Problem with rampone bari octave

[drac]

I have been playing a low Bb Rampone Bari R1 jazz for 1 1/2 years. At first the g and g# octave notes came out distorded, badly. The notes came out perfect when I closed the twin body pips and had the crook pip open. The other notes below being F# to D octave worked well with the twin pips. Claudio from rampone sent me some different size pips. One pair which are in the horn now made all the notes g# down to d distorted but not anywhwere near as bad as the first distortion on the g and g#. I can play through this most of the time. I am unhappy however. Any ideas.anyone had this problem?
I was thinking I could
1. close the lower pip hole totally
2. create a new higher (2/3 mm. up to the little bow) position for the higher pip.
3. solder the higher pip in the new position and move a lower pips to the mid position


cheers

Damian:?

[mcrouch]

I got a new low A R1 Jazz Bari in Feb. I too had the octave G/G# problem. My local repair man reworked the octave mechanisim and it corrected the problem. (He said it was just poor workmanship) I have also had a strange problem with a low C and low B warble after sustaining a note. I am curious if you have noticed this as well? After talking with a number of people I decided to send my horn to Randy Jones at Tenor Madness. I don't have the horn back yet but Randy did tell me that he found a number of setup issues. I think Rampone's are a great design but they are not set up correctly at the factory. I will let you know how it plays when i get it back.

[drac]

Do you know what your repair man did to the octave mechanisim to fix the problem? WOULD LOVE TO KNOW? We tried the higher octave pip holes and it didnt work? I did have a low B problem. It was just that the all the low pads had been seated badly. My repair man said the the Rampone horns had cheap glue on the pads, cheap corks ect. Yes poorly set up.

[mcrouch]

Kent Winking of Sam Bass Music did the work on the octave mechanism. The mechanism was pretty loose and not as responsive as it needed to be. You can check with Kent 512 246-9845 and he can give you more detail on what he did to correct this issue.

[wyliecoyote]

I got a new low A R1 Jazz Bari in Feb. I too had the octave G/G# problem. My local repair man reworked the octave mechanisim and it corrected the problem. (He said it was just poor workmanship) I have also had a strange problem with a low C and low B warble after sustaining a note. I am curious if you have noticed this as well? After talking with a number of people I decided to send my horn to Randy Jones at Tenor Madness. I don't have the horn back yet but Randy did tell me that he found a number of setup issues. I think Rampone's are a great design but they are not set up correctly at the factory. I will let you know how it plays when i get it back.

M.Crouch
As noted to you in my emails, I at first also had some problems with the G,G#, and B' notes. However, my horn is playing fine and just gets better and better overtime, without any modifications, whatsoever. Wondering if the horn just needed the pads to settle in. At first I covered up one of the two pip octave holes to remedy the G/G# voicing problem, that is no longer necessary either.
From your description of Randy's modification and also the modification by the gentleman on the octave key mechanism, my personal experience with my Rampone bari truly makes me wonder if these mods were necessary, and if they were, why would there be such a difference between yours and mine. :? I realize the horns are "handmade"..but certainly the overall design is the same.
At this point, I would never send a horn to Randy. 8-)
Best

[mcrouch]

My Rampone R1 Jazz Bari was not set up correctly from the company that I purchased it from......What Randy does is disassemble the horn completely. He levels all the tone holes. (half of my new Bari tones holes were uneven) Then he takes all the pads out and reinstalls them correctly, ie. with the correct amount of shellac. The factory does a slopy job of assemble.... Then each value is reinstalled and adjusted. The result is a horn that is perfectly set up in terms of finger pressure, and balance. I am happy you have been able to adapt to the issues the Rampone has from the factory....ie. persistent warble in the low end......Octive G/G# etc. What we found is that the bow of the horn is about 1/2 inch too large in relation to the rest of the horn. Reducing the inside diameter this small amount made all the difference in the world. This horn now has one of the biggest, fullest sounds of any bari I have ever heard. It will wisper at the low end or blows your socks off and the upper end is a dream. I do not have to adjust my playing style in anyway to compensate for the issues it had when i first received it. Our group has had two additional horns set up by Randy, a Series III Selmer tenor and a S A 80 II Bari........The cost was worth every cent.