[1saxman]

After suffering a somewhat questionable overhaul and having the neck tweaked by Kim Bock and resized at a nice shop in Fredericksburg, I'm happy to report that this horn is back in business and is making me grin from ear to ear, which is actually a good embouchure exercise - I highly recommend it. Don't get me wrong, I'm still finding/fixing stuff but basically I have been able to restore the vibrancy and tone of this incredible horn by fixing leaks and making adjustments. The next thing I have to do is remove Teflon friction material where it was inappropriately used in place of felt or cork. The action is very clanky in places, like where the petals on the G# key hit the table keys. I have to say, the swedging he did along with the pad job has turned out very well and I no longer hate the Roo pads - they are taking nice seating rings and they really don't feel as hard as they look - and they look very much like the originals.
The horn now has that 'buttery' ease of playing and unlimited 'headroom' of power that everyone talks about. I still have a key height issue in the upper stack (low bis) with the usual extra thick cork/felts to compensate instead of doing it right, but the horn is blowing like crazy so I'll put that off and work on the other things first.
The neck previously was not popping out altissimo and its still not that great in that respect, but the TONE! I have a Sterling III neck that is an incredible player but the original neck brings that MK VI focus-with-depth that as far as I know can't be replicated.
You may remember that I had to do a lot of work to my back-up tenor after another 'overhaul', and that one is finally in good shape too - so lots of smiles around here lately. I honestly don't know what people do who can't do a few things for themselves because things are very rough in the sax repair business. I paid a total of $2000 for two tenor 'overhauls' and neither sax was playable upon receipt. I didn't demand they fix them because frankly I did not want them pawing my horns anymore. Now both of them are extremely good, thanks in large part to the work that was done on them - good swedging and pad jobs in both cases but with fatal flaws on delivery. I mean, bottom line, the horn has to be mostly leak-free and functional with all screws/pins snug, right?
I don't know, maybe I'll have a new career after I get too old to play, as a QC manager in a sax repair facility. I would relish that opportunity!

 

[saxoclese]

Congratulations. I'm curious as to what you found objectionable about the teflon material. I have found it to be the ideal material whenever there is a bit of "sliding motion" where one key contacts another. I acknowledge that it can be a bit noisier than cork, but I solve that by applying very thin synthetic felt to the other surface. On occasions where I am feeling more OCD than usual I will rub teflon powder into the felt. I am pleased to hear you are beginning to like the roo pads. I have played on white roos in my SBA alto for over 20 years and am happy with the sound and feel. More than half my overhauls are done with white or chocolate roos at the customer's request and I have never had a customer who wasn't satisfied with the result.

 

[1saxman]

The objection is I specified no Teflon in the first place and he agreed with that, talking about the original set-up, yada, yada. So I pick it up and its full of Teflon - and you can actually see it in places where there should be green felt - looks like a POS. Appearances are important, at least to me, on vintage instruments. Plus, felt does the job I'm looking for as far as feel and quietness. You know, I play rock, R&B, etc., and its loud. You may wonder why I care about clatter; its because the mechanic in me hates anything like that - its not right. It didn't come that way, and the most iconic tenor sax in the world cannot be improved from the original. Its a matter of feel, too. When you're playing, no matter how loud things are, you can feel metallic objects hitting whether you can hear it or not. This is distracting.
Of course, some of the Teflon can stay, like where it is unobtrusive (rod cradles, sliding levers, etc.) but I will silence this horn if its the last thing I do.