This is probably just me but today i got a nice £10 bottle of red wine and to my surprise it came with a screw cap, i must say this makes life considerably easier and given the shortage of cork i don't know why more suppliers are not moving over to screw caps. Hmmm? Not strictly musically related how about this for a twist (lol), how often do you replace the corks on your horn assuming you play saxophone or clarinet? I've just had my 70's Yamaha soprano sax overhauled via ebay (theirs a surprise!) and i have to say with the new corks, leather pads and felts, regulation it sounds wondeful. The tech stated that it was advisable to have your sax checked regularly. I'm assuming my sop should be fine for at least another decade.

I usually send my clarinet and alto sax in for a check up every year, during the summer holidays, and any pads/corks that need replacing are done then (Though sometimes I despair at the repairers knowledge of vintage saxophones!) If I feel it needs doing, pad leaking/ cork too loose etc. I will check it with my clarinet teacher and send it in if needed. A decade sounds extreme! I've only had my clarinet for 5 years, and it would be in a right state if I hadn't got it serviced regularly! (My friend tried that one - the keys made so much noise you could hear it over his playing, and he often picked it up and had it break in half - not good in mid concert!)

Yes that makes sense, obviously a regular check up would save the instrument from a overhaul, clearly(?) i meant that older instruments that have not been serviced for many years require overhauls as oppose to a genral check up which i might add is considerably cheaper! My overhaul cost approx £300. A general service is about £60 i think. However i did'nt mind paying £300 as my sop is valued at about 2K.

I see where you're coming from now.... My dad had to get my sax overhauled when he bought it, it being quite old and not having the best of owners... It still has dents in it My last service on my clarinet cost about £60, my sax a bit more but there was a problem with the neck joint.

Hi,

The key word here is 'regulation'. On my clarinets I can change pads, felts, springs etc with no problem whatsoever. It's actually quite easy and cheap to do. I would never pay for someone else to do it.

But the regulation of the instrument? That's where the experience, good ear, talent and craftmanship is important. The strength and response of springs, key heights, adjustment of the whole mechanism, final tweaking etc.

That's one thing I'll always leave to the experts!

Steve

A 'self sevice' is something i would never attempt myself, i'm a player not a tech. Their are plenty of of NAMIR approved techs out their and i make enough money from my music to let others do this work. Its a dieing profession though so i may in the future have to look at learning more about self regulation although i do understand some of the basics however i think i have a lot more to learn.

I get my saxes serviced when they need them. I've only had the alto a few months and it had a service just before I got my hands on it. It's had a bit of a tweak to the C# mechanism Selmer have on their new altos which seem to cause more problems than they solve and a couple of sticky pads cleaned up all in it was about £25 worth.

The tenor had a good service and a nasty dent removed just over 3 years ago - that was around the £250 mark and a bit of tweaking, regulation and lightening of the action about 18 months ago which was more like £60. I've just decided it's getting in need of another service, it's feeling a bit clunky, definitely needs some corks/felts replacing and would probably benefit from a strip-down, clean and regulate. That will probably end up costing around £200. If the prices seem steep bear in mind that I'm in Central London where everything is more expensive and again the saxes are worth around £2k each.