Bob: Before you get too salty with forum members trying to help, you, you should be more detailed in describing the exact issue. For instance, you made no mention of the neck-cork's role. Sometimes players don't even think that the thickness of the neck-cork may be the sole factor as to why the piece won't shove on far enough to come to pitch. Merely taking some sandpaper to the lower part of the neck-cork (thereby reducing the cork's outer diameter) will allow the piece to go further in the neck.
There are usually two (maybe three if you count poor manufacturing) issues as to why a saxophone won't tune properly . . . the mouthpiece can't shove on far enough or 2) the internal volume of the mouthpiece (chamber-size) is insufficient. I'm leaving out the player's embouchure here.
You didn't say what kind of soprano is involved. From my own experiences, I know that some of my soprano mouthpieces need to shove on so far to come to pitch that the bottom of the barrel blocked the upper octave pad from moving. I had to have two Selmer S-80's, two Morgan Vintage, and metal Link pieces shortened so they wouldn't interfere with the upper octave vent. This was on TT sopranos . . . my vintage Conn and Martin are not affected by that issue, nor are my MKVI's and Yanagisawas.
Speaking of Selmer, Shlockrod mentioned it because YOU mentioned it. The S-80's are long mouthpieces.
I have a Runyon that is so short inside that the neck bottoms out before any of my sopranos come to pitch. That issue is probably unfixable with reaming out the inside of the barrel - and I'm not interested in fixing that issue anyway. If this thread goes on, I think you should be more detailed in your description of the problem because there are many factors at work. DAVE
