Annoying sound of air leaking when I play G# (2nd octave)

1202 Views 6 Replies 3 Participants Last post by jlima, Dec 17, 2011

jlima

Discussion Starter · Dec 16, 2011

Whenever I play the G# in the 2nd octave on my tenor, there is this annoying sound of air leaking somewhere (I can't seem to find exactly where) and the sound of that note loses body, so to speak. It doesn't sing as the other notes in the same octave. The A immediately after it also suffers a little, but not as much. Is there anything that I can do about it? Every other note in the saxophone is a dream to play, so I'd really like to take care of these two. Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

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jlima

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 17, 2011

kyotosessions said:
If you've played other tenors and this doesn't happen you could go see a good repairman about it. It might be a key height issue or it could be that your left hand rods have play in them causing the pads in the left hand to float around. This would cause significant leaking, not so much that you can hear the air loss, but that the notes might not have the same definition. That was my experience at least. I had to have a fatter rod placed in the left hand and the keys swedged.

Thank you for the very useful information. No, this doesn't happen with the other tenors that I play or have played.

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jlima

Discussion Starter · #5 · Dec 17, 2011

Stephen Howard said:
Get a cigarette paper and check the seal of the pads in the top stack:

http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk/HandyHints/LeakyPads.htm

It could be that you have one or more pads leaking - probably at the rear of the tone holes.
Other than that it might be an octave key issue.

Regards,

Thank you, Stephen. I suspect it could be the side octave key. Is there any part of the Haynes manual that addresses this?

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jlima

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 17, 2011

Stephen Howard said:
Yes, the section on checking for leaks details the procedure for checking the functionality of the mechanism - and if a problem is found the section on regulating the action deals with it, including a step-by-step illustrated guide to adjusting the octave key.

Regards,

Excellent, I'll look it over the weekend.

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