Well that was fun... David was great. He blocked 3 hours in his shop for the job, but it ended up taking him 5. My iPhone is charging upstairs right now, so I'll upload some pics later, but he did a mini overhaul of sorts. The high E key had a slight bend in it--or so I thought. It turns out that the key's lower post had been ever so slightly pushed in. It's not anymore, and the key is now straight again. Here's a listing of all the work that was done. (Not necessarily in the order that they performed BTW.):
- Remove all the keys & apply grease/oil to all the rods, screws, springs, rollers.
- Look the horn over from top to bottom in minute detail to look for damage.
- Swedge the couple keys that needed it.
- Replace all the felts.*
- Replace all the corks.*
- Clean all the resos that had a slight tarnish to their mirrored finish.***
- Clean the pads.**
- Clean the rust off the effected springs.***
- Replace the cork on the water key with a special synthetic one that lasts much longer. (I have these already on my Martin & Mark VI and they are great corks!)
- Replace the neck cork for an exact fit for my SS Berg Larsen MP.
- Restore the lower post of the high E key back to its original position. (No more tiny dent. How? I don't know. I left his shop. I get nervous around this kind of work.
)
- Oh, ya, and reassemble with no evidence of any work ever being done on it.
* This was done because this horn was totally original, and the ones that were installed were compressed. This led to louder action, and where possibly part the slightly musty smell the horn has.
**The pads are quite possibly the biggest culprit with regards to the musty smell. Right now I'm leaving the horn in the stand all the time to air it out, and David figures the smell will naturally dissipate the more I play it. I should mention with just a week's worth of playing, the smell has already gotten better.
*** David believes that it is quite likely that the horn has spent at least part of the last 50 years sitting in a damp environment. Hence the rust on some of the springs, and the tarnish on the mirror finish of the resos, as well as a contributing factor to the musty smell the bari currently has.
Now that the horn is leak free, I can tell you some fun facts about the sax. While at David's shop, I took my 2 main MPs (SS Berg & HR Berg). The SS Berg was without a doubt the right fit for the horn. The HR Berg has some tuning issues in the palm keys--and by some I mean A LOT. Although the HR Berg is my go-to piece on my Martin and Selmer, and just sounds raunchier on those horns, on the Couf, it sounds weak. So I asked David if he could explain it.
David carefully looked at the bore opening of the 2 pieces, and then at the neck opening. The neck opening is quite small, while the HR Berg's bore opening is wider, and more like what you would see in other baris. The SS Berg's bore opening is smaller though, and much almost a perfect match for for the neck opening. The chamber on the SS Berg is also smaller than that on the HR one.
Now I don't pretend to understand the conical bores, and how the cone gets completed by the MP (or something along those lines), but I certainly know from my own experience that not every MP works with every horn. David said it makes sense that the SS Berg would work better, and gives the horn a better sound that projects the horn's natural overtones better. He then went on with some explanation of saxophone acoustics that
@jbtsax would understand. Me? I glazed over as I do in these cases, since it's the equivalent of finding myself in a post doc calculus class, when I barely got of out HS algebra.
One thing is for sure, the Couf takes a ton of air--and by ton, I mean a boatload more than the Mark VI and Martin Committee III. As I told David yesterday, if I didn't know that he had just finished setting it up perfectly, and removing all leaks, I would think it was leaking. Going over the break? Brutal. Diaphragm support? I thought I did that to play the baris I have. Nah, not near enough. I ran out of steam and my diaphragm went into spasms within 10 seconds of holding a note. I see A LOT of long tones in my immediate future.
Although I haven't measured the Couf and my other baris side by side, based on the barely-fitting BAM case, it appears to be longer than both the Martin and the Selmer too. I must admit, compared to some low A horns I've played, this one is a beast to play.... But.... The tone is worth it. The flexibility, richness, and available volume is like no other low A bari that I have played before.
Will I be abandoning my 2 low Bb horns for my new Couf? No, not at all. The low Bb baris have their place, and I will continue to use them just as I did before. However, in the immediate future, the learning curve of a new horn is always a fun one.
