Refurbishing a Bundy II Alto Saxophone, On my own?? Options

[fablefour]

Hello All,

I have a Selmer Bundy II Alto Saxophone that is in horrible shape. It was left in a moist environmnet for a long time. The pads, felt and corks probably need to be changed(moldy).

Is there a self-refurbish book or something I can use to refurbish this saxophone on my own? I have no experience and already own a Bundy II Tenor Sax in good shape, so I just want to bring this alto back to life for fun.

I have nothing to lose yah know?

[JPSaxMan]

I wouldn't do this sort of thing on my own. Even after all the musical experience I have (7 years), I would not touch a single pad on the sole horn I had (maybe on my crappy Armstrong alto but not on my Selmer tenor or future Selmer alto). Why? Check it out; you actually have to use flame to put a pad in. That's, right, fire, thing that burns, burns off lacquer and when coming in contact with skin/nerves, it really hurts. You have to disassemble the whole saxophone, pad for pad, cup for cup, rod for rod. In this process, you could possibly lose screws, bust springs, knock out rods, etc etc. THEN, when you go to put it back together, your action timing could be off, pads not just right, and guess what? You're in worse shape then when you started because of all the leaks due to the action being off and the pads not being just right. Considering that you are not a tech, you would not know how to fix this problem accurately. So you would end up taking it to a tech to re-strip the horn, maybe even replace pads you f***ed up the first time, then to re-set it up. A bill well over $500. And a pad set is about $100 (good ones are). So there's $600. For another $500, you can buy a brand new Yamaha YAS-23 which will outplay that Bundy, even when overhauled.

So my verdict; DON'T DO IT.

[toktok]

well you could loose a sax... i would say bring it in, get it done right, and enjoy!

[Dewey]

I would say take the money you were going to spend on repairs for a bundy II and put it towards a better alto.

[torontotenor]

Bundys make great lamps, shame on you Selmer for putting your name on those things.

[JPSaxMan]

Yea, as I had previously stated, I would not put any money into a Bundy (or Bundy II or any other Selmer student level horn).

[Superman]

I say go for the home overhaul!!!

It's Bundy II, you mess it up, no big loss. You'll still have your cash. AAAAnd you'll get to fiddle around with the horn and see how it works. You trash it, who cares. I'm sure there is(are) book(s) on saxophone repair. See if you can get one, could be fun to mess around with.

[Dewey]

What you don't seem to understand is that overhauling a horn costs money. You don't just do it with things you have laying around the house. With the money you would put into overhauling a horn that is worth pretty much nothing, you could be paying for a decent horn.

[saxdave]

I can see what Superman means though as it would be quite interesting to take a saxophone apart and just have a fiddle. So even though it does cost money it'd be an experince worth having and would give you a bit of information about the intricate mechanics of the sax.

[JPSaxMan]

I can see what Superman means though as it would be quite interesting to take a saxophone apart and just have a fiddle. So even though it does cost money it'd be an experince worth having and would give you a bit of information about the intricate mechanics of the sax.

You can pay less and take a class in Musical Technicianry.

[Saxophoneguy2001]

I'm gonna put in my vote for letting a profession do the job if you actually care about it getting fixed properly. I took a class last summer in instrument repair (meant more for music ed majors who are gonna become middle school or high school band directors than for people actually interested in becoming a repair technician), and I'll just say I have a much greater respect that I already did for good instrument repair technicians because of how complicated most things can be. If you want a pad fixed the right way and set the right way, I can guarantee you're not gonna be able to do it by reading a book, and then you'll just get extremely frustrated. Plus, if you're using the best choice of glue and not just the most economical choice, it can be even harder because of how hot you have to get the glue to move the pad around. Even after taking that class, the only thing I feel truly comfortable with fixing myself is recorking sax necks and clarinet tenon joints. However, after taking that class, I'm now also much better at at least diagnosing problems so I can show the repair person exactly what the problem is that I'm seeing (which they prefer because it saves them time in trying to figure out the problem when you can't explain it very well, though a good technician will also check it to make sure the problem isn't because of something else that you might not have noticed), and I'll be able to better tell just how good or bad of a job they do, partly by the equipment and supplies they use.

