[Brian Labbie]

So,I have an H.N. White King alto dated around 1926,
I need a replacement neck.
Any suggestions on where I might find a neck for this horn? I plan to keep an eye on ebay, but I'd like to know of any other options, and I don't want to spend a large amount of money for a neck on a $400 sax.

Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks

 

[milandro]

Why do you need a replacement? Have you lost or never had the neck? If it is broken it can , most probably, be repaired.


These horns are not too difficult (or expensive) to find , the market is not overly enthusiastic about them (you don’t say whether you need a tenor or an alto neck), but then you will have anoother saxophone without a neck.

There are NO cheap options to have a replacement which wold fit all the criteria and return good playing.

The only other option is to have one neck made but It will cost you as much as your horn if not more.

Recently several Chinese made necks have appeared on the market. You may try to buy one and have it adapted to your horn but chances are that internal volume, total length, shape of the curve and distance and size of the octave pip may (all or some) be wrong.

Necks are hardly a “ universal” entity , they are highly specific.


My take on this is, try a Chinese neck, but if it doesn’t work, ditch the entire King and if you like it so much buy another, they are really unwanted ( for good or bad reasons that’s not the point) and cheap.

 

[Brian Labbie]

it's an alto
I'm currently using the neck from another horn that I have and it works and plays great. I just bought the sax on ebay and received it with the wrong neck. It's way too short.
I kind of figured I'm just sol.. I'll look into a Chinese made neck, they seem inexpensive enough.
Not sure how it would play with the correct neck, but it plays fantastic with the one I'm using,

If I can find a parts horn I may just do that if it's cheap enough, but right now all the ones available are way overpriced.
I know they aren't very sought after but honestly the ergonomics aren't bad at all and the intonation is close enough that I don't struggle to play it in tune, no worse than any other alto I've played.

Thanks for the response

 

[Sigmund451]

Id return the horn and start over.

 

[milandro]

well, since you can only use one saxophone at the time... if the other alto neck works well... you are set, no?

did you get in touch with the person who sold you the wrong neck, they may still have that? After all they shipped the wrong neck. A neck way too short? Strange.

Are you sure it wasn't cut down? In that case you can have it extended

Id return the horn and start over.

Not a bad idea, life is too short

 

[soybean]

… Recently several Chinese made necks have appeared on the market. You may try to buy one and have it adapted to your horn but chances are that internal volume, total length, shape of the curve and distance and size of the octave pip may (all or some) be wrong.

Necks are hardly a "universal" entity, they are highly specific…

This should be a sticky answer to every question about replacing necks. I've bought many replacement necks and now with experience I figure that most of the ones I buy will not work. Yes, they may play fine or even have great tone, but something in the intonation will usually be "off".

Here is a quick test by one of our members that can show you if you are anywhere close to finding a neck that will play work on your saxophone.

 

[Brian Labbie]

well, since you can only use one saxophone at the time... if the other alto neck works well... you are set, no?

That's what I am doing currently, and it's really not a big deal. I haven't even gigged in 7 years and swapping necks works, just thought it would be nice to have a neck for each instrument.

Doesn't appear it was cut down. It's just strangely short,
This is NOT a 1920s king neck

Compared to the neck that I'm using from one of my other saxes

I contacted the seller, Interested to see the response.

 

[milandro]

Although I may agree that it may not look like the original neck ( only on account of the brace ) , if a neck would have been cut down well you wouldn't see anything.

This is an original, doesn't look all that different

 

[1saxman]

it's an alto
I'm currently using the neck from another horn that I have and it works and plays great. I just bought the sax on ebay and received it with the wrong neck. It's way too short.
I kind of figured I'm just sol.. I'll look into a Chinese made neck, they seem inexpensive enough.
Not sure how it would play with the correct neck, but it plays fantastic with the one I'm using,

If I can find a parts horn I may just do that if it's cheap enough, but right now all the ones available are way overpriced.
I know they aren't very sought after but honestly the ergonomics aren't bad at all and the intonation is close enough that I don't struggle to play it in tune, no worse than any other alto I've played.

Thanks for the response

You mean it plays fantastic with the other neck? Then I don't see the problem - you have a neck that works. If you don't want to share the neck between two altos, it looks to me like you could pick up one of the inexpensive Eastern Music 'SBA' necks that will probably work on it as well as the one you're using, and the octave key arrangement would be more like the original. I'm using one of these on my Selmer USA alto, the Sterling silver version, and it solved some problems I was having with the original neck that I stupidly modified many years ago.

 

[Grumps]

You mean it plays fantastic with the other neck? Then I don't see the problem - you have a neck that works.

We're not even sure if the one neck he thinks is too short is a problem either.

 

[saxoclese]

This should be a sticky answer to every question about replacing necks. I've bought many replacement necks and now with experience I figure that most of the ones I buy will not work. Yes, they may play fine or even have great tone, but something in the intonation will usually be "off".

Here is a quick test by one of our members that can show you if you are anywhere close to finding a neck that will play work on your saxophone.

That video shows an effective way to compare the lengths of different necks. It is the length that determines the pitch. However it does not compare the interior volume nor the taper which are also important in determining whether a neck is a good match for a particular saxophone. In his book "The Saxophone Is My Voice" Ernest Ferron gives a formula to calculate the neck's taper. The volume can be measured by closing one end, filling the neck with water, and then pouring the water into a graduated cylinder.

