How To Replace a Saxophone Neck Cork

my name is art and I work at brass and woodwind shop in Burton Hills New York today I'm going to record the neck on a saxophone saxophone neck Clark's usually lasts around oh ten years or so maybe a little more this cork is that from a very old text fine I'm going to say that quartz probably been around for probably 50 years or maybe more pretty much all saxophones are going to be similar and replacing the net cork so it really doesn't matter what brand or saxophone you have there's really only one small difference some six ones have a little ring at the end of the neck and it really doesn't make it much more worth it's just one more extra cut this is about all you need to do the job it doesn't really take that many tools to do it I'll put a list of the supplies you'll need in the description below I'll let you look over my shoulder while I do the job first thing is to take out the old cork you just heat it up by shooting a flame into the saxophone there blow up failure of course and it comes right off sometimes it comes off a little harder than that but usually it's not too difficult if you don't have a torch like this there are other ways of judging the neck cork off but this is the easiest way the next thing to do is take some masking tape and put it on the neck usually about an inch and a half up from the tip sometimes means do it a little more sometimes a little less if you need to cover something up actually I'm gonna do it a little more in this one because I need to cover up some old mess that they have there so you just wrap that right around there and why that is there will become apparent later this is an alto saxophone on a tenor saxophone you want to do about an inch and 3/4 on a baritone saxophone about two inches this is one sixteenth inch thick Clark and it's just a sheet cork you don't need this much I use this much obviously because I do a lot of saxophone necks and other things with it this sheet of cork about 12 by 4 inches cost me about $20 so it's very expensive so conserve as much as you can you're going to need about the distance to the masking tape plus another quarter inch or so then 3/4 I'm just going to make a little cut to mark it and then two inches right there and you always want to use a really sharp razor when you do this because because court needs a sharp razor to cut it well there it is and a couple other tools you're going to need a mallet and a block and I'm just going to hit this the reason you do that is just to soften it up because it needs to go around a pretty tight turn so you don't want it to break when it does that next you take the block you just put it right at the edge of the block and then just cut a bevel onto the cork and just about a 45 degree angle it should look like that when you're done take the contacts to match and you just paint it on the backside of the Clark also paint it on the little bevel that you just made and the reason for that is because the cork is going to come around and you want it to stick to that part of the bevel this creates a really good bond and the cork that's going to stick to your saxophone neck for a really long time then you put glue on the saxophone neck also and this is contact cement so you have to wait for it to dry first and usually that takes about five minutes or so and then you just let both of them dry and when they dry they're going to stick together really good when you put those together it's been about five minutes so I'm going to put this on start at the bottom of the saxophone neck so you just put it on like that you want a little overlap onto the masking tape and then a little overlap it to the end of the saxophone neck there probably wondering why I have a screwdriver and it's not really to turn screws if you just kind of push it down like that it helps helps the glue stick better and then you just get it started you push see how I'm doing that I'm just pushing as I go you kind of guide it the neck is tapered so as you roll it it's going to Cork is going to kind of try to turn off to one side so you just kind of guide it with your thumb and push it to where you want to go and then once you get about half way just take the screwdriver you don't doesn't necessarily need to be a screwdriver can be anything I just use it because they had some has the knurling on it which helps to push down on the glue a little better and then just do that all the way around and then you finish just finished going around like that and just be patient when you do this part of it okay there that's good now I'm going to finish pushing it on to the saxophone neck now I'm going to cut off the excess cork carefully cut down the excess right here you don't want to go into the cork you just want to be right at the surface and if you mess up this one you're going to be starting over and you don't want to have to do that so just be very careful and again be patient cut around here just go all the way around just rest the razor right on the lift of the neck and then you just go all the way around you the actual mouthpiece are going to use for the instrument because the bore is slightly different size on different mouthpieces so just use that one and obviously it's going to be too big so we need to sand this down this is 150 grit sandpaper and it's pretty sturdy it's not going to rip fightin strips and it comes in really long lengths and you rip off maybe six or eight inches is this also for clarinet Tenon's nsy it has the fold in the middle for clarinets you fold it in half for saxophones you just open it up you can use the paper sandpaper too but it won't last you very many next you're probably wondering what this tool is for over about 23 years of repairing instruments it's kind of gotten wore in a bit but that's okay it still works take this tool and then I put it into a hole that's drilled into my workbench and then I just put that on there and just hold it with my stomach too so I have use of both hands if you don't have one of these fancy tool you can just get creative I'm sure you can find something to put the neck on so that you can hold it while sanding it if you're going to do a whole lot of sectional next you're going to want one of these tools then you take sandpaper and start sanding because the neck is tapered you're going to have to take are off of this and then you do off of this end so keep that in mind as you're sanding so you just stand it a little bit and turn it about so and each of the way around sand a little more and just keep doing that until you're all the way around let's try the mouthpiece okay that actually is pretty good usually you need sand it more than that but this one didn't ring clear a whole lot of sanding really don't want to sand it any farther or else I'm going to be pulling the cork off and doing the job again I don't want to do that now if you have a tenor saxophone mouthpiece you're going to want to put that on there and just slide the tenor saxophone mouthpiece right up to the thickness of the masking tape right there then that's going to be your guide to cut around the mouthpiece and you want to use the tenor sax because it's a little bit bigger so I can go right up to the end without it risking it cracking or anything bad happening cut it all the way around and then you find the end of the tape you just take the tape off and the cork comes right off with it remember that little ring that was at the end you just take take the razor and you just cut right around where that ring is again use patience when you do this takes a little while but you want to do a neat job pull off the Clerc around the ring like that then there's just one more step take some paraffin wax rub it onto the cork but do it rather vigorously and then you take the cork and then rather vigorously just turn it around in your hand and the reason you do that is the friction creates heat and it helps to fill in the little holes the pores and the cork and that keeps the cork grease from getting underneath there and dissolving the contact cement you're nice it then you just apply the cork grease and you're finished if you've done the job correctly the mouthpiece should just slide on there without too much effort you want it to be a little tight because the cork will compress a little bit but you don't want it to be too tight I hope this video is helpful and please subscribe and feel free to tell your musical friends about me

Channel: The Brass and Woodwind Shop

Views: 18,340

Rating: 4.976923 out of 5

Keywords: saxophone neck cork, how to replace saxophone neck cork, alto sax neck repair, band instrument repair, saxophone repair, saxophone neck repair, how to fix a saxophone

Id: kL02ipdOmAA

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2017