Low B drives me mad

[William Cingolani]

Hi Eugene,
I sometimes use one of those pen flashlights. It’s narrow like a ball point pen. I tie it on a string and drop it down the bore, Hardware stores or office depot might have them.

[Mark Kiziuk]

When I first started repairing saxophones, I just bought one of those small chinese pocket L.E.D flashlights that I saw at the counter at a store, I think it was like $2 or $3. I didnt insert the flaslight into the top of the sax, I just put the flaslight on top of the sax and shown the light into the sax at night with all the lights off. I was amazed on 3 pads that leaked! Not from pads that were bad, but from cork and felt needing replacing! A few bucks in material. Yes I HIGHLY recommend you bring it to a pro to check it out! Get an estimate first! Sometimes sax repair can get costly! Thats why I repair them for people now.
Mark

[Eugene Pefti]

Detecting a leak is one thing but fixing it is absolutely another 😉
I found it in a couple of pads, Mark, and realized that it won’t hurt to have it looked at by professionals. Where do you buy leather pads from by the way to replace them by the way ?

[Mark Kiziuk]

Ive been having great luck with musicmedic. Its an online site. They have sets of pads for a pretty wide range of saxophones. You can also just buy individual pads too. Also you can select “other” if your saxophone is not on the list, and you would need to measure the pads and let them know what sizes they are. They are located in N.C I believe, and I live in N.Y. When I order they normally arrive within 3 days. They are great folks!
Mark

[Eugene Pefti]

All is good now, folks. I had my alto back from repairs and the sound is totally different on lower notes, I mean no vibration and pulsation.

[Mark Kiziuk]

What was the fix?

[Eugene Pefti]

They replaced few pads as they said 😉

[Mark Kiziuk]

Ok good.

[Matt Curtis]

assuming your horn is not leaking and your mpc and reed combo is a good one you might be playing with too relaxed of a embouchure because I was able to gurgle on low b on my alto simply by relaxing my lower lip way too much. also if you have to have your mouthpiece pulled out too far to play in tune that will cause gurgling.If you are playing a real old saxophone some of the newer mouthpieces have too small of a chamber and bore which would make you play sharp and out of tune and then you have to pull out too far which will cause the problem as well. If the neck is loose in the body socket it will make low notes hard to play as well.In order to get the gurgle I had to feel like I was lifting my lower lip away from the reed as I was playing instead of suporting the reed. It is hard for me to do as I am not in the habit of doing this. if I play a fibracell reed my middle and low d will gurgle if I play them soft. I don’t have this problem with other reeds.

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