my horn I am on my way to a session……… as I watch them leave in their new BMW to a session they are going to get paid for and likely did not give the producer a break…. only short on money they want so spend on their saxophone….. not their life!
I tell these stories because I want the Saxophonist to understand the importance of not only finding a good repairman but the importance of paying him…. when you walk in and have him put you in front of something he is doing to fix you sax…. he will need to stay later to do what he is working on when you came in…. you are not just taking the current time but making it necessary for him to work later….. Keep this in mind when it comes time to pay the guy…….
Aug. 5, 2010
I have over the years heard guys talk about never needing to have their saxophones overhauled or much work done on them… Well this is not necessarily a good thing…. when the spit and pads get wet and the keys are moved up and down they tend to make the tone holes uneven. The longer the saxophonist goes between having their instrument checked the more damage to the tone holes….
Now there are several opinions on leveling tone holes….. One of the most important things that a saxophonist can do is find a repairman they like and just go to him. The main reason for this is that almost every repairman thinks they know what they are doing and are the only one who can do it right. This of course in not the case… one of the best repairman I every met could not play a note and knew virtually nothing about how the saxophone worked but … he sure could get a saxophone tight…. now he needed help with things like tuning and lie that but he could really do an overhaul….
Now many repairman can do good overhauls but it is hard to find a repairman that can take 24 old pads and make them work with 2 or 3 new pads…. If you can find this repairman stick with him…..
May 31, 2010
What tools should a saxophonist carry in their case for emergencies?
Spring Hook: These spring hooks are not expensive and can come in handy. Use mostly just to hook a spring back…. if you try to tighten a spring a it breaks then you are in deep…..
If a spring slips of your saxophone at a session or rehearsal…. use the pencil eraser you should have in your case to push it back on… the eraser will not slip and the spring will likely stay….. what makes a spring slip off is the angle of the spring… if the spring is just pulled tight and not pulled up slightly then it will likely slip off more easily. When pushing the spring back make sure not to push the spring back to far….. it will take the tension out of the spring…. push it back just enough to slip on or under the spring hook of the key.
Rubber Bands: You can use rubber bands if you break a spring… should have several differ size rubber bands…. remember rubber bands do not last for a long time so you should change them ofter….. of course if you believe John Percel you have many different sizes and colors…. he believes colors change the way the rubber bands work and how they effect the way the saxophone plays….. personally I think he is full of it…… I recall making a saxophone for the Bird movie for Clint Eastwood using rubber bands and tape so it would look like a saxophone Charlie Parker played…. all the springs do are make the keys go up and down…..
Saran Rap: this can be used to cover the surface of a pad that has a tear in it for a short time…… Just cut a piece, place it over the pad, pull the edges over the pad cup and tie it with a (blue) rubber band of course…
Oct. 10, 2010
How to repair a crack in the body of a clarinet.
There are couple ways to repair a crack in a clarinet body. One is to pin the crack. The clarinet is allowed to sit until the crack closes and then a small hole is drilled across the wood where the through the crack area. A threaded rod is then screwed into the hole and the crack will not open again. The the end of the hole is filled to match the wood of the clarinet. This is the old way and it is good. The second and one I prefer is to ban the clarinet with a carbon fiber band. Carbon Fiber vibrates the same as wood and will not change the way the clarinet plays. It is relatively easy yo do and a good clarinet repairman can do this job easily. It is important to allow time for the crack to close… this will help the bore remain the same and help keep the clarinet playing the same as before the crack. The earlier you discover the crack and repair it the better the job will be….. if the crack opens up completely through the clarinet it is very hard to get the crack to close properly and the clarinet might not play the same as before. Do not put off fixing a crack to long.
April 15, 2011
Jams is a young student of the saxophone and asked me a question. I have a used saxophone and sometimes it plays good and sometimes it do not work so well. Why does this happen?
This is a good question. Sometimes when the saxophone pads get older they can change a lot when you play the sax. The pads are only leather and moister will sometimes make the slightly thicker making them not seat so well and as you play them they will start to settle in and work better. For example: If the G# pad gets wet and swells then the right hand stack pads might not seat well and after you play the instrument the G# will go back to the correct size and the sax will play great.
Most of the time a saxophone will leak a little and as you play it the pads will find where the work the best. This is of course if the pads are not extremely bad.. have your repairman check them and see what shape they are in….
Dec. 12, 2010
What damage can you do to your saxophone if you keep the same pads for a long period of time?
It is simple the old hard, wet and ripped pads will damage the tone holes. The saxophone with drawn tone holes has only so much room to be leveled over the lifetime of the saxophone. Using pads to long can cause damage to the tone holes and shorten the life of the saxophone.
Dec. 9, 2010
Tone Boosters:
When changing a pad or having 1 or 2 pads changed it is important to have the same tone booster used in the new pads. Always ask the repairman to use the same style tone booster that you have in your saxophone. This will help balance the tone color and give the saxophone the same response on all the notes that you are use to having.
Choosing a tone booster is of course personal taste. I hear about the so called Hollywood tone booster being very bright.. However both Dan Higgins and Gary Foster have these boosters and I do not believe they are bright players.
Dec. 7, 2010
Blue Steel versus Stainless Steel Springs.
I have been asked a lot about the difference between Blue Steel and Stainless Steel spring and they both have good and bad points.
The Blue Steel has been used by many of the top line saxophone manufactures since the early days of production. The quality of the Blue Steel spring is very important and not just the it is Blue Steel. Blue Steel springs if they are not manufactured correctly will allow the key to bounce. The Blue Steel spring if not made correctly or tempered correctly when it is put on the saxophone is generally not firm near the spring slot on the key this allows the key to bounce. There is also the problem of the Blue Steel spring rusting over the years.
The Stainless steel spring does not rust, can be set to a tension and usually does not change. The spring can also be purchased by the repairman so it is usually not necessary to heat or do much to the spring when putting it in the saxophone.
I believe you should aways use the same spring as are in the saxophone when replacing a spring.
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