sax woes

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BrettB

BrettB

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I played for 9 years classical alto sax when I was young at the local music school, but I kinda forgot the instrument when I was about 17. I played guitar by then, was more interested by that and my sax lessons were done.

But several years and musical influences later I decided I wanted to play sax again, but now more in a jazz-rock way. So this week I took my sax to a shop who has a reputation of repairing saxes (Adams from Diest, Roel will know it I'm sure:)) just to had it checked before I started playing again, and maybe buying a new mouthpeice.

But what the fuck happened? The guy at the store told me immediately that my sax had several problems with it's polsters (sorry, don't know the English word, I mean those leather things that shut off the air:)) so several had to be replaced. And what was worst: The metal of my sax wasn't straight anymore, my whole sax makes a slight curve when you look at it, something I never noticed. To put it back straight it was gonna cost me: 270 €!! Damned man, I just wanted to check the thing to get it cleaned a bit and adjuste some minor difficulties.

Maybe not much money for a working guy, but as a student and someone who was just thinking about using his savings to buy a new soundcard and mixer, I really was extremely pissed off. Because I wasn't even sure I would find the time to play with it, I said he only had to give it a routine check and doesn't have to straighten it out yet. When I am graduated and have a bit more cash, I'll fix it, or even buy a new one.


Anyway, don't you just hate it when something turns out to be much more expensive like you think it is gonna be :mad:
 
That's about 5 kms from my place! :cool:

I went there to look for my new sax. Gotta buy it while I'm still working or won't get to buy one in the next few years...

Believe me or not, but the shop hasn't got all that much of a good reputation around here. Alot has to do with concurrenting the small shops in the ground, but there service also isn't all that good, I've been told. And I don't like the guys in the shop. I went looking there for a 3000$ sax and they didn't even want to give me more than the list price. So screw them. I'm buying my sax in another shop. And they even introduced me the distributor so I can go test it over there....

Sorry to hear about that curve-thingy... What brand is it? Is it worth that much?
 
Hi roel

thx for your comment. The fact is I know no other shop in my area that can repair saxes, and one of my teachers from Ghent (who lives in Rotselaar) told me I should try Adams. It's bad to here you have some bad experiences with them. My sax is allready there for reparation so I can't switch now, I hope they don't mess it up.


The sax is a Conn, and I bought the instrument about 12 years ago, and it was allready second hand then, so I asked the guy from Adams the same thing if it was worth the money and if I wasn't better of buying a new one instead of investing in an old instrument. But he simply said it was worth it 'cause 'Conn was reliable'.

You're kinda right about the guy s in the shop, there have a little bit of arrogance when they talk to you. But that's a disease many music salesman have (you should go to Limit in Herentals, that guy is toltally obnoxious!!).

Anyway, the guy from Adams was gonna call me next week to tell me when I have to pick it up. I hope they did a good job on my sax and don't charge me to much.

When I see someone in the area that looks like your avatar, I'll wave, ok:)?
 
The guy at limit... yup, he's about as bad as it gets... Some of the guys here at Caerts in Leuven are pretty bad too. Leo himself is cool though.

Good luck on yer sax! And just yell when you see me. I probably won't notice it if you just wave. :)
 
we should start a new thread about bad musicsalesmen:) I never went to Leo Caerts though, so on the moment the guy from Limit gets te price of being the most arrongant. He can really treat you like a peice of shit, and talks to you with an attitude of 'I know it better, so should up'.

Some of the guys of Key in St-niklaas aren't that great either. When I recall what bollocks one of their audio department guys tried to tell me when I wasn't really into recording yet, I can't speak from honest sales strategies. Some other guys over there are not that bad, like the guitar salesman there seems pretty honest to me.

I worked a while at Thomaokaze in Ghent, so off course is isn't that easy to be a music salesman (some ppl really ask some crazy stuff, believe me:)), but I always tried to be honest and not have that 'I know it all better attitude'. I really like the other guy at Thomaokaze Ghent, Jean Paul. He always says what's on his mind and never hurries for customers:). I know several customers regard him as 'unfriendly' but at least he doesn't act superslickor over friendly, and he quite honest in his sales advices.


