These video overhaul sets are gold for anyone wanting to get their hands into restoring, Thank you soo much for taking the time to document your overhauls.
That was a lot of work for this old horn. I had one like it in the 70s that my mom paid $100 for and I hated that horn because it had so many problems. I did take it completely apart at one time and used silver polish to make it look nicer but it never plaid well, had a bad octave mechanism that was unreliable. Anyway years later I bought a tenor Buescher from 1939 on ebay for $750 and paid to have it repadded. It sounded almost as good as a Selmer. That was a nice horn, but my son took it after he played it in high school. Enjoyed watching your work.
Thank you for publishing these videos! I have a silver C melody saxophone from the same era that I've been in the midst of fixing up and your videos have given me a good direction to continue on!
I repad a lot of saxes, but have learned a lot about home made tools watching your vids. I'm puzzled why you chose to make the springs from new stock. I have done around 50 saxes in the last 20 years, and I can usually re use All the original springs. This saves a lot of time, and the originals on older horns are usually made better than modern ones. A trick is to line up the flattened area of the spring with the original slot in the post. It can weaken the brass by forcing a spring to seat in a different place. Once in awhile you break a spring or they have gotten loose, so you occasionally have to replace one. I have ordered a heat gun like yours since I think it would be kinder to the keys than a torch. I have had bad luck with "Tech " cork like products - seems its cork pieces in rubber matrix. Tech cork doesnt sand well, is softer than regular cork ( like on key feet) and tends to come apart on necks over time. I would not use it for necks on my horn, but its OK for a student play condition. Same thing for Valentino Synthetic neck corks. Ok for a emergency, but the adhesive moves and comes away in time. I have found a genuine cork can last 50 years if cared for. Holtons sound great. Some 50s models are really nice players. Look for the ones with round key guard feet. Older Conns - before 1925, Martins and Older Holtons have the same problem with tone hole solder corroding out. Kings, on the other hand have almost no problem with their tone holes because they use higher temp brazed on holes. A King will only have trouble when the hole is damaged. Courtier( Lyon and Healy, American artist, etc) have leaky tone holes too.
The hoards of Holton afficianados will tell you Holton's were as good as any other American saxophone. The Soldered on tone holes can be a bummer (ditto Martin) and even Buescher employed this method at one point. Early German made Keilwerth saxes has soldered tone holes too.
