Hi Adam,
Actually the neck on my SBA looks
very short to me.
I can't help but think that the neck was bent upward (despite the techs opinions), as I have never seen a similar one. Of course, I have only seen maybe 2 other SBA low Bb baris.
On the octave key placement issue....on a late SBA the octave key goes straight- up to the linkage underneath the curl. However, when I tried to fit a later SBA octave key onto mine without moving any keyposts, I found the key had to be off-set to the left almost at a 30 degree angle and the screw barrel of the key had to be moved up higher on the key to match the post. My tech did this work (amazingly good work, I might add) and it looks original now.
Wondering if maybe my horn was heavily operated on before the overhaul, or if the older SBAs were different?
Pix would be appreciated!
Go to this URL and go about 3/4ths down the page and look at my SBA neck in the photos:
http://www.worldwidesax.com/new_page_1.htm
Then go to Sarges bari sax for sale page and you can see a significant difference between mine and his.