Vintage out of tune saxophones can be intonated, to play in tune with themselves and others. You can keep your favorite horn, even for pro gigs.
I grew up playing an old starburst Conn Alto Saxophone. it had alot of heart & I loved that horn. When I started playing gigs I purchased a Selmer Mark VII, sold the old conn & quickly discovered something. "Some horns have more SOUL than others". I don't really know how to explain this condition of having soul in the horn, after all saxophones are made of metal, they should all play & sound the same - in theory, Right?.
Besides SOUL in the horn or the lack of it, there is another condition that was preventing me from purchasing just any horn, INTONATION. A horn can have a boatload of soul & still have major intonation problems. Like when everything on the right hand becomes increasingly sharper as you progress down the scale.
So while I was testing horns, there was ONE, which I kept returning to. It played really easy, soft or loud, it was a real player. knowing it had nearly an 1/8 tone sharped low "C" and a similar "D", I bought it anyway. I played that sax for several years. I learned to "lip" wherever needed & that became part of my playing.
Then one day I had this idea to re-intonate my old sax. I had nearly become brave enough to buy another horn (same model), tear it apart, drill, grind, cut & reposition the holes. Seriously, ALMOST. Then it hit me.....
The top position of the hole is what defines the length of resonating tube, not the lower portion. I figured that if I repositioned the holes, I'd be in business. Then the next idea hit me. "Why are tone holes round anyway ?". I could change the shape of the hole & lower the pitch of the resonating tube without cuting or soldering. Oval holes should work too, provided the hole is the same width. I began experimenting with metalic sticky tape, partially covering the holes at first, to find their correct positions. It was fantastic. My horn was playing in tune & actually sounding BETTER than it ever had before. I was very happy with this news. I left the tape in place for quite some time, adjusting here & there, but it looked like crap. There had to be a more appropriate way to do it, with no tape.
I developed this way of shaping a wedge that fits perfectly inside the tone hole, lowering the pitch of the note directly above, while not hurting the tone of any other notes. A wedge epoxied into the LOW "C" hole brought the pitch of my "D" down to an acceptable level. FANTASTIC I thought, and it looks good. This moves the hole (acoustically) from the original position to where the blue circle in image #2 is.
But! Why does this make the horn sound better?. I couldn't believe it, not only does it fix the intonation but the horn sings even better than before.
I don't have the answer to this. It could have something to do with the oval shape of the resulting hole, or maybe the WOOD the wedge is made from. This topic will need more investigation. Could it be that, oval holes are an acoustically better design, for the saxophone?. If someone knows the answer to that one, please share. I have played on a Conn Tuba with oval tubing & it sounded Killer!
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