[A Greene]

I had my 1962 Selmer in the shop about a month ago - it was mechanically noisy. It was overhauled 15 years ago with Black Roos and everything still plays well just noisy. I did notice that it was playing sharper these days but I had sort of figured it out.

My repair guy said the action was pretty high and causing some of the clicking. So he brought the action down to what I guess is more normal. I've played this sax for 32 years and really never worried to much about action - it was what it was. I also never worried too much about pitch - It's not perfect but always workable.

So after the adjustment - I did some recordings and noticed I was under pitch (never a problem). Then I put a tuner on the sax and wow - Upper register is remarkable flat. I took it back and he opened it up but it's still plays remarkable out of tune. If I ONLY think about pitch I can adjust but it's certainly no fun to play.

Middle C is Super Sharp - Low G is super sharp - Upper G A and Particularly B are Super Flat and the Palm Keys have left the building sharp. It's like a completely different horn. I though maybe something was blocking the octave key.

What on earth would make my sax suddenly be unplayable?

 

[whaler]

I guess I’ve always been a “hear it, play it” kind of player after playing the same Mark Vi tenor so long. For the last couple of years I’ve been playing a BA. It’s a whole another realm of intonation adjustments but it’s getting there. I’ve found the BA more malleable than my Mark VI, which seems more locked in.
I think I’d tune to my middle C and work on the other issues.
I’ve found my MarkVI definitely prefers smaller chambers and usually play my Soloist on it.

 

[GaSax]

Sounds like key pad heights need adjustment in or out, more opened or closed more, here and there.

For example: my low C has been very sharp. So I adjusted the bumper stop felts on the bell keys (B & Bb) as a test, so they would not be as open. It worked and low C is in tune. Got the idea from some other threads on this forum or maybe YouTube.