the 54, don't malign the shine

Toby

I love my 54. It's true what they say about the neck. There is variation in the construction of the necks which is regrettable. It holds these horns back. The top part of the horn seems to be sensitive to not only neck tip opening but the mouthpiece position so if you want to use a mouthpiece that prefers more cork in the neck, by all means, put some thick cork on there.

I use a VD V16 metal... currently training up to a wider opening from T75.

They come with tight springs, thin cork, and key heights too closed. Once you get these setup, it's as good as the better of the 5 digit mkVI's.

Don't talk to me about finish. If that's a hangup to you, I've only one response.

You can't play the shine.
 
Toby,

Interesting comment about key heights. I have found that if you come across a killer horn that the first thing you should do if it's not for sale is have your tech measure the key heights. Particularly if you own the same model and aren't as enamored with yours. The second thing is to measure the neck opening. As always, this assumes a horn in good repair free of leaks and all of that.
 
Spring tension I can understand fooling with. Many like things as light under the hands as possible, and as long as it does not mess with key operation (such as with the articulated G#), it'll be just fine.

However...

Screw with the key heights on a saxophone at your peril. They are a large part of the proper intonation of the notes from the holes that they cover, and changing them to fit some perceived "right height" can be a B-I-G mistake.

Selmer even went so far as to issue a bulletin to their vendors about this back in the 1970's. People were taking in their "new" horns and asking to have them "set up" with the touch pieces at the same exact height, not realizing that key height was (and is) an important part of intonation with a saxophone.

I've played on horns with a "proper keyboard" that has been modified so that all heights are the same, and while the feel is a lot less funky than one that has not been given the same treatment, it does make a difference. Better a bit different on the key heights if you don't have to mess with the intonation on a note by note basis.

For me, the ultimate in this "funkiness" is that possessed by old Conn horns, where adjacent fingers may differ in height by as much as five or six millimeters. Holding a Conn, it feels a bit like you are grasping a smooth alligator (or a rough tree), with no two fingers resting at quite the same point. Much more challenging to confront than a typical French style saxophone.

To a clarinet player used to Boehm horns, where virtually all of the ring heights are uniform, this feels really strange. (Never mentioned is the difference for the ring finger on the left hand, which sits about four millimeters lower than the rest, something that makes a speed difference in some trills if you listen really carefully.) To an Albert player - well, to an Albert (or Oehler) player, used to weird spacing and elevations, it's about normal.

Mention fiddling with key heights to my technician friend up in Saint Louis and you'll get an earful back at you. A very touchy subject with Marvin...
 
Terry,

My experience with key heights modification is centered on Selmer's mostly. Particularly my personal Mark VI which was a decent enough horn after an overhaul but was just an average Mark VI. A couple of months later I was in the shop visiting my tech and he said, "hey I've got a killer VI you have to try it". I picked it up and said, "the key heights are more open on this horn than mine. Make mine like this one." When the horn was overhauled I had instructed him to keep the key heights where they were because the horn belonged to my grand father. This totally opened up the horn.

Randy Jones apparently had a Mark VI that was a total closet horn that nobody would buy. He raised the key heights and it went right away. So I've been told the story by some local guys who trade with Randy a lot.

Each brand of horn has its own idiosyncrasies and it's always best to find someone who knows a lot about the brand horn that you own.
 
the purpose of altering key heights is to reach that best compromise between a note "speaking" and having the intonation you are accustomed to at that note.

This is important. Different model horns have different intonation tendencies across the range of the horn. For me, I was going from a loverly old YTS21 to a new Selmer Ref54. I decided at that time that I would rather have the notes speaking well than be muffly and closer to the intonation I was trained to get from the Yamaha.

A couple months of long tones into a tuner (after I settled on a mouthpiece) and everything was fine. Better than fine. I had adjusted my mouth muscle memory to the new intonation and the notes were coming out of the toneholes bold and full.

This is my rationale for adjusting key heights. It has nothing to do with making them geometrically even. I'm a musician, not an orthodontist.

(edit, yeah, what Ed said)
 
I wouldn't mind being referred to as lovely & old, but all I seem to get is the latter.

sigh
 
+1 on the neck issues. My Ref 54 LE is stuffy on the top end with the stock neck. Sometimes even D3 won't speak. But with a Barone neck, it's just fine.

Oh, yeah, it's got rose-gold lacquer, too, so the finish issue is finished.
 
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