Re: I Play the Soporno Sexophone!
I just wanted to add that I received the new vintage Buescher TTT (1924) last Saturday and I've been getting familiar with that beautiful sound. I made the right decision! The intonation and overtones on that tenor are fantastic! I now know what Buescher fanatics like about the sax.
As with any vintage sax there was some setup involved. I went over the entire horn with a microscope and found only one problem. The bridge bar between the E and D keys wasn't corked enough to press down on the E pad. AHA! So I cut a piece of cork to fit the gap and glued it in with Gorilla glue and VOILA, I can hit all the notes below D as good as when the horn was new.
Yes, I use Gorilla glue very sparingly. The corks and felts stay put, and if you need to ever remove it a scalpel will do the trick.
Those D and E keys are always a problem. I had the same issue on my Antigua curved soprano. It has a couple of set screws that help balance the pads where the Buescher requires fitting cork. If you ever find that you can't easily hit the low C on down the problem is often that bridge bar between D and E.
Why the bridge bar? When you press the D key there are 4 (?) other keys that are pressed. Without the bridge bar between D and E there isn't enough force to press them all down enough, and the E key pad won't seal. However, with the bridge bar all the keys are pressed with both your right hand 2 and 3 fingers, where index is 1. This amplifies the force to close all the keys in the group. It also enables you to release finger 2 to trill the D note.
The horn is rich in overtones, which are a product of the excellent intonation and some other magic I have not yet figured out. It SCREAMS when you overdrive it! I see why Rascher emphasized 4 octaves. It is easy to select the overtones you want to color your tone. I'm in sax heaven!
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