Pad Leveling Station At the padding station, the pads are meticulously leveled so that there are no leaks and they make even and consistent contact with tone holes at the same time. This process is best accomplished in a dark area so that leaks can be more easily detected. If the pad is contacting one spot […]
Dear NFA, It’s the first time in many many years that MusicMedic.com hasn’t attended NFA, and it’s because we’re taking a sabbatical from trade shows in order to design and make our own saxophone right at our shop in Wilmington, NC. But don’t think we’ve forgotten you! We’re going to miss all of our friends, […]
Dry Fitting Station At this station, the level pad cups are adjusted over the level tone holes so the pads will install more easily. Our proprietary process of Dry Fitting is done with a “dummy” set of pads so that the pads which will be installed are not compressed during adjustment. These pads are put […]
Materials Station At this station, we select highly stable materials that will not compress and silencing materials that are easy to replace year after year. Generally, we choose materials that are synthetic because they work are very consistent and stable. There are three main types of key actions: keys that bump, keys that slide, and […]
When I started MusicMedic.com in 1999 in my Onancock living room, I thought about how cool it would be to someday make a saxophone. I knew that goal was lofty and I would need a serious amount of tools, money, experience, and the skills to do it. It wasn’t something I could immediately pursue. At […]
Jeff and I just got back from a life changing trip to China and Taiwan. We visited over 15 factories while we toured the Chinese countryside. We noticed a lot of interesting differences between the Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturing styles. Our discussions on how these approaches compare to what we know of the French and Japanese styles were difficult to resist when we had time to kill […]
One of the MusicMedic.com Sax ProShop’s on-going goals is to be able to make great necks for saxophones of any make, model, and size. Our preliminary offering is for the Conn 12M baritone, and we got a note the other day from one of our recent customers. It’s letters like this that make it worth […]
Curt and Jeff are embarking on a trip this Saturday that will be a major collaborative effort between MusicMedic.com, the Sax ProShop, a new distributor, and a number of factories. They’re heading to China and it will be Jeff’s first trip there. First stop is visiting with Jerry and our friends at Tenon and Chateau. We […]
Cleaning and Polishing Station At this station, all of the oils, grease, micro-brass shavings, and other build-ups are removed. This is done by washing the saxophone with soft bristled brushes that will not scratch the finish, mild detergent, and warm water. Special attention is given to cleaning out the post heads, the inside of the […]
Tone Hole Station Careful filing of tone holes is a staple of what makes our work good and consistent. However, the manual technique of filing tone holes is time consuming, and a method had to be found to keep our shop profitable and keep tight tolerances to avoid removing too much metal from the instrument. […]
It’s a busy travel week for the crew at MusicMedic.com! Curt will be in Frankfurt, Germany at Musikmesse this week from Thursday April 7 through Sunday April 10. If you’re there, be sure to pay him a visit at Hall 10.2 Booth C32. He won’t have the new lathe or Saxophone Body Mandrels because they […]
There have been many exciting projects going on at the MusicMedic.com Sax ProShop lately and this has caused some wild rumors in the Music Industry! As you may know, MusicMedic.com is like three businesses in one that all work together to continually improve all aspects of woodwind instrument repair. These business are: MusicMedic.com Repair Tools and […]
Keywork Station The Keywork Station involves mastery of manipulating keys, rods, and posts. With the body work completed, the key fitter begins their job of making every key straight and aligned, fitting exactly between the posts without binding and friction. Working toward perfect by making parallel parts exactly parallel and perpendicular parts perpendicular, the key […]
Body Work Station With the quote done, the work can begin. Using the quote as a road map to the coming repairs, modifications and body work, the Body Work Station begins to turn an instrument in the condition it arrived in into a straight and perfectly functioning machine. The Body Work Station transforms a dented, […]
The NAMM show is coming up soon and will be extra cool this year! The 2016 show takes place from Jan 21-24 in Anaheim, CA. We’re going to have a huge booth this year for a good reason: we’re bringing a lot of friends with us! The MusicMedic.com and Friends booth will be twice the […]
Quoting Station This crucial first step involves an extremely meticulous examination of the instrument. If issues are missed here, problems may occur down the line or may end up leaving a technician with extra hours of work that haven’t been accounted for. The quoter’s job involves having a vision of the completed saxophone and a […]
The 2016 U.S. Navy Band’s International Saxophone Symposium is coming up this week in Winchester, VA at Shenandoah Conservatory and the Patsy Cline Theater on Friday January 16 and Saturday January 17. This year is completely jam packed! We will be bringing some instruments and necks for you to try, and please feel free to […]
We just checked in with the Sax ProShop on their most recent projects are we’re really excited to tell you about it! For years, they have been altering and cutting necks, retapering them, adding liners, altering and changing the octave pips, and many other experiments in order to learn how to precisely control tone, intonation, […]
Day one of Expo Music in Brazil was a great day! I got to see some of my old friends like James Carter and Jody Espina, aka Jody Jazz. It’s funny how some of us Americans meet everywhere around the world but seldom in America! What’s cool is how many new people I met that […]
A Discussion of Pearl Heights as it Relates to Saxophone Set-Up By Curt Altarac Back to articles One of the most common set of problems I see on saxophones is the height and angle and even sometimes the shape of the pearl key touches. Student instruments can be terribly awkward right from the manufacturer and […]