Well since we’ve all been bitten by the DIY bug, I thought what better way to celebrate this in the saxophone world, than by finding out how to make our own saxophones. Not being content with a simple, plastic model, like the one made by this fellow in Brazil, I decided to check what I might learn on-line about making a saxophone out of metal.
Well the ever-entertaining ehow—providers of useful advice such as How To Correct A Bent Baritone Sax—certainly didn’t disappoint. This time the site provided us with the 6 steps necessary to make our own saxophones.
How to Construct a Saxophone
Before you begin, you need to assemble the items that you’ll need in the construction of your saxophone. Make sure you have:
- Brass tube
- Sulfuric acid
- Stainless steel screws and springs
- Cork for the joints and keys
- Hard rubber for the mouthpiece
- Lacquer
- Tapered mandrel
- Drill press
- Felt or cardboard or leather pads
OK then, now that you’ve got those few little items in your workshop, let’s begin…
1. Start off by placing the brass tube on the tapered mandrel. You’ll want to heat it to make it more flexible, and then reshape it. After you’re done, clean it with sulfuric acid.
Do you think they might have suggested protective gear when working with sulfuric acid ❓
2. Now you’ll have to use a die, and shape the brass tube in it to match the curve of the saxophone you want to build. You’re going to need “highly pressurized water to shape the brass to the die by forcing the water through the tube.”
Now is it me, or have you too noticed that there are a few things missing off the “items needed” list?
3. Next step is to drill the tone holes. If you’re using a modern machine, it will create a rim around each tone hole. However, if you’re using an older-style machine, you can use what’s called a pulling-ball. Now you can clear coat the finished tube with lacquer.
Same comment as above. It seems to me that we’re missing an item off our list.
4. It’s now time to make the keys. You’ll have to to either die-cast them, or make them out of sheet metal. Polish them in a tumbling machine, or by hand. Another option is metal plating, which increases their durability.
Oh, if only I’d asked for that tumbling machine for my birthday, instead of a new camera! Darn. 😉
5. Now you have to fit the springs, pads, and screws to the finished keys. Attach the keys to the saxophone “by mounting them on small posts screwed into the the main body.”
Did I miss something here? When exactly did they tell us to make the posts? Oh well, it’s just a minor detail. 😀
6. Attach the brass neck and hard rubber mouthpiece—both of which are made separately (and we won’t bother writing about, because the rest of this is BS anyway)—and any other remaining fittings. “Line the joints with cork or wax to ensure they fit together as smoothly as possible.”
Now here are a couple of tips & warnings for you Do It Yourselfers:
Test the saxophone now to see that it plays properly. (What are the chances?) You can test it by playing it to see if it has a good sound. (I’m thinking that if you have to be told this, you shouldn’t have taken on this project!)
“Manufacturing a brass instrument is a complex process that involves often potentially dangerous elements, such as the sulfuric acid bath. [Do you think?] It should be attempted only by someone with the proper experience to know what he is doing.”
That’s an excellent point. Too bad that one was put at the very end of the article.
I just want to know: How does a person become a writer for ehow? What kind of knowledge must one possess? How does one prove one’s credentials? Oh, and most importantly, how much do writers get paid? I’d like to sign up, because I think I could write something just as comical regularly. I just want to get paid to do so.
BTW, the original article has no author’s name attached to it. It says only: By an eHow Contributing Writer.
Actually a Ph.D is not required, as long as one has a really really good ear.
Good one. Too bad I missed it, but you’re right: Yup, that’s all a person needs.
Besides the brass tubing, the plumber, solder and other items, mentioned in the many comments one very important element seeme to have been missed. To design the saxophone one wold need the services of a Ph.D in musical axounstics to calculate the pocisiton of the tone holes bore taper hole heights and the millions of other design details which cnnot be overlooked.Desibes the plumber and solder one would require the facilities of a fully equipped machine shop, metal spinners, a fully equippped tool and die making shop and a bank of specilist ladies expert in hard and soft soldering. LOL, LOL , LOL.
There’s always the way the first ones were made — trial and error. I know someone who designed and built his own soprano (work is still in progress), and he did the prototype in sheet plastic to determine where the holes should go and how large they should be. Only then did he implement the plan in metal. The body tube was completed quite some time ago, but work continues on the keys since he has chosen stainless steel as his material there. It’ll take forever to finish, but it’ll last forever too.
Peter Jessen from Denmark made a straight G-mezzo, he loves ballads.
Thank you for making my dreams seem…so distant. I don’t have the money for a phd.
