[NewZephX]

Hello. New tenor player here.
I discovered that the side vent octave pad on my '38 King Zephyr is sticking and also, not opening as fully as it should at times. Sometimes it will open widely. Sometimes not at all. Sometimes 3/4th's the max opening. When I come down from the higher notes (say, A to G), the side vent is more likely to open correctly than if I come up in notes or just immediately go to a G + octave button.
I'll search for remedies to this (starting with cleaning the pad with lighter fluid?? Does rubbing alcohol work, or would this just dry out the pad?), but my concern is that there are two things going on. The pad is probably sticking, but the mechanism is probably also a bit off. I don't think that a sticky pad would necessarily prevent the pad from opening fully.
Thanks for any info!

 

[Birdman]

don't use lighter fluid, I use johnson and johnson baby oil or old english furniture polish that and try loosening the screw and putting clear nail polish on there

hope it goes well for you
-Birdman

 

[Carl H.]

don't use lighter fluid, I use johnson and johnson baby oil or old english furniture polish that and try loosening the screw and putting clear nail polish on there

hope it goes well for you
-Birdman

YIKES!!

 

[retread]

don't use lighter fluid

Why not?

 

[Gordon (NZ)]

"Sometimes 3/4th's the max opening."

Yes, you MAY have a sticking pad problem, but it seems clear from this statement that you definitely have a mechanism problem, and possibly no pad problem at all.

"try loosening the screw and putting clear nail polish on there"

A band-aid at best, and for some mechanism only compounds the problem, e.g allow rust to continue getting worse, while the instrument limps on.

If it is a mechanism problem, then it is a complicated area that is best left to a technician, unless you are pretty mechanically confident and understand the mechanical logic of this mechanism.

This post may help:

http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=312715#post312715