Neck Angle Preferences & Neck Opening Variations

Steve

Steve

Clarinet CE/Moderator
Staff member
CE/Moderator
Ergonomics for tenor can extend beyond the finger and hand positions. Many players also look at the angle of the mouthpiece and the position of the horn. In this situation the neck shape has plenty to do with it. Here are two pics that show some varying neck angles.

This one bends right after the body, pushes the horn further away and has a curve up at the neck opening.
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckOleg.jpg

This neck has a higher arch, and brings the horn closer to the body (is shorter due to the arch).
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckVII.jpg

of course, there are other variations too.
 
necks vary in their neck opening too. Does the crowd here a difference? Good question - most crowds no .. a crowd of sax players, they will all say something different.

the larger the neck opening, of course, the more air that can be blown through the horn - or lower pressured (or something - ask an engineer). Though, it is quite minute size differences. I don't keep track of them, just measured some up one day for a customer. I wish I wrote down the measurement on my Couf Superba, I recall it was quite large.

Sizes & pics of the necks
Oleg = .5085 - .516" opening
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckOleg.jpg

Selmer SA80 = .499 - .507"
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckSeriesII.jpg

Selmer USA = .495 - .500
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckSelmerUSA.jpg

Selmer VII = .4995 - .513
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckVII.jpg

yes, they are not perfectly round.
 
The size of the opening has a direct correlation to resistance.

also the length of the octave pip has a direct impact on resistance. I was fixing a horn for a player once that had a pickup on the neck. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared (and lack of the players time available) to remove the pickup. So I slowly filed down the length of the pickup. After each shortening the resistance was greatly reduced and the horn played more freely and more open. So I guess it's safely assumed that the more that is blocking the small air passage up top, the more resistance you are going to have. And the larger the opening the less resistance.
 
Dr. Wyman had a great paper that touched on the ideal angle of the table for mouthpieces which also is a factor to be considered by the player.
 
Ed Svoboda said:
Dr. Wyman had a great paper that touched on the ideal angle of the table for mouthpieces which also is a factor to be considered by the player.
Click to expand...
Looks like some interesting stuff:

List of publications:
AN ACOUSTICAL STUDY OF ALTO SAXOPHONE MOUTHPIECE CHAMBER DESIGN (Ph.D. Dissertation, Eastman School of Music, June 1972). University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

TARTINI-TONES: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE AURAL PERCEPTION OF DIFFERENCE-TONES AND A METHOD OF USING THEM AS AN AID IN TUNING HARMONIC INTERVALS (1991)

TWENTY-FOUR NEMESI (2000) Advanced exercises for the saxophonist.
 
I own "AN ACOUSTICAL STUDY OF ALTO SAXOPHONE MOUTHPIECE CHAMBER DESIGN (Ph.D. Dissertation, Eastman School of Music, June 1972). University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan."

Great stuff in that paper.
 
Not really. I believe that they found that the Woodwind Company pieces were very consistent and that the Selmer Soloist was not. I do agree with their conclusions.
 
SteveSklar said:
Ergonomics for tenor can extend beyond the finger and hand positions. Many players also look at the angle of the mouthpiece and the position of the horn. In this situation the neck shape has plenty to do with it. Here are two pics that show some varying neck angles.

This one bends right after the body, pushes the horn further away and has a curve up at the neck opening.
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckOleg.jpg

This neck has a higher arch, and brings the horn closer to the body (is shorter due to the arch).
http://www.clarinetperfection.com/work/tsselmers2-0107/neckVII.jpg

of course, there are other variations too.
Click to expand...

I very much prefer the comfort playing the first neck shape.
Like my Serie III, Yani, Barone & Buescher necks.

The second example looks like my Mark VII neck which pushes the horn into the body and is much less comfortable.
I wish that I could find some way around this ,other than a neck change.
Any suggestions Steve?
 
I'm almost willing to bet the farm on the fact that there is at least one tenor sax that has the neck coiled up in baritone fashion. I saw this one on a throwaway television spot around the time of Sax's hundred year anniversary. The big four horns (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone) were racked up in a row and the camera panned down them as the narrator explained that they were the soprano, alto, tenor and baritone.

The diameter of the bore of the crook was substantially smaller than the baritone that followed it, and the size difference was amply apparent in the video clip. And, the last horn in series was certainly not a bass.

The main reason that I don't want to play tenor is that the neck angle is "off-putting". I'll do it if I have to, but I don't like it. Losing all of that neck length would make it a lot more palatable for me at least.
 
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