50s Cleveland pinky table

724 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by JayeLID, Jul 20, 2020

Brian Labbie

Discussion Starter · Jul 20, 2020

I recently aquired a well worn 50s vintage Cleveland Terminal Tower/Clock tower.
It has a great tone and the action is surprisingly light. The only thing that is a real detractor is the low Bb position on the pinky table. What were they thinking, my 1920s King is way better in that department!

I decided to have a go at modifying the pinky table to make it more friendly.
I think it came out pretty good. I'm no expert tech, so I am sure that many could have done better.
Here's what I came up with.

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It works surprisingly well. I just hacked the pinky table from a junker sax and soldered it to the back of the existing Bb key.

Just thought I'd share.

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Brian Labbie

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 20, 2020

JayeLID said:
Good job, where did the donor part come from ? Also, soft-soldered ?

I cut it off an old mexi-conn. Yes, it's soft soldered. There was a nice thick piece of cork behind the Bb key, so I removed it and just soldered the extension on. I could play it the way it was, but I am so much faster with the 3 in a row setup.
I figured it is easily reversible, and it's not an immaculate sought after sax, so it was worth a shot!

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Brian Labbie

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 20, 2020

turf3 said:
If you match the two parts very carefully (no gaps) and you provide a large mating surface, avoid butt joints, and design the joint for mostly shear or compressive stress rather than peeling strees, soft soldered key mods/repairs can last decades. (I have plenty of evidence for this in my personal instruments). If you rely on a big glob of solder to provide strength, you'll buy yourself a lot of trouble.

I cleaned up the areas to be soldered, and made sure that they were both filed flat.
It's a nice wide area. I was actually surprised how strong the bond is.
It will bend the key if you put enough pressure on the extension.
I expect it will last many years.

Initially was considering silver solder, but this seems like the way to go.

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