{"id":32332,"date":"2012-06-08T11:07:35","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T18:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=32332"},"modified":"2024-06-01T10:46:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T17:46:23","slug":"angel-wings-angelic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2012\/angel-wings-angelic\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Wings: They Are Not As Angelic As They Seem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I took my JK-stencilled, 1957 Jubilee tenor (which is actually a Series III Toneking), and a brand new angel wing and clothes guard, as well as its matching 1957 alto cousin, and its new angel wing and clothes guard, to my tech, David Gsponer. David owns Matterhorn Music<\/a>, and he has proven to be the single greatest asset I can have as a vintage sax player.<\/p>\n

After much checking around when I first moved back to BC in 2004, I picked David as my tech to work exclusively on my collection of vintage babies. David  is trained as a wind instrument maker in Switzerland. David has a remarkable ability to diagnose and figure out how to fix the quirky things that can go wrong with vintage horns. He can create really good workarounds, if necessary, that look as good as the original, and look like they’ve always been there.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, David was minorly challenged, as he tried to install the new metal angel wing and clothes guard<\/a> that I received from the late Gerhard Keilwerth’s shop in Germany. Considering that Gerhard Keilwerth’s shop uses these parts in the restoration of The New King and Toneking horns regularly, you would think that these parts would fit, right? Wrong.<\/p>\n

The clothes guard came with pre-drilled holes that did not quite line up with the posts in the sax’s body tube. David had to come up with a creative way to build up the post, because I didn’t want to have the post unsoldered, and then resoldered again. In the end, it looks really good, and you can’t tell that things weren’t quite right. <\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

When it came to the angel wing, that was a bit tricky as well because there were no pre-drilled holes at all. David first checked some photos of Gerhard Keilwerth-restored Toneking saxophones, to see exactly where the 4 fastening screws were placed.<\/p>\n

After determining exactly how the angel wing should be placed, he carefully went about drilling the holes. After attaching the wing, he found that the tip of the wing closest to the bell, was actually in contact with the bell. David had to bend the wing up slightly to prevent metal to metal contact. As you can see below, there is now just enough room to avoid contact, yet the original flow<\/em> of the wing hasn’t been disturbed.<\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

There were also problems at the other end of the angel wing. The part of the guard that covered the low C key, actually put pressure on the key to the point where it was closed. David had to modify the very end of the wing to allow the low C key mechanism to operate freely.<\/p>\n

Before David’s mod, the angel wing did not have this curved cut in it (seen in the image below).<\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, now my Toneking is fully restored. Yesterday I took the after<\/em> photos of what it looks like. It is quite a remarkable change for this classic horn, which turned 55 this year.<\/p>\n

The right side looks very different now with the metal angel wing, compared to the Plexiglas wing the previous owner made<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a> <\/p>\n

The quirky leather strap for the left thumb<\/a> has been replaced with a mother of pearl thumb rest.<\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

The hook attached on the strap ring<\/a> to aid in switching horns (without having to adjust the neck strap), has been removed.<\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

When David restored the sax, he had to expand the tenon because the neck was too loose in the socket. The classic, JK neck fastening screw, which is attached to the neck, was in the way, so David had to remove it.<\/p>\n

I can’t see how it looks much different now than it did before<\/a>. Yes, there was a bit of lacquer loss in the process, but it’s hardly significant. The neck fits perfectly now.<\/p>\n

\"Keilwerth,<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’d like see the rest of the after<\/em> photos, they are now posted on the Bassic Sax website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As far as the alto goes, after David and I discussed options, I decided to have a full restoration done. The horn is in amazing condition<\/a>, and it deserves to be restored properly. Given the job on this tenor, I know the alto will be just as amazing when I get it back in the fall.<\/p>\n

\n
…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I took my JK-stencilled, 1957 Jubilee tenor (which is actually a Series III Toneking), and a brand new angel wing and clothes guard, as well as its matching 1957 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[331],"tags":[41,81,644,218,198,630,679,643,31],"class_list":["post-32332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-j-keilwerth","tag-accessories","tag-keilwerth","tag-photos","tag-stencil-horn","tag-stencil-saxophone","tag-tenor-saxophone","tag-toneking","tag-vintage-horns","tag-vintage-sax"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t