Reference Necks

[woodwindmaster06]

Will there be a noticable difference if I switch my 54 reference neck for my 54 and put on a 36 reference neck?

[Steve J.]

Yes

[woodwindmaster06]

What is the difference between the necks?

[Steve J.]

My opinion:
The 36 neck on the 54 I would describe as a more spread sound. Every individual neck is different. I did not care for any 36 necks. They were all too freeblowing and lacked character and focus. I like a focused sound. Some of the 54 neck mouthpiece openings can be too small creating excess resistance. If you find the horn ressistant I would experiment with some other 54 necks. I had this original frustration with a neck that measured .495 (or something similiar). Through Randy Jones I found a factory 54 neck measuring .506. This put resistance at an optimum level. With this neck the horn plays and sounds like a fine Mark VI with a bigger sounding low end and clearer fuller palm key sound. This combination is typical Selmer Tenor sound.
I have a gem of a neck in a Copper Series III on the 54. This was tweaked by Randy Jones and it really changes the flavor of the sound. Hard to describe but I would say warmer, more free, more colorful, very complex, intriguing. This neck measures .502 and resistance is just right. Intonation is a bit squirrelly 2nd octave a to c but easily gotten used to with practice. I tried two other copper III's that did not give as nice a change.

This is simply my discovery. One really needs to play test individual necks. Like types can be quite different. I would not be surprised if one found examples that would have different characteristics than what I tried to describe. For example one of the III necks made the horn very bright.