As a suggestion, the first step should be to take the instrument to a reputable repairman, immediately, not later. You need to make sure the instrument is in perfect working order. Once repaired, the intonation issue may be solved. If not, the mouthpiece that you're using (of which you give no information) may be a bad match for the horn. Different strengths/brands of reeds combined with the proper mouthpiece for your baritone may help solve the problem.

Good luck.

 

Ok, ill take it to be repaired as soon as I can, and about the mouthpiece, the one that came with the horn is a Kang Germany mouthpiece, that is all the info I have on it, and as far as I can tell it works pretty good, no chips or anything in it.

 

I'm not familiar with that mouthpiece. However, in general, mouthpieces that come with the instruments are not your best option...in general. I use a Berg Larsen hard rubber 115/1 with my Couf Superba II baritone. That combination works for me, but i don't play a lot of baritone.

Maybe some of the other SOTW bari players can chime in.

 

Have a more experienced player try the horn to confirm the problem isn't you. But you did spend the absolute bottom dollar for a brand new bari that will probably cost a small fortune to return, so you're stuck with it either way.

 

I notice that the horn comes with 2 necks. Is the intonation problem the same with both necks?

What note are you using to tune the horn? It could be that the placement of the mouthpiece is too far in. Try pulling the mouthpiece out so that upper register notes (notes with the octave key added) are in tune, and see how that impacts the low notes (notes without the octave key).

 

I looked at what other people had to say about the same saxophone, they seemed to like it quit a bit and said it worked pretty good, maybe it's not the best saxophone, but i'm happy with it now, and it seems to work good enough for me, besides how sharp the high notes are.

 

I looked at what other people had to say about the same saxophone, they seemed to like it quit a bit and said it worked pretty good...

Do you personally know these people? Ever hear them play? If not, lesson learned. But still, you're going to get bombarded with suggestions here; some good, some bad. But if you know any experienced bari players who can try it with their own mouthpiece, give that a shot first. If they have the same problem, then you know it's the horn and not you. Then folks here can offer better suggestions to help your problem either way. Otherwise, it's all guesswork.

If you bought it on Ebay you probably can return it if it does not play or work as described.

It came from China. Do you have any idea what that's going to cost to return?

 

I have tried many different things to see if it helps, and yes I have the same problem with both necks. I tune with the F# and A in both octaves, if I adjust the mouthpiece so the high notes are in tune, the lower ones will be a little flat.

 

If you bought it on Ebay you probably can return it if it does not play or work as described. You might consider that before a repairman fusses with it and then you would not be able to return it if altered in any way. Keep in mind repair could be quite expensive and the extra money could buy you a better horn.

 

Not really, it shipped for free.

 

Go with Grumps suggestion......even if you have to pay a pro for a few minutes of his time to check it out..still way cheaper than any of the alternatives.

I.e. Setup...... horn itsel......... mpce..........You......

 

I.e. Setup...... horn itsel......... mpce..........You......

I might actually reverse that order. People used to playing smaller horns have a hard time realizing you don't need or want an iron embouchure on a bari, and you really don't want to squeeze it as you go up.

 

i agree with having a pro play it. if it were me i would take it to my tech as he is a great player and i doubt he would even charge me. another thing i would consider is my embouchure. my problem was using tight embouchure so the upper palm keys were coming out flat, so i wound up using a looser embouchure that is generally more applicable to larger horns. i suppose if my embouchure was too loose that my upper palm keys could be too sharp. that being said, i have never tried a taishan and my problem was on tenor.

 

Like the dog pic, btw.

 

There is something to be said for horn/mpc combination. I've had some intonation issues on bari before, and was thrilled when I borrowed a YBS-52 last year and stuck my Yani metal piece on it. It was dead on at D1, D2 and D3 zero effort. I had an older Conn years ago that I struggled with at both register extremes. I never could diagnose it completely.

A late friend of mine, who was a great player and student of Santy's, told me not to think I had to anticipate and compensate for the register so much. He said "Here's something I've always kept in the back of my mind. When playing high, think low. When playing low, think high." It sounds weird, but it's like the problem people have of rushing a fast passage in a tune. You overcompensate. Or, as Blue Lou Marini told some friends in a session - "It's not as fast as you think it is, but it's faster than you're playing it." We use that pearl all the time when someone is eating it in a session.

 

If you have access to a good tuner (actually there are plenty of tuner apps now), I'd play the horn from bottom to top, blowing and then checking the tuner on each note. If one area of the horn plays sharp, it's likely you or an adjustment issue, I'd think. If the scale of the horn from top to bottom is off, then it could be bigger issues like tone hole placement on an inexpensive horn, bore or neck dimensions, etc.

Like everyone said, let a pro player (a pro BARI player) check it with his setup.

 

Try tuning your horn to 'B' on the sax (concert D). Many saxes are sharp on the high notes and must be compensated for. Leaks would not cause that issue. You bought the cheapest bari available. It may have problems that are not fixable. I sincerely hope not. But there are Chinese curved sopranos with low notes so flat in pitch that the sax is unusable.

