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<\/a><\/p>\nBoston Sax Shop Heritage Alto Saxophone Neck<\/strong><\/p>\n I took it to my repairman who went over it with a fine tooth comb.\u00a0 I was excited when I went to pick it up!\u00a0 I played it and guess what?\u00a0 It still had the gurgle.\u00a0 I asked the repairman and he said he noticed it also but there was no leaks anywhere on the horn.\u00a0 I decided I had to live with it.\u00a0 It was a drag but the rest of the horn was incredible so…..whatever…… (Just so you know, the repairman also tried putting some cork in the bow of the sax.\u00a0 That got rid of the gurgle but it also changed what I loved about how the horn sounded so I took out the cork and just lived with the gurgle.)<\/p>\n That’s my long story, thanks for being patient.\u00a0 Now the point of all this is that when Jack Tyler from the Boston Sax Shop<\/a> told me he had a new BSS Heritage alto sax neck that was amazing and asked if I would like to try it, I was curious.\u00a0 I doubted I would like the sound of it more than the original Reference 54 sax neck but maybe it would get rid of that annoying gurgle in the low end for me .\u00a0 I told Jack I was interested and he was kind enough to send me a bare brass Heritage neck to tryout and perhaps review.<\/p>\n Boston Sax Shop Heritage Alto Saxophone Neck<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s the description of the BSS Heritage alto saxophone neck in Jack’s own words from the Boston Sax Shop website<\/a>:<\/p>\n The Heritage Saxophone neck was conceived from my twin passions; restoring vintage saxophones and playing them. I have had the privilege as a repairman to examine and test hundreds of vintage necks and put into the concept of the Heritage little pieces of my favorite attributes from each one that I found to be exceptional. A significant amount of influence for this neck comes from the free blowing characteristics I have found in earlier Selmers such as the Radio Improved and Balanced Action horns. These models are getting harder and harder to find and often people prefer their sound but not their ergonomics, so I set out to produce a neck that would allow players to experience the magic of these older saxophones on more standard horns. After several years of measuring and many prototypes, the Heritage neck was born.<\/em><\/p>\n The Heritage neck plays with more flexibility and has more width to the sound than a standard Mark VI or VI style neck without sacrificing control or pitch. I find it offers the player more room to push and opens up the middle register which is often more covered on alto, producing a more homogenous sound across the horn. It is my dream neck and I am proud to share it with you!<\/em><\/p>\n The Bare Brass Heritage neck is made with a proprietary alloy sourced from Germany. Each neck will form its own naturally beautiful patina over time and handling. The Heritage neck is precision made to exacting tolerances to ensure consistency and hand engraved.<\/em><\/p>\n Each neck includes a complimentary in house custom fitting to your horn. If you wish to order a neck to try at home please select your saxophone type and follow up by contacting me for additional fitting information. We have machined custom fitting dies that allow us to size any neck to the following models:\u00a0<\/em>All vintage Selmer models,\u00a0<\/em>All current production Selmer models,\u00a0<\/em>Yanagisawa,\u00a0<\/em>Yamaha,\u00a0<\/em>P. Mauriat,\u00a0<\/em>Cannonball,\u00a0<\/em>All other Taiwanese made saxophones.<\/em><\/p>\n -Jack Tyler, owner and repair technician<\/em><\/p>\n Boston Sax Shop Heritage Alto Saxophone Neck<\/strong><\/p>\n The Boston Sax Shop Heritage alto saxophone neck came in a very well packaged and protected box.\u00a0 It is bare brass and has some beautiful engraving on it as well as the cool BSS logo engraved on the front of the neck.\u00a0 Although the bare brass doesn’t match the dark honey gold color of my Reference 54 alto, I looked in the mirror the first day I played it and I thought it looked pretty cool.\u00a0 The Heritage alto saxophone neck also comes in a silver plating that you can see on the BSS website<\/a> also.\u00a0 (I wish they had a gold one to match my Selmer 54 alto……..)<\/p>\n Boston Sax Shop Heritage Neck on Selmer Reference 54 Alto Sax<\/strong><\/p>\n Jack custom fit this Heritage neck to fit my Selmer Reference 54 alto sax perfectly.\u00a0 \u00a0He has the neck tenon measurements of most brands of saxophones in his shop so if you tell him what you have he can custom fit it for you also.<\/p>\n I put the Heritage neck on my Reference 54 saxophone and played it.\u00a0 I have to be honest, at first, I didn’t like it.\u00a0 It seemed too different from my regular neck.\u00a0 It seemed more focused and not as fat sounding to me.\u00a0 As I played it and got used to it over the next week, I really started to warm up to it though.\u00a0 After a week, I went back to the regular 54 sax neck and I was surprised at how different it was. Now I didn’t like the original neck at all.\u00a0 It was too fat and spread sounding!\u00a0 This was confusing me!