Saxophone Forum


by BandGeek92104
(22 posts)
18 years ago

loose neck?

hey everyone I'm in the school band and I play the tenor saxophone and other students have played it before me....but when I put the neck in the sax and tighten the screw it still wiggles...can I fix that..I don't want to put to much money into it since it ain't mine and the school won't pay for it....thanx Kevin

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  1. by Tbone
    (120 posts)

    18 years ago

    Re: loose neck?

    Find a tech in your area. In most cases what you're describing is an "easy fix".$30.-$40.

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    1. by BandGeek92104
      (22 posts)

      18 years ago

      Re: loose neck?

      whatz wrong with it though? why does it do it?

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      1. by CountSpatula
        (602 posts)

        18 years ago

        Re: loose neck?

        Do you play on a selmer? On my selmer series III alto and my friends ref 54 Tenor the neck is a bit loose, which i dont mind cuz i can make adjustments just by pushing it with my mouth.

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      2. by Tbone
        (120 posts)

        18 years ago

        Re: loose neck?

        There's nothing usually "wrong" with it, it's merely an adjustment. Brass is a relatively soft metal and can distort easily. More than likely the tenon just needs to be expanded a little and "fit" to the tenon receiver.

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        1. by BandGeek92104
          (22 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          thanks everyone....any ideas on how I can fix it? is there something I can do to fix it and not bring it to the shop?

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        2. by chiamac
          (586 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          "Brass is a relatively soft metal" meh, I can see your point. My experences has been brass is hard to move (you're not going to beat it into a cup or bowl that easy) and it gets brittle when hard. I'd take the neck to somene who knows what they are doing, it should be an easy fix.

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        3. by p-land sax
          (32 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          for a quick fix put some paper around the neck when inserting it into the body or some waxed dental floss

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        4. by Dave Dix
          (421 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          Get the tenon expanded but a quick fix use some plumbers teflon tape Dave

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        5. by Sax Mom
          (964 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          Paper would leak. I second the plumbers tape idea.

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        6. by Tbone
          (120 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          " My experences has been brass is hard to move (you're not going to beat it into a cup or bowl that easy) and it gets brittle when hard." What you are describing is called "work hardening" and you are right that. Brass will become brittle and break apart if you beat it. But, applying less traumatic types of pressure it can be shaped quite easily. The problem is that most people try to work brass in the same manner as steel or iron and brass just wont respond well to those methods. Just by the motions of inserting a neck and twisting to get the correct play alignment will slowly distort the neck's tenon, which may well be the case here.

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        7. by chiamac
          (586 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          "What you are describing is called "work hardening" " Really? it dosen't respond to the ways we work copper and silver (at to some extent gold), so how does someone work with brass and make bowls and such? *for something like a neck tenon - not a big deal

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        8. by Jaxsax
          (5 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          I had this problem on my Mark VI. A repair tech surprised me by putting a little wax (bees wax or candle wax) on the hand screw which tightens the neck receiver. Then, tightening the screw tightened the neck right up. Let us know if this works for you. Jack

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        9. by STEVE GOODSON
          (291 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          If you exapand your neck, be certain that it is also restored to perfect roundness. If it's not, it will leak. An easy way to check for this is to rotate the neck in the receiver 360 degrees and see if the "resistance" is equal. If it's only slightly off, a bit of lapping compound in a light oil suspension will generally take out any high spots. If it's significantly out of round, you'll need some specialized equipment. A perfect match between the neck tenon and the receiver is essential.

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        10. by STEVE GOODSON
          (291 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          If you exapand your neck, be certain that it is also restored to perfect roundness. If it's not, it will leak. An easy way to check for this is to rotate the neck in the receiver 360 degrees and see if the "resistance" is equal. If it's only slightly off, a bit of lapping compound in a light oil suspension will generally take out any high spots. If it's significantly out of round, you'll need some specialized equipment. A perfect match between the neck tenon and the receiver is essential. Expanding the neck tenon is only a part of the total job.

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        11. by chiamac
          (586 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          I guess you could do the following. draw a line or make a mark on the neck, then trace around it on some paper, after that get one of those circle drawing pattern things (that have a lot of circles) and use that to see where your neck is out of line. Once you found that a few simple hits with a soft hammer should take care of any high spots. Just simple soft hits since you don't want to really bend the neck or make things worse... but a few hits should round things out pretty well. this is assuming that your body isn't bent, that would be a little differnt to fix.

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        12. by Tbone
          (120 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          "Once you found that a few simple hits with a soft hammer should take care of any high spots. " You are kidding right? You 've got about as much chance of getting a neck tenon back to round by "hitting it with a hammer" as you do of "getting taller" by hanging by your feet with weights strapped to you! Don't I repeat, DON"T hit your neck tenon with a hammer! There are precision tools for this job and most techs don't charge that much to do it! :-(

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        13. by chiamac
          (586 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          no I'm not kidding, if you know where to hit it, and you're not using anything big or metal, and you're careful, you should be able to get it close. I'm not saying a metal hammer is to be used for this, it would have to be soft or a block of wood, hitting on something soft or a block of wood. Also, it's not going to make it much worse than it already is...

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        14. by chiamac
          (586 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          and it's a school horn.

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        15. by Tbone
          (120 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          "and it's a school horn." In that case, "just lay it on the ground and run it over with a steamroller". When it's all uniformly flat the tenon should fit really well since it's only a school horn. I think I'll call Ferree's Tools and se if I can trade in all my expensive repair tools on a bag of hammers!

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        16. by Tbone
          (120 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          "no I'm not kidding, if you know where to hit it, and you're not using anything big or metal, and you're careful, you should be able to get it close." It's not just where. What about how hard? Too hard and it's oval! Before you know it's stretched or worse kinked. What are you going to back it up against? Hit it on your "high spot" one one side and now you've got a flat spot on the other! Can't make it any worse?????? You, young man, are Delusional!

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        17. by Sax Mom
          (964 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          I agree that you should not be hitting your horn with any kind of hammer. You risk too much. And what's this about it being only a school horn? Since when do we not take care of things that belong to others as tenderly as if they belonged to us (while in our possession)?

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        18. by johnsonfromwisconsin
          (767 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          Tbone, Any chance I could get a link to a good tool for rounding the neck reciever and tenon? Me needs more repair toys :)

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        19. by Tbone
          (120 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: loose neck?

          www.ferreestools.com/Sax_tenon_shrinker.htm I found, for me anyway, that if I overexpand slightly and use the above "TOOL" that I get as close to round as possible. I still lap them in but there's much less lapping required since I got the shrinker. Note; musicmedic.com sells some real good lapping compound.

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