[UncleClark]

You'll get a kick out of this.

Today I was playing my tenor sax when suddenly I started having problems with my horn wanting to jump octaves in the middle register. And the note C was WAY off intonation and had a really weird tone to it.

I checked my octave pips, linkages, even looked for missing felts/corks etc...could not find anything obviously wrong with the horn. So I started taking it down so I could check it out for leaks with my leak light.

While swabbing out the horn out pops a piece of tissue paper, the type you use to clean eyeglasses. I use this stuff to dry off my pads after I play the horn. The tissue was soaking wet and bent in a funny shape.

Then I remembered about a week earlier I had accidentally dropped it into the bell of the horn and then forgot to retrieve it.

Apparently it had worked its way up the horn into the upper stack someplace where it was really wreaking havoc on my horn!

So dropping stuff into your horn is not a good idea

 

[EZ]

I thought I was going to hear about a mouthpiece made in China.

I inadvertently jammed a black piece of cloth I use as a bell mute down into the bow of my horn once. Really freaked me out.

 

[Greg_Ace]

Just recently, I got to a local jazz jam right as the band was ready to start playing the first tune. I hurriedly threw my horn together just in time to play the melody, only to notice a VERY odd tone coming out of my horn. I got through the head, and looked in the bell...to find my stand in its little bag that I in my haste forgot to pull out!

 

[Canadiain]

I had a few problems with a "new to me" horn once....I had managed to miss the fact it had an errant lyre jammed up inside it! I'd even manage to swab it out a couple of times too.

Worked much better once the tech had removed it

Could have been there for years...there was no sign of it in the ebay listing pictures of the accesories either.

 

[JerryJamz2]

One of the most notorious things that get jammed in the upper stack bore area of a saxophone is an old fashioned endplug made of brass, which has no ends on it. Basically, a hollow brass tube of the appropriate diameter. Swabs pass through it, leak lights pass through it, and unless you look really close under good light, they're almost invisible to see, being everything inside the bore area is brass colored. fwiw...

 

[Chris Peryagh]

I remember trying out an old Dearman simple system bari which was playing funny around the lower register A. All other notes around it were fine, but only this one note was stuffy. I opened the side C key to look inside, only to see the word 'Runyon'.

So a poke with a stick dislodged a transparent red plastic Runyon bari mouthpiece and it worked fine after that. Not only that, the previous owner also found another mouthpiece stuck inside a few years before - a metal Lawton!

 

[TenTenTooter]

I had a Mark VI bari once with a reed lodged in the pig's tail (near the water key). Another time I checked out a bass sax from a community college that was missing the neck or so I thought. The neck, mouthpiece, and lig were all stuck in the upper body of the bass around the side C tonehole.

 

[Grumps]

I don't know how many times I've put my mouthpiece on my straight soprano only to realize upon trying to play I once again forgot to take out the pad saver.
Pffffftt...

 

[Reedsplinter]

I remember trying out an old Dearman simple system bari which was playing funny around the lower register A. All other notes around it were fine, but only this one note was stuffy. I opened the side C key to look inside, only to see the word 'Runyon'.

So a poke with a stick dislodged a transparent red plastic Runyon bari mouthpiece and it worked fine after that. Not only that, the previous owner also found another mouthpiece stuck inside a few years before - a metal Lawton!

I once found a cinderblock lodged inside my contrabass. . . .

Sorry, but this story of yours is astonishing! Thanks for telling us. LOL

 

[JerryJamz2]

Probably 2-3 times per month I'll go to play test a clarinet or oboe and find a silk swab crammed inside the bell. Talk about stuffy sounding... :? :shock:

 

[JerryJamz2]

I once found a cinderblock lodged inside my contrabass. . . .

Sorry, but this story of yours is astonishing! Thanks for telling us. LOL

It appears someone tried putting a square peg into a round hole..

 

[bandmommy]

Two of my daughters share my alto. One uses it for marching band and stuffs the Neotech neck strap into the bell when she puts it away. I yell at her for that.
The other uses it for Community band and doesn't use the strap. She rests it on the seat of the chair. It's rather funny when she yells "Mom, there's something wrong with your sax" only to find she has forgotten to remove the strap.