Leaks No More

As i had expected, the horn still had leaks when i brought it home from the tech's at yamaha. this time round, much improved. but i couldnt help it cos it was pretty difficult to detect leaks under that sorta lightin in the work shop.

so i took it home, checked the sax in the dark of my room and found those leaks. So being the smart alec dat i am, i took it upon myself to remove those leaks once and for all, of which i'm not supposed to. So anyway, yea i did. i took a risk, as with wat i did with my new epoxy baffled mouthpiece. i took my little screw drivers and my makeshift leak light and sat them down on my bed. I drew all the curtains close and situated myself near a light switch which i could just flick if i needed mroe light to see wat i was doin.

then, i sat knelt at the bed, took the sax and studied it very closely and carefully, each single mechanism dat affected how each key should move and how much etc. dat's the beauty of the sax, it lies in the intricacy and complexity of it. There are about 600 parts in total to a sax when taken apart. when u make adjustments to one part of the sax, other parts are affected too and need to be compensated. such is the nature of the sax. it is a very united kinda instrument where each part plays a role in achieving one goal. if one part is affected, others will get affected as well. so i had to study how each part works and how they were gonna be affected when i make certain adjustments.

this is of cos no job for any tom dick or harry and by attempting to adjust the sax myself, i risked screwin up really big time. dat is if u dun know wat u are doin and wat u wanna achieve. so anyway, thank god, i fixed all leaks on the sax. yes did i say ALL LEAKS? YES ALL LEAKS FIXED!

Except one though.. EXCEPT ONE. dat was the F# pad. no matter how i adjusted, the fella didnt wanna close up. so i stopped and inspected the pad itself, isolating all other affecting mechanism and just fiddling the pad by itself. So wat i found was dat the pad wasnt closing the tone hole properly as it should be. so i suspected dat the pad might not be seated properly. how i deduced dat was because one half of the pad remained closed while the other half sorta floated in the air, indicating an unbalanced pad. dat was somethin beyond my control so i just kept the leak to a minimum dat i could muster.

i think i'll go back to yamaha again and have the tech check it once more and see whether the pad is really unseated. once this F# pad can close the tone hole fully by itself, i can adjust the rest to make sure dat there are absolutely no leaks at all on the sax which is so paramount to gettin a good sound and all notes out cleanly and clearly. for now the sax is 99% LEAK FREE! and i'm pretty happy and proud of myself of being able to solve all the leak problems. cant wait for the sax to be fully 100% leak free~ dat'll be the next goal~