Question:

I play a cannonball alto sax and like most or all saxophones, on the top of the body of the sax there are two screws that you are supposed to tighten up in order for the neck piece not to move.

One of the screws on my sax broke and my neck piece moves around but I can still play normally like I used to. It’s as if no screws are tightening the neck piece.

My question is will this affect my sound?

-Miguel

Neal:

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer has to do with understanding what both of those screws does.

One of those screws tightens the connection with the neck. The other does something else.

It sounds like the one that did not break is the one that does something else.

That screw, from what you have said, sounds like the screw that tights the hold on a lyre. Is the screw going into a small square shaped slot? If so, that’s probably what it is.

A lyre, for anyone does not know, is sort of like a small music stand that you can attach to your saxophone. It’s used in marching bands many times. You can attach a small book of music with it to your saxophone so that you don’t need a full music stand. That means you can move around and march. Although, most marching bands eventually memorize their music I think.

That screw is for a lyre, not to tighten the connection between the sax neck and body.

The connection between your sax neck and the body of the horn is important, you want it to be a good connection. It can affect your sound in a bad way if it’s too loose. And you could potentially damage your instrument by tightening too much.

What I would suggest, for now, is taking the screw from the lyre holder and replacing the screw that does in fact tighten the connection with the neck.

You very well may want to replace the broken screw and have both screws functioning in those two places. Whether the lyre holder is important depends on whether you use a lyre or not.

But the screw that tightens the neck connection is very important, that will affect your sound.