 

I have a Snark SN-2 tuner, that works pretty good, I have used it on other instruments and works great, but if I tune my saxophone on any note without the octave key to be in tune, every note with the octave key will be very sharp, some notes are so sharp that the tuner nearly reads a whole new note, if my embouchure is real tight, and I don't play with it that tight for that reason.

 

In that case, you may have to return the instrument.

 

You'd have to ship it to China, which will probably be a good percentage of the sales price and I don't believe you'd ever get if refunded back to you. I've always spoken out about buying such horns, but I truly hope it's a correctable problem as fifteen hundred bucks is quite a bit to waste on a saxophone shaped object.

 

You can only return it in the first two weeks, I have had it for about a month now, so hopefully I can take it to be repaired and looked at and then maybe it will work... D:

 

From what I have heard about other people and their Taishan instruments, I'm pretty sure it should be able to be fixed for about $100 or so, but from what I learned about other peoples opinions on their Taishan instruments, I thought it would work just fine when I first got it, which wasn't the case... This is all worrying me...

 

I am new to playing the Baritone sax...[excerpt]

FireDonkey, I'm not trying to be rude (I don't know what your level of knowledge or playing is) but I am wondering what is your main ax (soprano, alto, tenor?)

Since the saxophone family tends to play best in tune at the center of pitch (without going into too much detail) this winds up meaning that the larger the instrument, the more relaxed your jaw/embouchure needs to be. In other words, if you are playing the bari with the same jaw tension that you would on alto (or tenor for that matter) the upper register will go sharp. (If interested, I can explain in more detail.)

So, while it very well may be the horn or the setup, my suggestion above (if it applies) will only cost you time. :mrgreen:

If your jaw is already correctly set, then never mind, and good luck!

 

What reed are you using. I have seen players come in to my studio using a 1 1/2 reed and they are absurdly sharp in the second register because they are tightening their embouchure and the reed is so soft. This might not be the case but I thought I would ask...........

 

Well I will be going into 9th grade, and will be playing the clarinet in band, and the bari in jazz band, those are the only two instruments I have ever played. I have done a lot of testing my embouchure to see what helps with the problem, and I can't do anything to really fix the problem. I have been playing the Clarinet for over 2 years, and I'm pretty good at it, best in my class. I'll try your suggestions, but I don't know if it will help much.

 

I bought a pack of Rico strength 2 1/2 reeds with the horn, thinking that would be a good strength to start at, and I think strength 3 may have been better. The horn also came with a strength 2 1/2 Vandoren reed, which is significantly harder to play on than the Rico reeds, the problem is a little worse on the Vandoren reed, probably because I tighten up a little more so that I can play the notes easier.

 

Well, coming from clarinet, you're going to needing a very different embouchure playing bari in tune. Is your band director a wind player? If not, make sure you have some good instruction in getting that right. I played with a double embouchure for the first 3 years because I never had a good wind instructor to correct me. If you've played clarinet mostly, I would guess you're way too tight in the corners of your mouth.

I also breathe very differently on bari, as compared to other saxes. I try to make sure I always have a very full column of air, much more so than on other horns.

 

As you're coming from clarinet to bari sax, Morry is spot on with the looser lip required for bari. So at least there's a glimmer of hope that your problem isn't a bum horn. Just a glimmer though.

 

Clarinet embouchure on bari sax.... THAT right there your problem.
Trust me on this one.
You are going to have to spend a LOT of time focusing on relaxing your lips, jaw, and throat to get that big horn to play in tune.
For poops and giggles... The next time you practice the bari don't form any type of embouchure when you put the mouthpiece in your face. Just HONK a long note.
In the middle of that 'honk' start pulling the corners of your lips INWARD like the top of a drawstring backpack until you can get that note in tune.
Take a breath, remember how your face felt and blow another long 'ear pleasing' note. Do this every day for about a week and you might have learned an acceptable bari embouchure.
If you still can't get the horn to play in tune.... Find a saxophone spcific teacher that also playes bari on a somewhat regular basis.

 

Agreed. Also, for now at least, I wouldn't practice clarinet and bari on the same day. Approach the bari fresh, without any built up tension from the clarinet. You'll get there with time. A friend's son plays bassoon and bari.

 

Oh My! I bought a book for beginners on the Baritone sax, just to have something to play besides sheet music I already had, and I just kinda skimmed through what it said about your embouchure. Which I shouldn't have done, I'll make sure not to make that mistake again. After forming my mouth to saying "oh" and tightening up a little on all sides of my mouth, looking at the tuner I could play a note in the lower register, then add the register key and it's perfectly in tune! Now the only sharp note is the D, first and lowest not with the register key. I think this may have been my problem, but I know that there may still be something else, and I will sound a lot better the more I practice.

Thank you to everyone who has given me any advice on what to do. If you still have a suggestion that you think may help, I would love to hear it.

 

After forming my mouth to saying "oh" and tightening up a little on all sides of my mouth, looking at the tuner I could play a note in the lower register, then add the register key and it's perfectly in tune! Now the only sharp note is the D, first and lowest not with the register key.

Gotta get that clarinet out of your mind. A sax has an octave key, not a register key. But don't fret too much in regard to middle D. It's notoriously sharp on nearly every saxophone to some degree or another. In time, you'll learn to lip it down without even realizing you're doing so.