[Qalina]

Dear SOTWers, hope you can lend me your wisdom. I bought this vintage Conn Eagle alto piece in a bulk deal. I think it's been modified rather badly. please look at the photo-maybe you can tell what's been done to it and whether it can be improved at all. It sounds muffled. I think it's been shortened, too(possible tip chip?) the normal Conn Eagle length is 3,24 inches (8,25 cm) and mine is only 3,14 (8 cm). The left rail is uneven and from the inside feels bumpy, too. Anything that I can do myself at all (except throwing it away). I realise "take it to the professional" is an obvious choice, so apart from this advice is needed, thank you.

 

[Sacks Of Phones]

Yes, you could make a doorstop or a brooch out of it in that condition. I wouldn't recommend trying to fix that one yourself if you have no experience. The tip rail almost looks melted.

 

[Hassles]

That MP is past its use by date I am sorry to say.

 

[reedsburn62]

Nice door stop.

 

[clodius]

key fob

 

[Tonehole]

Toss in a bin, you can get a none mangled one for less than trying to repair this and after the time, effort and cost what will you have?

 

[Guto]

^ what they said

 

[Sigmund451]

A good conn eagle is still a doorstop unless you like tubby and dead... Toss it.

 

[PigSquealer]

@Qalina are you sure you what you have is a Conn Eagle? it should have a metal ring !
I’m not sure what material you can use to repair one of these. Maybe @lostcircuits, @10mfan or @MojoBari can suggest A patching material.

 

[saxophender]

@Qalina are you sure you what you have is a Conn Eagle? it should have a metal ring !

Not necessarily. They exist without it. I believe the ones with the ring are earlier versions. I have examples of both.

 

[Sigmund451]

Its been worked on unskillfully. It will likely take a full reface which costs more than several replacements. They aren’t worth much. No offense intended.

 

[lostcircuits]

OP, if you were local, I'd fix it for you but shipping back and forth alone costs 10x more than what the piece is worth. @B Flat may be able to help you but quite honestly, even local postage may exceed the value of the piece.

 

[Grumps]

A mouthpiece is never going to love you back.
Save your money. Trash it.

 

[1saxman]

'A mouthpiece is never going to love you back.'

Very true! And funny! 🤣

 

[hnthere]

I'm the least knowledgeable person here, so take this with a grain of salt, but if you have any interest in ever working on mouthpieces there won't be any harm in taking sandpaper, files, a chainsaw or whatever to that one. It seems like an opportunity to get a feel for how each attacks the material, how to handle it, and so on. It'll still function as a doorstop afterwards.

 

[AddictedToSax]

Yes, you could make a doorstop or a brooch out of it in that condition. I wouldn't recommend trying to fix that one yourself if you have no experience. The tip rail almost looks melted.

Looks like someone took a belt sander to it.

 

[polemonium]

Just I guess, but I'd guess that someone sanded/ground it down in an extreme attempt to open it, sanded into the window giving it that irregular shape, and also sanded off the original tip rail.

 

[lostcircuits]

Just I guess, but I'd guess that someone sanded/ground it down in an extreme attempt to open it, sanded into the window giving it that irregular shape, and also sanded off the original tip rail.

No, nobody would do anything like that.

Much more likely is that whoever played the MPC got in a bar fight with the piano player and the piece accidentally fell off and got stuck between the pedals and stayed there unnoticed for 2 decades. And when the bar closed and they moved the piano, it scraped on the floor, hit a few nails and eventually fell off, just when the cleaning woman came with the big shop vac, so it got another few tumbles. There is really no other explanation!

 

[PigSquealer]

No, nobody would do anything like that.

Much more likely is that whoever played the MPC got in a bar fight with the piano player and the piece accidentally fell off and got stuck between the pedals and stayed there unnoticed for 2 decades. And when the bar closed and they moved the piano, it scraped on the floor, hit a few nails and eventually fell off, just when the cleaning woman came with the big shop vac, so it got another few tumbles. There is really no other explanation!

Yes I do believe this to be accurate. There is a complete absence of any canine impressions.

 

[GREY SAX]

🗑 Trash