 

[Brian Labbie]

We're not even sure if the one neck he thinks is too short is a problem either.

doesn't play in tune with the neck it came with, it's way sharp everywhere and the intonation is bad

and I never said that swapping necks was a problem, I only asked where I could possibly find a replacement neck.
I don't understand how a simple question turned into this thread where so many people want to make it something it's not. I asked where to get a neck, and suggestions are, you have no problem, ditch the horn, return the horn.... seriously

Thanks for the suggestions.....

 

[turf3]

The reason you're getting these answers you don't like is because the answer to the question "where can I get a replacement neck for a 1920s King?" is

YOU CAN'T.

Not without spending multiple times what the horn is worth, if you can even find someone who has the pattern.

What you have to do is either find a parts horn with a good-ish neck (needle in a haystack) or try a bunch that don't match and pick the best of a bad lot.

If you have a neck from another saxophone that seems to work well, and that one (I don't think you ever identified it) is a modern instrument, you'll do better to get a replacement for THAT neck and use it on the King.

 

[datsaxman]

Brian, check your PM.

dsm

 

[Grumps]

doesn't play in tune with the neck it came with, it's way sharp everywhere and the intonation is bad

Just needed to confirm that.

I don't understand how a simple question turned into this thread where so many people want to make it something it's not. I asked where to get a neck, and suggestions are, you have no problem, ditch the horn, return the horn.... seriously

I needed to know more before giving you advice. A vintage King saxophone could very well have a double socket neck; which certainly would complicate things. When you say you have a neck that works... well, folks are going to tell you to stick with it. But as it's for another horn you own, I can see why you'd want to get another.

So you do have a couple options if you can't return the horn in question. You could take a chance and get one of the cheap necks from China or you could find a beater King alto on ebay and buy the horn for its neck.

 

[Brian Labbie]

The seller has offered to take the horn back and pay shipping if I want to return it, he said he got the horn with that neck.
So returning the horn is an option.

Not sure what I want to do yet, because I do like the horn.

or you could find a beater King alto on ebay and buy the horn for its neck.

If I decide to keep it that's what I'll do. I'll just continue to play it with the other neck until one pops up for cheap.

 

[Guto]

Although I may agree that it may not look like the original neck ( only on account of the brace ) , if a neck would have been cut down well you wouldn't see anything.

This is an original, doesn't look all that different

His neck does look different. 1. it doesn't look to have the 2nd U shaped guide post on the octave lever at the location where he has his thumb. 2. the distance from cork to octave pad looks to be half of what you see on the silver neck. granted cork length could be different but they do not look too different in these pictures.

If you own this silver horn, I think it'd be most helpful if you could measure the length of its neck for the OP to compare to his.

 

[Brian Labbie]

His neck does look different. 1. it doesn't look to have the 2nd U shaped guide post on the octave lever at the location where he has his thumb. 2. the distance from cork to octave pad looks to be half of what you see on the silver neck. granted cork length could be different but they do not look too different in these pictures.

If you own this silver horn, I think it'd be most helpful if you could measure the length of its neck for the OP to compare to his.

the neck that came with the sax has a different style alignment post up top compared to the ones I've looked at, it doesn't have the second alignment post toward the bottom, and there's no bracing under the neck at all. It may have been cut, posts removed, brace removed, and top alignment post changed, then relaquered, but it seems more likely that this is from another model sax

 

[JayeLID]

That video shows an effective way to compare the lengths of different necks. It is the length that determines the pitch. However it does not compare the interior volume nor the taper which are also important in determining whether a neck is a good match for a particular saxophone. In his book "The Saxophone Is My Voice" Ernest Ferron gives a formula to calculate the neck's taper. The volume can be measured by closing one end, filling the neck with water, and then pouring the water into a graduated cylinder.

Actually...it is not just length which determines pitch though, is it ?.... because one also has to take into account the taper as well. Two necks can be equally long.... but if their tapers differ they will not have the same exact same pitch, will they ???

FWIW...I have used the vid method a good, ohhhhh......must be 40+ times now in matching an unoriginal neck to a horn....it has never failed. Always produces a very acceptable result, intonationally.

Of course blowing resistance and tonality will probably not match what the original would have produced...but....with a neckless body, coming up with a good intonational match is achieving a whole lot.

 

[JayeLID]

The seller has offered to take the horn back and pay shipping if I want to return it, he said he got the horn with that neck.
So returning the horn is an option.

Not sure what I want to do yet, because I do like the horn.

If I decide to keep it that's what I'll do. I'll just continue to play it with the other neck until one pops up for cheap.

For a vintage King, a loose neck from a Conn or Pan American or even a splitbell Martin will likely be a decent match. Just make sure you ask for the tenon diameter. Another alternative is you can go with an Eastern Music Power neck (sold on eBay) and specify the tenon diameter.

It isn't really that difficult to find a decent match for this sorta horn, IMHO.

A tenon diameter of a replacement neck would have to be within around .25mm of the existing neck receiver, or it'd be beyond what tech can do to tweak the size into conformity.

If you like the horn, and are considering keeping it....maybe ask the seller for a small partial refund just to make the sale a bit fairer (?)...as opposed to doing a full return.

Also...I have a slew of old unidentified Alto necks here....PM me (or contact me through my website below) and we can perhaps try to do a pitch match between the one you are using which works well, and the loose ones I have here. Maybe we can find a decent match.