No one would untake the task of actually building a saxophone as a diy project. Unlike the design of flutes and clarinets and other instruments with cylinderical bodies which design is relatively straightforward, the design of a saxophone does not lend itself to any sort of calculation to arrive at the body shape, taper angle, hole sizes and locations etc etc.Even the very latest computer aided design protocols have resulted in designs of saxophones which while being perfectly and scientifically correct cannot be played due to the positioning of the holes, their sizes etc. Adolphe Sax must be considered a genious to have invented the saxophone with practically no machines and most certainly no mathenatical protocols to help with design. Again unlike flute design for which the genius Boehm had devised the amazing moving hole concept to arrive at hole sizes and positions absolutely accurately, the saxophone cannot use the amazing Boehm technique due to the tapered body. It is difficult enough to obtain a properly tuned chromatic first octave,Obtaining an accurately tuned second octave is almost impossible. Most manufacturers just build up on the work done by those gone before them . NO one has succeeded in obtaining a more suited taper than the standard 3 degrees.As Diy the sax project could do well to start off using tapered cardboard tubes and a standard madrel. As already mentioned there are absolutely no formulae to arrive at the hole sizes and locations of an instrument which would be playhable. DIY sax would involve unnumerable trials and errors to obtain for a start the hole sizes and positions for the first octave. There would be an endless series of trials and errors to obtain an accurately truned second octave with an endless series of trials and errors to locate the vent hole or vent holes. the most that a practical DIY project would involve so as not to be a punishment would be an effort at replication of an existing design which is what all manufacturers actually do with minor modifications here and there,with absolutely no radical approaches or innovations.Not one single attempt at building wood or bamboo saxophones can be referred to as being successful. To obtain accurate pitch on these instruments requires constant control of embouchure, and breathing. A truly successful DIY sax project has yet to be discovered or made public, most likely for the simple reason that none such actually exists.
Beautiful blog.
Now, at one point in time, someone was making a saxophone with none of these modern machines. How was it made? I, for once, truly would love to build my own sax. I know it will not be an easy task. But there has to be a way.
Of all the instruments, sax is not an old one. But still, when Mr. Adolph Sax invented the saxophone back in 1846, they did not have all the modern, mechanized and computerized equipment that we have today. So, even in an small scale (meaning:OK: I do not have the big, very expensive equipment that companies such as Yamaha or P. Mauriat probably have, but I do have some very modern tools that will surely be much better than any tools that they had available back in 1846) … we should be able to produce our own saxophones (giving we learn how to do it and we have the time to do it).
I am open to meet with anyone (locally or distance) to start such a project. Who knows, maybe we start a trend and we end up producing very nice, exclusive, limited edition handcrafted saxophones. It may not be a task for just one person. It may required the help of others. But if someone want to do it… count me in. Your tools and mine tools together might make a difference. (err… our minds working together may as well be of some help).
I know one thing for sure… If I were to build my own sax… I want to make sure that it will be the very best sax in the world.
Just my two cents. LOL
Ooops….
By the way… I forgot… we might need a plumber too… they know a lot about brass and copper pipes and tubing.
After all… I love the sax (that is probably the reason I have only 6 of them – LOL) … but the truth is that the sax is just a glorified, complex and ingenious piece of deluxe plumbing. (LOL)
Hello Jose. Welcome to the blog portion of my website. I’m glad you like it.
What an intriguing idea you have: a group of musicians get together and jointly try to design and build a hand-made saxophone.
I think for sure it could be done, but would take quite a few experimental horns, before things all the variables turned out right (eg: tone hole placement, conical bore flare, etc). I wonder how many failed attempts Adlolphe Sax had before he came up with the first successful saxophone? Even using mathematical calculations, it would have likely have many a lot. Today, someone would likely use a CAD program, and save themselves countless hours, and a great deal of money.
Thanks for the visit Jose. Hopefully you’ll visit us again…helen
If I were going to make a saxophone all by myself, I’d probably make the body out of plastic. The keys would still be more or less conventional, though I might borrow some mechanical ideas from a Grafton. While the Grafton has some build issues that drive techs nuts, it has other ones that work very well, like the flat deck for the stack keys. I’d probably pass on the coil springs though.
But would you hand polish them? Or would you use a tumbling machine to get them shiny after the manufacturing process… Which we won’t talk about here, since it’s too technical, and after all, we wouldn’t want to give any useful info. (Much like the article itself.) 😉 😆
It reminded me of the old saw “if you want to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe”. The point isn’t to inform someone how to do it, so much as demonstrating just how much has been done to produce even the most basic goods.
Nice post 🙂 thanks !!!