Hi all-long time reader first time poster. I just bought a Mark VI tenor (woohoo!) and I’m cleaning it up. It has a purple line on the bell inside and out and coming down from alongside the palm keys. I thought it would clean right up but it is proving to be deep! Has anyone seen this? Know what it is? Should I leave it or keep going with Brasso to try to remove it? Thanks in advance!
What is this purple line on the bell Mark VI
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solder joint. nothing to worry about. definitely leave it alone.
watch this video from 1:15 through 1:30:
watch this video from 1:15 through 1:30:
as pontius said, don't use any abrasive on your sax! it will only remove brass material, weakening its structure, let alone lowering its resell value.
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without offense, you are cleaning a six by your self and you don't know what's brazing seam? Be careful taking that parts together 
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And put the Brasso away! Don't use it on your horn; as others have pointed out, it is too abrasive. You can polish up the BARE brass areas with a silver cleaning cloth. Are you taking the horn apart yourself? If you're not a tech, I'd advise taking it into a tech after you're finished cleaning the horn (are you sure it even needed cleaning?) and make certain everything is in proper adjustment, pads are sealing, etc.
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It's perfectly fine to use Brasso on bare brass IF you're cleaning some pretty serious crud/grime away. Is it abrasive? You bet, but it's also one of the few things that will "cut" into crud that's accumulated over time. If it's a combination of bare brass and lacquer, it can also be used more aggressively on the bare spots and IF you want the lacquer to remain, be more gentle in those areas as it will remove the lacquer if you're aggressive and desire to. It will NOT leave scratches when polished with a polishing cloth. I used Brasso on my Super alto and tenor when doing a deep clean (both are bare brass horns). The tenor had a few spots of lacquer, but I didn't want it looking like it had pox, so as I mentioned above, I was more (equally) aggressive in those areas and removed a few spots of remaining lacquer.
Below are before and after pics of my tenor. Does the horn still look like this four years later? Umm.....NO! It's definitely "dulled" again and I'm fine with that, because it's a hell of a lot more clean that it was.
Sweet Super, JJ.
I remember once a band leader loaned me one of those with an old Otto Link hard rubber piece (I was the baritone player, but one of the tenor players didn't show up to a rehearsal at the BLs house, and it was his backup (!) tenor). He damn near had to pry it back out of my hands. Many many years ago I almost bought one of these in silver, but for some rea$$$on I didn't.
I remember once a band leader loaned me one of those with an old Otto Link hard rubber piece (I was the baritone player, but one of the tenor players didn't show up to a rehearsal at the BLs house, and it was his backup (!) tenor). He damn near had to pry it back out of my hands. Many many years ago I almost bought one of these in silver, but for some rea$$$on I didn't.
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Why would you 'clean' all that beautiful patina away??? Geesh!!!
The patina on my Mark VI is a testament to the thousand of hours, miles and gigs.
A lady walked up to me at a gig a said, "If that sax could talk.." I had to tell her, "Thank God, it can't."
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Absofreakinglutely....hands down, the best saxophones I've ever played. I have a beautiful and excellent playing Big B tenor and a Dick Stabile (Martin stencil) alto that are great horns, but nothing.........nothing comes close to my Super alto/tenor and RI alto.
It wasn't the patina I was cleaning away, it was the build up of spit (and God only knows what else) that was literally caked on to that thing. Plus, I cleaned and re-oiled all mechanisms that needed it too. That was 4 yrs. ago I did that to my tenor. As of right now, it looks basically the same as it did in the "before" picture, but as I mentioned above, it lost about a pound of gunk in the process. Maybe in another 10 or so years I'll do it again.
Many times I've had people come up to me with a sad look on their faces and sincerely ask me when I'd be able to "afford" a nice, shiny horn. My usual reply is "I'm taking donations" and smile. Ignorance is bliss. ;-)
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That's possibly the most wear I've seen on a MVI. At some point, its important to remove and control corrosion, to stop or slow it down. I like patina, but not scaly corrosion. Good luck, and proceed with caution, research and trial.
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To me, it looks mostly like spotty lacquer. I don't see a lot of corrosion.
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