{"id":46260,"date":"2017-09-17T12:27:34","date_gmt":"2017-09-17T19:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=46260"},"modified":"2024-06-24T11:24:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T18:24:02","slug":"a-tale-of-2-misplaced-tuning-crescents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2017\/a-tale-of-2-misplaced-tuning-crescents\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of 2 Misplaced Tuning Crescents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tuning<\/a>It was nearly three years ago that I had my vintage curvy overhauled. Ever since I got it back from Claudio Fantinato<\/a> things have not quite been the same. Why? Because Claudio took out the two tuning crescents that had been in the horn ever since I got it from Gayle at Vintage Sax.com<\/a> \u2014and who knows how long before that.<\/p>\n

When Claudio brought the Pan Am curvy back to me, he told me that he found that it didn’t need the crescents. So he carefully returned the little bits of cork just in case I did need my regular tech to glue them in for me again.<\/p>\n

Immediately upon getting the little horn back, it was one of 12 or so I played at a concert at the Vancouver Art Gallery in February 2015. My tuning on the little beastie for that show was not great. I assumed it was because I hadn’t played the horn seriously for nearly a decade, so I just worked around the 4 or so really bad notes, and it worked out alright.<\/p>\n

Since I am not much of a soprano player, my curvy sat back in its case for a couple of years. When I did need a soprano for pit orchestra work, I gave the job to my trusty Mark VI.<\/p>\n

Over the past 12 months however, I really did want to play my curvy again. I started playing in a band that does a lot of dixieland-style stuff. Playing hot jazz solos with my 1920s curvy seemed like a no-brainer<\/span> to me.<\/p>\n

Sadly however, try as I might, I could not get my Pan American curvy to play in tune. Claudio had done an amazing job of overhauling it. It looks and plays beautifully. Now if only I could get its intonation under control again!<\/p>\n

\"Pan<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s what I tried:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Long tones, long tones, and more long tones.<\/li>\n
  2. Looking for the tuning crescents. I know I put them somewhere safe, but can’t find them… F#*!<\/li>\n
  3. Took the horn to my tech David<\/a>. He tried to make new tuning crescents. Nada. No matter where he put them, or how thick or thin the cork was, the horn would not play in tune with my mouthpiece.<\/li>\n
  4. David called Claudio to see if he could remember where the tuning crescents were attached. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t sure anymore.<\/li>\n
  5. I came to the realization that my curvy was not going out of the house, since it couldn’t play nicely with others over 100% of its entire range.\n
      \n
    1. Since the horn was washed in the overhaul process, all the old adhesive was removed. This means where the old crescents might have been attached was no longer visible. Furthermore, without the original tuning crescents, we have no way of knowing where they might have been, based on their size.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    2. Curvy was put in the storage cupboard for a few weeks, until a new friend came over. This friend was a saxophone player\/teacher from a local music school. She, like Claudio, was mostly an alto and soprano player. She too was able to play curvy mostly in tune the first time out.<\/li>\n
    3. Although I am not primarily a soprano player, I am nevertheless a decent one, and I shouldn’t have this much trouble with my own horn. I came to a realization that the mouthpiece I have used for years\u2014a Runyon Custom, which is a medium chamber piece\u2014was the likely culprit. I considered the possibility that this horn without its tuning crescents required a larger chambered mouthpiece.<\/li>\n
    4. As it turns out, my friend was using an Otto Link. Fortunately I did have one larger chamber mouthpiece for soprano that might do the trick: a Bilger Gold piece that Gayle sent me with the curvy way back in 1999 or 2000 when I bought it.<\/li>\n
    5. Using the Bilger mouthpiece the tuning issues on my Pan American curvy suddenly cleared up. This got me thinking: I wonder what a Conn Eagle mouthpiece would sound like?<\/li>\n
    6. I checked through my tech’s boxes of vintages mouthpieces that he has amassed over the years, but the closest I came was an Conn Eagle for alto. David had no soprano mouthpieces at all, but did tell me he would keep an eye open for anything that came into the shop.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      This brings us today: Today I am going to do something either incredibly brave or stupid. I have not yet entirely recovered from major dental surgery I had 12 days ago. Since September 5, I have only played twice\u2014and neither time was soprano. Regardless, I am going to take my curvy with its Bilger mouthpiece to rehearsal tonight.<\/p>\n

      How bad can it be? I haven’t played any soprano in weeks, and this soprano with this set-up really seriously at all. And I am recovering from dental surgery that set off a neurological attack. What could possibly go wrong. \":mrgreen:\"<\/p>\n

      What’s the take away? Tuning crescents and mouthpieces matter.<\/h3>\n

      If you want to read more about tuning crescents, I encourage you to read this excellent article by Curt Altarac titled, Tuning a Saxophone with Crescents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      I could have saved myself hours of aggravation if I had not misplaced the original tuning crescents. However, I did learn a valuable lesson: Some horns are so particular about their mouthpieces, that things like chamber size can seriously affect the horn’s ability to play in tune.<\/p>\n

      We’ve long heard that certain horns work best with certain mouthpieces. This is certainly not news, and something I have run into before. However, not being a player who specializes in playing a lot of soprano, I didn’t realize just how finicky these little beasties can be, and that for some of them, size most definitely does matter. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      It was nearly three years ago that I had my vintage curvy overhauled. Ever since I got it back from Claudio Fantinato things have not …<\/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":[16],"tags":[150,32,330,30,644,651,661,643,31],"class_list":["post-46260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-soprano-saxophone","tag-american-saxophones","tag-curved-soprano","tag-hot-jazz","tag-pan-american","tag-photos","tag-saxophone-repairs","tag-styles-of-saxophone-playing","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