Saxophone Forum


by DaveAlto
(1 post)
4 years ago

Neck screw broke in neck receiver, causing a leak?

I have been playing saxophones for 2 years and I have a Yamaha YAS-280 alto. Just over a month ago I sent it to my repairer and she gave it a full check over and it played great when I got it back, then 3 days ago I took it out of the case and accidentally snapped of the neck screw when trying to unscrew it. Guess I tightened it too much.  I have read that can be prone to happen on Yamaha saxes. I am going to upgrade to a professional alto in the next few months so I didn't want to send it to get fixed just for this issue. I do have a soprano sax I got back in April and I am starting to play it more and want to concerntrate on it for now.

Anyway, the neck on the Yamaha fits OK as the neck wasn't attached when the screw broke, but the neck does move around after being inserted, so I tried putting cork grease around the neck tenon area to see if that would help seal it temporarly. I have also ordered some plumbers insulation tape and will put that around the bottom of the neck to see if that gives a better seal.

I contacted my repair tech and she said I could use a screwdriver to screw itno the broken screw and push it out. I tried but only got small amounts of it out, so after several attempts I decided to stop trying for now.

What I would like to know is, since the saxophone played well before this, I have started to notice that my middle D,E and F are more prone to squeaking and although I can play all the notes, besides the squeaking, I have noticed that there is possibly more resistance too. Could those be because the neck isn't tightly sealed?

I am playing on a Selmer S80 C** with a Legere Signature 2.5 reeds and Francois Louis Ultimate Brass ligature.  I tried new 2.25 signature reeds and they just seemd to give me the squeaks on the middle D,E and F notes and didn't know if going up 1/4 reed strength was adding to the resistance or the neck issue was adding more resistance and making the saxophone harder to play.

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  1. by mijderf
    (282 posts)

    4 years ago

    Re: Neck screw broke in neck receiver, causing a leak?

    The problems you describe are consistent with a neck leak.  Get an estimate from a repair person, the charge to remove the screw should be very little.  Or use a small drill bit to help turn the screw until you can remove it.  Just be careful to avoid any damage to the female threads of the receiver.  But it makes no sense to me to put up with the issues, or to abandon a horn over such a small problem. 

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