<\/p>\n In the end, it is hard to say which neck is best or better but they are just different sounding and have a different resistance to them.\u00a0 Which one a player likes really has to do with the player’s personal preference.\u00a0 I know you want me to tell you which one is best but the best I can do is provide sound clips and tell you want I think of each neck so here goes…….<\/p>\n Boston Sax Shop Heritage Alto Saxophone Neck<\/strong><\/p>\n Compared to the Heritage alto sax neck, the original Reference 54 alto saxophone neck has a fatter more spread sound to my ears. I thought the Reference neck was darker sounding than the Heritage neck but as I listen back to the recordings, I just think the Reference neck has a fatter more spread sound which tends to diffuse the brightness in the sound. I think the actual brightness is pretty similar and in fact I think the Reference 54 neck might actually be brighter.<\/p>\n As far as playing on each neck, the Reference 54 neck seemed more free blowing to me and the Heritage neck seemed to have a little more resistance.\u00a0 Resistance always gets a bad rap though so I feel the need to explain.\u00a0 When playing the sax, there is good resistance and there is bad resistance.\u00a0 A bad resistance is when it is hard to blow and perhaps the tone sounds stuffy.\u00a0 It is a lot of work to play a mouthpiece with bad resistance and it doesn’t respond like you would like.\u00a0 Good resistance is like the resistance you feel when you swim in a pool.\u00a0 It feels good. Moving your arms and feet against it has an effect. You feel in control and you can push against the resistance to do cool tricks in the water.\u00a0 Playing the saxophone with good resistance is similar, you can work with the sound and manipulate it easier than on a setup with little to no resistance. This was the case for the Heritage sax neck. It had a good healthy resistance. It seemed much easier to bend notes and manipulate the tone.\u00a0 I think the resistance and focus made vibrato easier and more effective on the Heritage saxophone neck also.<\/p>\n I also felt like the range of the horn was more even and uniform than the original Selmer 54 sax neck.\u00a0 In clip 2 below I start with a few chromatic scales on each neck and I feel like the Heritage neck clip is more even and uniform in tone throughout the scale.\u00a0 Most importantly is that I did not get one gurgle on the new Heritage sax neck which is a major selling point for me!<\/p>\n The intonation of both necks seemed pretty similar to me with slight differences. The second octave right hand notes like D,Eb,E and F were sharper with the original Reference neck.\u00a0 The Heritage neck was closer in-tune on those notes.\u00a0 The second octave left hand notes like G, A, B were a little bit sharper on the Heritage neck but I honestly think those notes are a little flat on the Reference 54 neck so I am used to having a pretty tight embouchure on those notes on the original neck to keep them up to pitch.\u00a0 This is easy to adjust for with the new Heritage neck though and just requires me to be a little bit more relaxed in that octave.\u00a0 The low notes were equally in-tune on both necks.<\/p>\n Boston Sax Shop Heritage Alto Saxophone Neck<\/strong><\/p>\n The thing I have realized as I played the Heritage neck for the last few weeks is that I really dig it’s focused tone and vibrance (the tone seems alive and energetic).\u00a0 I always loved the fat spread tone of the original Selmer neck but now that I have been playing the Heritage neck for a few weeks and go back to the Selmer, the tone seems too fat and spread and I miss that focused core of energy to the sound.<\/p>\n In the clips below I try to play similar lines and phrases. In Clip 1, I am playing the beginning of Phil Wood’s solo on “The Summer Knows”.\u00a0 On Clip 2, I play some slow chromatic scales, go into a short bluesy riff, play a little of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird Suite and then the beginning of Kim from the Omnibook.\u00a0 Listen to both clips and see if you can hear the differences between the two saxophone necks.<\/p>\n I think Jack Finucane over\u00a0 at Boston Sax Shop<\/a> has done a great job with the Heritage alto saxophone neck.\u00a0 You can’t spend any time with Jack at his shop without seeing and hearing his incredible passion for all things having to do with the saxophone.\u00a0 He is very excited and always has new projects in the works.\u00a0 If you are interested in trying a new BSS Heritage alto saxophone neck you can find out more information on the Boston Sax Shop website<\/a>.\u00a0 Neffmusic also gets a small commission from each sale using this clink which helps support this website,\u00a0 so thank you in advance if you use the link.<\/p>\n If you try a BSS Heritage alto sax neck,\u00a0 I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.\u00a0 \u00a0Please also comment if you have any thoughts or insights on the comparison clips of each neck as I would love to hear your opinions. Thanks,\u00a0 \u00a0Steve<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n