Saxophone Pads: The Pop Test

Saxophone repairman Matt Stohrer of stohrermusic.com demonstrates high quality padwork he has just performed on a vintage SML Rev. D tenor saxophone. HEADPHONES OR GOOD SPEAKERS ARE A MUST- laptop speakers will totally miss the point of this video.

Usually, but not always, you can tell a lot of about the general condition and quality of the padwork on a saxophone by the sound the keys make when fingered without the mouthpiece or neck attached to the instrument. Listen for the drumlike sound these pads make. Music without a mouthpiece!

Another trick is to remove the mouthpiece, insert the neck, and finger low Bb. Put your ear right up to the neck hole and you should be able to hear a note- the instrument when leak-free will act as a bandpass filter and turn your ambient noise (air conditioner, traffic) into a recognizable note.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• saxophone
• repair
• tenor
• alto
• pop test
• test
• pads
• repad
• overhaul
• padwork

[abadcliche]

I can't post links here, and the answer is long, but the short version is this: That is mostly an acoustic issue having to do with placement of the octave pip being compromised due to the mechanical difficulty of having the 12 octave pips that would be acoustically correct. There are ways to help the issue, but it is common and for some horns/people/setups it won't go all the way away no matter what you do. Google: "octave pip hiss" and you might find what I would post here.

[MrTenorized]

Hi , I play Tenor Sax and whenever i play my high A or B flat and i press the octave key i always hear alot of air and it sounds like its coming from the octave key. Do you have any advice on fixing that?