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Cork in tone holes for intonation

2K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  BlueTrane2028 
#1 ·
Anybody ever heard of putting cork on the inside of a tone hole to help with intonation? I guess it could be any tone hole, but I saw this stuff on a low C# hole. The width of the cork was very thin and wrapped around about 2/3rd's of the hole. Thanks.
 
#2 ·
I've used cork on a couple horns over the years to modify tone holes to help regular the pitch of saxes. I've heard of guys who experiment with play-doe to get just the right tone hole size before make a more permanent insert.

My current 6M has a fairly large piece of cork on the low B tone hole to bring the low C in tune.
 
#4 ·
Those bogus credit cards they are always sending in the mail work really well for crescents. My The Martin bari has a few of them now...(works great!)
 
#5 ·
Yep, got some serious crescent action going on with my bari's high D:



If you only need a subtle little tweak, it may be better (and easier) to use aluminum tape:



If you need thicker material, you may want to use lead tape (you can get it from golf shops, people use it to balance golf clubs) instead of cork. It will be self-sticking and easily cut with scissors the way aluminum tape is, but about 10 times as thick.
 
#6 ·
How does it work? I've heard of it for many years but never heard whether adding material makes it sharper or flatter. I'm guessing flatter, the same effect as lowering the pad height. I might use this little trick on my Martin bari that is sharp in the palm keys.
 
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