I hope my sax gets better btw, I'll let you know when it is fixed to tell if Adams did a good job or not.
 
I mostly go to JnR in Hasselt.

The guitarguy over there is the worst ever. Arrogant as hell. Then there's this young kiddie that really knows nothing, but he learned that he shouldn't try to tell us fairy tales, we really made a fool out of him a few times. :D And he cannot be an ass because I'm a pretty ok customer, with ALOT of friends in music. The keyboard/studiogear over there is cool. He knows his stuff, and admits it if he doesn't know something... I like that.

That young kiddie was pretty funny; I was playing on a Gibson Nighthawk once, and the pickup selector allows alot of combinations with in/out phase, parallel/serial, I don't know. So I asked him, what does this switch do exactly (knowing that it was selecting pickups etc, but wanting to know exactly what combinations), and he said:" euhm... it's euhm... to ... euhm ... you get different euhm... effects in each position..." :D That was funny. :D

Another time we were testing a mic, and my singing friend got a nasty shock. So he started to give a complete explanation about WHY the building did not have decent grounding, because customers that buy stuff would have at least the same or better ground at home etc... :rolleyes: Didn't make any sense at all. We really laughed at his face.... :D
 
Roel said:


Another time we were testing a mic, and my singing friend got a nasty shock. So he started to give a complete explanation about WHY the building did not have decent grounding, because customers that buy stuff would have at least the same or better ground at home etc... :rolleyes: Didn't make any sense at all. We really laughed at his face.... :D
Click to expand...

haha, jezus, what a quote:D When it goes that far it is just hilarious to go to a music shop:)
 
BrettB said:
polsters (sorry, don't know the English word, I mean those leather things that shut off the air)
Click to expand...

Pads, but i like your word better.
 
Actually, I really wonder what it sounds like... And would it be in tune? Would it even be possible to play the thing?
 
I don't know, there seems to be no single button on the thing. Maybe you'll just be able to get a few groundtones out of it...
 
Oh sorry, now I look closer I see a couple of holes in the instrument. The thing can't sound very stable, can it?
 
I don't know.... That's why I wanna know... Probably you'll get alot of air leaking out from under your fingers...

But I really want to hear it... Just hear what it would sound like.... Damn. To expensive to just give it a try.

Any rich saxplayers in here?
 
I play sax too!
Roel, I didn't know you played too.
We call those little leather shut off things "pads".
If a sax hasn't been played in a long time, re-padding it is common.
Dizzy Gillespie played with a bent horn for years, Brett, I don't see why you couldn't!
 
hey michael,

yeah, I know repadding was common, but mine was repadded not that long ago. But several pads are a bit infected due to the fact I put my brush after I played in the sax and kept it in there. The guy from the store told me that was it was stupid to do that, that you can't keep that brush in there, but my sax teacher used to say to me I had to do that, so I never bothered asking questions about it.

I felt kinda embarrased when the shop guy told me, but hey, I didn't know better and how was I supposed to know my sax teacher was wrong.

Roel, that exotic sax is in Heist, were I live. Maybe I can just ask the owner if I can just play it once:)
 
I never keep the swab stored in my sax, but thats the first I've heard about it infecting the pads. Maybe if it was damp when you put it in there.
Maybe the guy at the store was wrong???
Have you tried playing it? Does it appear to need re-padding?
 
SYMPATHY

I've got nothing constructive to add other than some sympathy. I went through the same thing, dug out my old sax after years of neglect wanting to rip through the scales like I used to, had to repair the pads, got it back and it still needs work (the G# key sticks). Damn. I know that not being able to play it makes me want to play it more, so if I fix it will I not want to play it anymore? Oh life, why so many complications?
 
zoetroope, thx for your sympathy:)

Michael, the store guy said to me the pads were infacted by calk, which are a result of the swap that absorbs the saliva, but by staying in the sax infects the pads. I never encounters problems during playing although, and I know shop guys are often a bit too eager to fix something that isn't really broken.
 
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