Once you’re done with the A/bis Bb interface you need to check the relationship of the bis linkage to your lower stack. When this interface is correct the bis Bb key height is set by its meeting with the A pearl felt – and the actuator arm on your lower stack combo pad has no discernible gap before it meets the bis actuator arm. This relationship between bis Bb and the lower stack is one of the most critical (AND overlooked) aspects of setting a saxophone up correctly. When this relationship is correct the key heights of the two stacks are coordinated to the designer’s specs*. What that means to a sax player is smooth action & the best intonation a given saxophone can deliver (all other factor also being properly adjusted). This inter-stack interface is your final play adjustment when setting up a saxophone’s upper & lower stacks. It can only be accomplished by manipulating the stack key heights. The pros will leave both their upper & lower stack heights a little low during the foregoing setup steps so they have room to coordinate the two stacks AND have the key heights they want when the setup work is all finished. What I have just told you is one of the secrets of the saxophone universe. Guard it with your life … :-)

Actually, having the bis not completely close is a condition that we sometimes intentionally create so that the A key’s relationship with the upper stack combo pad can be correctly adjusted. As you might realize, either the relationship to bis OR the relationship to the combo pad arm can cause a leak at your A pad – and sometimes it’s both relationships contribute to a compound leak at A. The way to recognize compound leaks is to stay alert when making all your adjustments. If one of your actions doesn’t seem to cause the expected reaction then there’s a darned good chance you have a problem with a compound cause. Learn the key relationships where maladies have more than one potential cause & you will avoid much saxual anguish. Of course you could also be totally wrong in your approach to a problem and get a non-responsive result, but recognizing the failure of your actions to produce an expected result will always lead you out of the wilderness.

Auto parts stores sell gasket material & craft stores sell sheet felt, both of which can be used to fashion your setup adjusting bumpers. Another use for these bumpers is for avoiding unintentional (and unwanted) rim impressions when leveling cups & floating pads into plane with your tone hole rims. Remember that deepening a rim impression can change all your setup relationships involving the affected pad. It’s just like putting in a another pad that’s thinner than all the others. Manage your rim impressions carefully because they can help or hurt your saxophone’s performance. These critical implications that your rim impressions have on your saxophone’s setup & performance are why I hate to see people use key clamps.

*Assuming no keys have been bent out of original configuration. All bets are off until you have returned the keys to their original shapes if you find that's the case.

Having trouble with your key names? Bear prepared exhibits for Ryan to assure the advice was on target ...
(click images to expand)

By the way, thanks for the most intelligent and useful article on the general question of relacquering saxes; it cut straight through to the real-life issues at hand and has made me revisit many controversial repair topics in a similar manner...with much benefit to my continuing education. [I don't have lacquering equipment anyway, but at one point was considering the investment.] With much thanks, Rufus.

• Essentially, cleaning up bare brass is a lot of hard work. Both Flitz and Hagerty All-Metal Polish will do the job. Avoid products with high abrasive content such as Brasso. If you try the work with springs on be sure to get your tetanus shots up to date. In addition, visit our Q&A article on cleaning & polishing saxophones for the hint on using knitting yarn as an assist (to avoid springs & reach tight places). If you have a Dremel tool (or the like) you can use brass and steel brush attachments to clean stubborn areas. Don't use steel wool, as some might advise, because it causes terminal surface scratching. If you use rotary tools be sure to WEAR SAFETY GLASSES - the kind that completely seal off your eyes. There are some Dremel buffing wheels that are also of some use, but rag strips and yarn are your best bets for polishing larger areas. Brass will shine like old gold if you work at it, but be prepared to go over bad areas repeatedly. You'll never get pitting out, so be prepared to accept sufficing results.

• A mandrel can be made from a table leg (large home stores sell them here in the USA for a few dollars) wrapped in duct tape to protect the sax bell. Your mandrel can be held on a table top by clamps, or in a vise. We use a heavy table designed for woodworking that has two large wooden vises built onto its edges. You will find that if you can hold the sax firmly with your mandrel that two handed efforts will shorten your work. Of course an attractive lady friend could be induced to hold your sax for you, as well ... :)

• There are issues to deal with in a bare brass saxophone that you don't have with a lacquered finish. You have to decide early on just how aggressively you wish to combat the tendency of your brass to darken, or tarnish. Unless poor, wet or dirty conditions are present, brass will age & darken evenly & cleanly. Your bare brass sax will eventually reach an equilibrium point where the finish color stabilizes in an antiqued state, and will change little after that. This is pretty much the same look that the old jazz horns have where the lacquer has worn off over the years to allow them to reach that antique brass look. These great old horns are true musical treasures. There are worse fates your bare brass saxophone can suffer.

