[AltoRuth]

Please forgive me for what is probably an overly addressed question; truly I have tried to search this forum for answers but ended up more confused than ever. I have a YAS 82Z that I bought new early in 2005. It came with a G-1 custom neck. Serial number on the instrument is 243119, and it was manufactured in Japan.

I keep seeing things on the forum about some Yamaha saxes that were shipped with defective necks. How do I tell if mine was one of those, and if so, what do I do about it? And how do I tell when it was actually manufactured? I have had some intonation problems similar to those described by others (going sharp in the upper registers and flat in the middle range) which I attributed to my own deficiencies as a not-very-well-trained player and I have been working on them with some but, IMO, not sufficient, degree of success. Your help, and your recommendations about whether I should replace the neck (and, if so, with what) will be gratefully received.
Ruth

 

[patseguin]

I believe that you will find the upper register, G and higher specifically, will be markedly sharp. I am pretty much convinced that the Z I recently tried had a defective neck. I'm waiting for a new one to try. I started with a G and played the lower octave then the higher octave. The higher octave went practically as far off as it can get on my tuner. I believe that if you contact Yamaha directly, they will send you some other necks to try. Alternately, you could order a new neck from WWBW or something.

 

[SaxyAcoustician]

I don't see why the high G would be out of tune. If anything the high A and higher would be out of tune. The G does not use the octave vent on the neck.

 

[WorldIRC]

I have ordered a Barone neck and I should have it tomorrow. My sax is a bit sharp up top so hopefully this will resolve it!

 

[sinkdraiN]

There is so much misinformation about this topic! The alto 82Zs never had a neck problem. Only the very early 62 II's. If your blowing sharp you'll have to find a neck that will allow you to continue to bite and play unsupported but keep the pitch low. Or do a search here for tips regarding embouchure and air support .

Here is an email I received from Yamaha. I did not include his name.

"the G1 Custom alto necks never had any initial mis-manufacturing problem--and have all been produced to the original design spec. If you have a student who is getting unsatisfactory results with the neck they have, they can contact me to discuss the situation. There were a few 62II (plain) G1 necks that had a dot, but mainly the ones that had the dot were the tenor G1 Customs that followed the early-issue versions (problematic)--- and were below serial no. 10,294. Now that we are in the 3rd year of Z production they will phase out any dot mark on the tenor necks.
Please let me know if I can answer any more questions."