I have been speaking with a well respected instrument maker about making a custom attachment for my zephyr. Since double socket necks for Kings are so hard to come by, I asked this person if they could make me a double socket to single socket removable "plug" for the top of my sax, with a certain bore to fit say, a single socket king, yamaha or selmer neck. What are your thoughts on this?
I was thinking the slight extra length would be the main issue, since there needs to be an extra screw above the height of the body. I am not sure this will be an issue as like a lot of Zephyrs; mine plays a quatre tone sharp when the mp is in a good position on the cork.
There are those on the site who will go out of their way to try whatever neck they can find to see what sort of sound they can get, or what have you. In the end, most conclude very simply that a different neck will play... well, differently. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but very rarely better than the original neck. They waste a lot of time, effort and money in chasing their own tail in this regard.
Sometimes different necks are made by manufacturers for their own horns. This goes back to Buescher, and Yamaha, Selmer and Mauriat (and perhaps others) do it to this day. In Buescher's case, it was to improve their early alto True Tone model with the beginning of the Aristocrat line. Today's companies probably just do it for pure profit to make from fickle players. Trying different necks out in this sort of case makes more sense to me however, because at least you know you're getting a neck matched to your horn by the same company that made the horn.
But in your case, I think there's just something digging at you that is completely understandable. Your neck had been damaged in the past and in your mind isn't quite perfect. I know this feeling perfectly well because I have a Silversonic tenor with a neck that was mangled in the past. I got it fixed however and it plays just fine. Sure, maybe there's a better neck out there for me, but what will it take to find one? No. I'd rather embrace the imperfection and simply play the horn as is, rather than grasp at what could be, or what might be.
Be happy with what you have, take a deep breath and let it go.
Well, there was the part about a local professional player who agreed that it played sharp, apparently worse for him than for you but you're still at the end of the cork.
But I think it's worth drawing the semantic distinction here, that's a tuning problem, and if you like, "intonation" might more strictly refer to the case where, wherever the mouthpiece sits on the cork, some notes may be in tune but others are not. As I understand it, that's where you'd be obliged to look for a different mouthpiece chamber size - because, briefly, some notes tune to chamber volume, others tune to chamber length, and the only way to get the balance right is with the right chamber volume. In your case, assuming all the notes are reasonably in tune with the mouthpiece you have, my guess is that you should not go to a larger chamber as proposed above, it will create a new problem you don't have now.
replace the neck cork with a shorter one then you will find that you only have the mouthpiece on half way :twisted:
actually from what you said about using a business card for the other player (I'm assuming you meant wrapping it around the cork?) then maybe not such a bad idea anyhow
Yeah I will get the tech to replace the cork when I find a gap in gigs to get it serviced, most likely next month that will be. It is squashed slightly for the last centimetre or so. Which does make it more difficult to have a mouthpiece as far out as the other guy needed it, hence the business card
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