Looking for spare, damaged, throw away alto neck

tankakaox

Hi,

To start, I know precious little about saxophones but have a hankering to learn. A few months back I stumbled across the AKAI EWI and realized that electronic saxophone existed and maybe were a roommate-friendly option for me. However, opting for having some fun (engineering student) and make a project out of it, I decided to make my own from a stripped down ebay sax and some electronics. In my haste to buy a cheap sax, I got one in terrible condition and without a neck ($30 on ebay). I have sorted the electronics (in theory anyway) and I am busy taking care of the terrible condition part but have not had luck with finding a cheap neck. My frustration is that I do not need a working neck, in fact I can sort it out if it doesn't fit the horn. This is purely for aesthetics.

I have since read that getting hold of a cheap neck is wishful, but I am fishing anyway. If anyone has access to, or can tell me where to look for, a beaten up old alto neck (any neck actually) I would appreciate a nudge in the right direction. My best bet at the moment looks like some way-too-bright-and-shiny $50 necks off of ebay. Or scratch this saxophone and buy another that is at least complete but I loath part with a lot of elbow grease.

Thanks in advance
 
I've been thinking about this. Unless you know someone who has access to that kind of stuff, the next best bet might be to check out some pawn shops (assuming you are from the US as you haven't updated your profile yet) for some beaters that you can have for a song. Craig's List is another way to go as is eBay. Good luck.
 
Actually, I'm not quite sure I understand the request.

Are you looking for a "neck" for the EWI or for a real sax? What pitch of sax?

(Pitches are sopranissimo, sopranino, soprano, mezzo soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass and contrabass -- and, depending on pitch, you've got to know if your horn is a C, Bb, Eb, F or G transposing instrument, not to mention that if the horn is rather old, you might have to worry about the intonation standard it uses.)

For what it's worth, an EWI (any make/model, really) is not going to help you play a sax: the embochure (how you position your mouth on the mouthpiece) and fingering are similar, but they're different enough.

Electrifying a sax has been done. You can go for the sax as a MIDI controller in the form of the (rather expensive) Synthophone or sax as electronically enhanced, in the form of the Selmer Varitone or King/VOX Octavoice. If you've got a real saxophone and you need the sound muffled, you can go from anything like the eWhisper product, to something like the Saxmute products -- or even a full soundproofed room (which really isn't that hard to do).
 
From the "sort it out" in the post, it looks like we might have someone from the Old Country.

I understand the request as someone looking for parts to construct a cosmetic "shell" around the custom made EWI within the shell. This would be easy enough to do if you had access to the breath sensitive switch used in these devices.

About a third of the keys on your typical saxophone would just be dummies with this usage. All of the EWIs that I have used are based upon a simplified fingering system, with "octave" shifts based upon a series of "octave" keys for the right or left thumb.
 
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