Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I have [insert maintenance here] done?

In order to stay in top shape, saxophones need to be serviced every 12-18 months, and given an oil change (also called a COA or 'clean, oil, and adjust') every 5-7 years of regular use. If you slack on those, your instrument will probably keep playing for quite a while, and since it's a 'frog-boil' process you may not even notice for a while, but it will slowly deteriorate and increasingly get in the way of your ability to make music.

Most quality pads will last very roughly 15-20 years on average. However, pad life in particular is influenced significantly by storage conditions and the care you take of your saxophone. A horn that is swabbed after every single playing session and stored in a climate-controlled home can have the pads last 25 years, where a horn played while drinking beer and put away still damp in a garage will be lucky to make it 10 without some some serious problems developing.

Will my saxophone need adjustment after I receive it?

Nope! When I package a saxophone, I take every precaution to ensure that it arrives perfectly in adjustment, including corking all the keys shut so they don't get knocked out of alignment.

If you pick up a saxophone in person, no worries there either. The brief break-in period required for any materials will happen in my shop before I do final adjustments.

If my saxophone hasn't been played in a few years, does it need anything before I can play it?

If your saxophone has been hibernating for a couple of years in a climate-controlled environment, it will probably still play, but you should have it serviced as soon as reasonably possible if you intend to keep playing it. Even though the sax has undergone minimal mechanical wear, the pads and corks and adhesives have still aged and there will likely be small leaks which will make the horn harder to play.

If it's been longer - maybe it belonged to your parents or grandparents and hasn't been played in 10 years, 20, or even longer - then it needs an overhaul. It might play now, but it won't for long. Even in the best of conditions, pads and corks do not stop aging in storage, so the leather will have dried and stiffened and felt and cork will have compressed and hardened somewhat (often unevenly). A repairer can often get old pads to seal well enough for the saxophone to play, but they will be stiff and noisy, more susceptible to leaks, and likely to rip or crack in fairly short order as they are used again, so a saxophone can generally only play on very old pads for a year or maybe two before it needs an overhaul anyway.

If it has not been stored under climate control, it will probably need more work. Many of the materials used in saxophones are sensitive to high humidity and extreme temperatures, and all of them are sensitive to large, rapid changes in temperatures. (Even the metals themselves can be affected: brass and steel expand and contract at different rates, so since all saxophone keys work using brass hinge tubes around steel screws, the keys will slowly undergo mechanical wear with the daily temperature swings often experienced in an attic, shed, garage, etc.) In this case, the instrument likely will play poorly if at all and will need an overhaul to be usable.

Does it really need an overhaul? Can't you just repad it?

Usually when people say 'repad', they actually mean an overhaul. That makes perfect sense - most people aren't familiar with the minutiae of fixing saxophones, and pads are the obvious part.

However, sometimes people think that new pads and corks are all a saxophone needs to play well again. As a saxophone is used, there will naturally be wear in the mechanisms which creates play in the keywork. If not fixed, that mechanical slop will cause the pads to seal less reliably. Uncorrected wear can also allow easier ingress into the joints for grit, creating even faster added wear. Tone holes can also be unlevel, creating another source for minor leaks and a high chance for even more to appear in the future as the pads age and become less supple. You can't just get an upgrade later - pads have to be installed after these adjustments are made so they can seal properly. A saxophone that has been repadded in this sense will not play as well as it could and will not hold up in the long run. I don't do that kind of work.

There do exist instances of 'closet queens' that genuinely do not have significant mechanical wear or other issues that would normally need to be corrected to keep an instrument playing well, but such horns are exceedingly rare, and quite frankly, chances are yours is not one.

How do I package a saxophone to get it to you?

Very important point to note: instrument cases are not designed to be used for shipping. If you stick a shipping label on a case, the instrument will arrive with significant damage.​ Saxophones need to have additional padding inside the case, then the case must be surrounded on all sides with packing peanuts inside a larger outer box. If you have a sax with no case, it should be well-padded in an inner box, which is then surrounded on all sides with packing peanuts in a second outer box.

With that out of the way, for instructions on exactly how to pack a saxophone properly I highly recommend GetASax's guide, accessible here: https://www.getasax.com/how-to-pack-and-ship-saxophone-safely-guide-with-photos/

If you don't have packing peanuts lying around, you can often find them for free through Facebook, Freecycle, or craigslist.