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10m octave key

1490 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  area51recording, 
A
Hi. I play a 64 10m that I absolutely love but I have one small issue with. Sometimes when practicing if I play an A2 (and sometimes Bb3) I get sort of a faint "distortion" in the sound, like the lower octave is trying to speak VERY faintly. When this happens if I take a pipe cleaner and push it up thru the octave key vent it seems to go away for a while, but it will eventually return. It also seems that if I play the A2 without the octave key I don't have this problem, so I 'm pretty sure it's something in the octave key vent. Since of course this horn has an underslung octave key, is it possible that something is sometimes lodging itself in the vent, partially closing it? I should note that this bothers me the most when practicing, doing long tones etc. Any ideas? Thanks!
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O
Try really cleaning out the neck. Take a small brush and really work it in there, rinsing with warm water. Have you taken a look at the mechanics while fingering the problem notes? It could be possible that the upper octave vent isn't open all the way. Try adjusting the spring tension.
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jacobeid
I have this problem sometimes on A2 on my alto and G#2 on my tenor. It hardly ever happens, and I'm not sure what causes it. It normally happens when I'm playing REALLY loud.
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SAXISMYAXE
jacobeid said:
I have this problem sometimes on A2 on my alto and G#2 on my tenor. It hardly ever happens, and I'm not sure what causes it. It normally happens when I'm playing REALLY loud.
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This could be a problem with the octave linkage not being adjusted properly, and/or a weakening of the springs on the octave keys. By increasing the air pressure, it might be blowing the octave keys off one of the pips just enough to cause a minor leak.

Middle G# and A are potential problem areas on all Conn horns, even in superb adjustment.
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A
I may have solved this. Today while practicing I noticed the neck octave pip was actually moving! It seems the solder must have given way. When my tech resoldered it, he checked very carefully to make sure there were no gaps in the solder. When he got it right and reassembled it, I popped it on the horn and BAM- no more fuzzy "A". We both speculated that there was at least a possibility that the pip might have had a pinhole leak in the solder before it gave way completely-possibly for a long time-that might have been the cause of the problem. Anyway...it's all good now:)
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