Flute and Saxophone Tenons and Receivers

Submitted by micnap on Mon, 08/29/2005 - 00:54.

An often overlooked but CRITICAL part of woodwind instruments is the tenon/receiver area. The connection between the two parts must be airtight and hold a suction. If the fit is not correct, air will leak out and one or more of the following symptoms will usually be present:

Stuffiness throughout the range of the horn
Increased resistance
Weird quirks...certain notes will be difficult to tongue, but neighboring notes play fine
Low notes that will not play
A warble on certain low notes on saxophones

All, some, or even none of the symptoms above may be present depending on the severity of the leak and type of horn. Things unrelated to the tenon/receiver area can also cause these symptoms. For instance, a poor mouthpiece/horn combination or setting the mouthpiece outside of it’s accepted tuning range can cause problems similar to those mentioned above. Fortunately, there are ways to qualify/disqualify the cause.

Here are a few ways to determine if an air leak is present at the connection area:

Saxophone

Assemble the horn. Wiggle the neck. Is the fit loose? Tighten the neck screw. Does the neck still turn easily? If you answer yes to either of these, there is definitely a leak.
Assemble the horn (you will need to play a few notes on it). Mix up some water and dishwashing soap – enough to create suds when mixed (use “manual” dishwashing soap, NOT the kind that you use in a dishwasher!). Put a few drops of the solution at the notch on the receiver. Stand in front of a mirror and play a few long tones on notes that required most of the keys to be pressed. Do you see any bubbles forming at the notch? If so, a leak is present.
In our shop we use a specially designed tool to plug the bore of the saxophone just below the point where the receiver is soldered to the body. Then we connect the neck to the body and make sure the upper octave vent tube is sealed. We blow into the neck and listen for any air leakage. Then we try to create a vacuum by sucking inward (don’t worry, we’ve cleaned the neck first!!!!). If air leaks out or if a vacuum isn’t created or doesn’t hold, we refit the tenon/receiver connection.

Flute

Assemble the headjoint and body. Is the fit snug? Good. Now scrap that test because it tells you nothing except that the body won’t fall to the floor if the instrument is held vertically by the headjoint!!! Remove the headjoint from the body and look at the tenon as if you were looking into the bore. Is it perfectly round? Look at the receiver as if looking down through the bore. Is it round? Now scrap that test as it’s still a good 50% chance that there may or may not be a leak!
If a severe leak is present, the soapy water trick will work. And if the fit is extremely loose, you can bet it’s leaking. Otherwise, determining if there is a leak on a flute is pretty difficult to do without the proper tools.
We use our magic wand. You think we’re joking? No joke. We have a tool called “The Magic Wand” that gets inserted into the flute body through the footjoint end and blocks off the bore just below where the receiver is soldered to the body tube. When we put the headjoint on, we block off the embouchure hole or the end of the head joint, and then blow or try to create a suction. If either test fails, we refit the tenon/receiver area.

Although many repair shops charge extra to check for air leaks at the tenon/receiver area on flutes and saxophones, we at MICNAP believe that an airtight seal is so critical to the quality performance of an instrument that we INCLUDE THIS SERVICE IN OUR BASIC PLAY CONDITION REPAIR PROCEDURE!!!

Quality Musical Instrument Repair

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