• If you want to put up more of a fight against tarnish -- keeping more of an old gold luster on your saxophone's finish -- we recommend a wrap for inside your case of Hagerty’s silversmith's cloth. This cloth keeps sulfur that is dissolved in air (which is the cause of tarnish, whether on brass, silver or gold) away from your instrument. This wrap strategy, combined with periodic touch up polishing with a treated polish cloth (we recommend the Hagerty Silver Duster), will keep a bare brass saxophone looking like the soft sheen of old gold for an indefinite period. If you are brave enough to take your sax apart (they will all come apart & play again after reassembly as long as you don't damage corks, felts, pads or springs in the process) every few years to touch up the polish job you can retain the old gold look until your next repadding. At the time of each subsequent repad your tech can redo the thorough hand polish that followed our initial stripping operation. If the horn is stored properly those subsequent touch up hand polish jobs will be much easier than your initial 'reclamation' work.

• You're right to avoid the Brasso. In addition to being very hard to work with (the residue is a Bear after it dries on a surface with lots of details & crevices), the product relies too much on the abrasive side of the polishing product balance for its effectiveness. As information, most polishing products contain a chemical brightener, but the 100% chemical approach can only do so much. Chemicals are fine on very light tarnish (like on gold & lightly tarnished silver), but not at all effective on the tougher metals (nickel, brass) or the really dug-in cases of tarnish. On the other end of the polish product spectrum are the pure abrasives, such as the cutting compounds applied to buffing wheels (which come in all sizes & methods of drive). If you have the right equipment you can shine any metal surface using abrasive products. The trade off with abrasives, of course, is that you also lose metal from your instrument in the polishing process. By definition, abrasives work by 'wearing' off a layer of your instrument's material to reveal the bright, untarnished metal underneath the surface. This abrasive wearing of your metal is the truly objectionable part of saxophone refinishing. The amount of metal removed by hand polishing is nil in comparison to that removed by abrasive buffing. That's why we only perform hand polishing here at CS. We don't even own any buffing equipment -- which is something you might inquire about of anyone you are considering having restore your instrument's finish. Most commercial metal polishes rely on a mix of chemical and abrasive components. They contain a chemical brightener, a fine abrasive (often as mild as talcum powder, but sometimes more aggressive), and a binding agent that holds the mixture together (and makes it smell like something you'd want on your hands or horn). The very best products for use on saxophones rely about 30/70 on the abrasive/chemical brightener ratio for their effectiveness. That means these polishes do a lot of their work short of drying on a surface. If you work quickly over small areas with products such as Hagerty’s All-Metal Polish or Flitz the stuff never dries to a pesky film. You can go the other way, of course, and apply these products, rub a bit, let 'em dry, then use the elbow grease to rub off the dried abrasive residue. Both ways work, but the former is relying more on the chemical actions, while the latter is relying on the abrasive actions to a much greater extent. With products like Brasso that are fully effective only when allowed to dry, the red flags should immediately go up: HIGH ABRASIVES AT WORK. In high abrasive polish products the liquid medium is merely a method to evenly distribute your abrasives over your target surface - and maybe to add a pleasant smell. So there you have it: a crash course on polish products and on how to decide which you want used on your saxophone.

Now for a final observation: If you bought that Beaugnier bass recently (9/04) on eBay from a gentleman in France, I've seen the horn. It looks complete, relatively clean & the visible damage isn't unreasonable. The thing the gentleman didn't know that scared me off was whether it's an A=440 horn. With a bass it's hard to say from looks or measurements cuz there are so darned many ways to wrap a pretzel -- and consequently, to fold up the tubing on a bass sax. Add to the confusing mix that the European sax builders always wrapped their large saxes (both bari & bass) tighter than their American counterparts, and you have a significant mystery surrounding that horn. My best advice is to try to get it playing at least enough to say if it's an A=440 horn before you sink a lot of labor into restoring it. There's not much you can do with a high pitch bass sax aside from making it into an umbrella stand...and it would be fine for that service exactly as it sits. I hope this message has helped, Rufus. I wish you the best on your project ...