[Gary59]

When I play my alto from C up to D, I get awful squeaking, but descending from E down to D doesn't seem as bad. I'm talking about the middle notes. Low and high D seem fine. I am using a Brillhart Ebolin with Vandoran 2 1/2 reeds.
Thanks, Gary

 

[buddy lee]

How long have you been playing? Has the horn been serviced recently (is it leak free)? My first thought is you're biting and or voicing D2 too high and getting an upper partial...

 

[jbtsax]

Check your neck octave adjustment by fingering G and hitting the thumb octave key and pressing it hard. Watch the neck octave key when you do this. It should not move or bounce. If it moves or opens, take the neck off, put your thumb between the loop attached to the neck octave key and the tenon of the neck and gently push down on the key. Then check the adjustment again. There should be about 1/16" between the post coming from the sax and the loop of the neck key. If you have gone too far, put a popsicle stick between the neck octave pad and the "pip" that it covers and carefully push the ring back toward the neck tenon. Sometimes it takes a "back and forth" to get the best adjustment.

 

[Henry D]

JBT may well be right- but if that doesn't work the octave mechanism may be sluggish;

Take the neck off the horn, hold down the G touch, and hold down the octave key. The body octave pip cup ought to flop back and forth without any friction when you touch it. On almost all horns the body octave pip cup is held closed by a lever on the upper end of the rod attached to the G touch when it is not depressed, as well as by the octave mechanism itself whenever the octave key is not depressed. When the octave key is depressed, the body pip cup is held closed by the G rod lever alone until the G touch is depressed- at that point the pip cup is no longer held down and force of the spring on the neck key closes the neck pip and simultaneously opens the body pip through the octave mechanism. When going the other way, releasing G (with the octave key depressed) closes the body pip via the lever on the rod and the neck pip is then forced open by the octave mechanism.

If the mechanism gets sluggish through the build up of crud and lack of lubrication (or damage) then there's a lag between when the G lever releases the body pip and the neck pip is closed and forces the body pip open via the spring on the neck octave key. When going from mid C to D players frequently press the octave key slightly ahead of the G touch and , with a sluggish mechanism, the result is a squirrely attack to the D as there's a fraction of a second when the neck pip is still open as it pushes the sluggish mechanism to open the body pip cup and close itself. Going down from E to D is fine since the octave pips are already in the correct positions (body open, neck closed).

 

[Gary59]

Thanks for the answers! There was no gap between the post and neck key loop. A small bend and a little oil on the mechanism, works great!!