For instance, ask your repair person what kind of glue they use for sax pads. If they say shalack (or however it's spelled), then you know it's the good stuff and it's gonna hold up great. If they say anything else, especially glue stick (which is basically a stick of the same glue that's used for hot glue guns), then it's not gonna hold up that well. Basically you have to heat shalack up to several hundred degrees to melt it and move the pad around. But for glue stick it's only about a hundred, so if it's a hot enough day or if the sax is kept in a hot enough place, the pads can actually shift around in the key cup and get out of whack.

[Dewey]

You can pay less and take a class in Musical Technicianry.

Yep

[Superman]

It's a BUNDY II!!! Everyone is saying be cautious about the money. It's a Bundy II. Try playing with stuff around the house. See what happens. You loose a Bundy II, it's not like you've lost an ireplaceable work of art. It's a Bundy II. You break it, use it as an excuse to upgrade....that's when you spend your money. Yeesh, don't take a Bundy II so seriously, it's a Bundy II.

[JPSaxMan]

But to buy a new pad set costs $100 or more, and if you screw up the saxophone, you will need to have it put back together by a tech (unless you wanna leave it in a heap of metal but most of the time you don't) and that costs well over $500. So that's too much money to spend on a Bundy IMO.

[toktok]

I would have to agree i'm all for home work but no point putting 150 or 200 in parts in an instrument that you will probably screw up. I would just buy a new horn, and if your heart so desires take the bundy apart and rebuilt it with the same pieces so that you have an understanding on how it works, but don't waist money in it.

[JPSaxMan]

Yea, I mean, after you get your new horn (Yamaha 23...), you can take the horn apart, take out the old pads, and if you do it right, you can just put the old pads back in to see if it plays the same. Don't even buy a new pad set; just practice on the Bundy II using the same pads; if the mechanics are worse after your first take-down then obviously you f***ed up somewhere. Otherwise, ya done good.

[saxdave]

You can pay less and take a class in Musical Technicianry.

Good point. Hadn't thought of that. Could still be fun to try it yourself though. I mean if I had an old sax I'd probably take it to bits and see how it works even if i knew there was no way I could put it back together. But that could just be me.

[Saxophoneguy2001]

It's a BUNDY II!!! Everyone is saying be cautious about the money. It's a Bundy II. Try playing with stuff around the house. See what happens. You loose a Bundy II, it's not like you've lost an ireplaceable work of art. It's a Bundy II. You break it, use it as an excuse to upgrade....that's when you spend your money. Yeesh, don't take a Bundy II so seriously, it's a Bundy II.

Sure it's a Bundy II, but it's still a useable saxophone. I still have my old Bundy II that I use in marching band because I obviously won't use my good horn, and my Bundy II is in much better shape than the rental horns the school has availible because they don't care about fixing marching band horns to get them into playable condition. And I dunno about anybody else, but I'm not saying to be cautious about money. I'm only saying that if you want the job to be a success, just take it straight to a professional. Not only is a fix like this way too complicated if you don't already know what you're doing, but trying to use household tools means automatic doom for any instrument. It's just a bad idea.

But to buy a new pad set costs $100 or more, and if you screw up the saxophone, you will need to have it put back together by a tech (unless you wanna leave it in a heap of metal but most of the time you don't) and that costs well over $500. So that's too much money to spend on a Bundy IMO.

I dunno where you get your figures from, but even a really bad pad job is gonna cost more than $100. Unless you meant just actually buying the pads for yourself and not actually having a tech do the work for you. Either way, a pad job with "glue stick" that I described earlier is still gonna cost over $300, and the repair guy I go to who uses shalack says he charges $1,000 for a pad job and still loses a considerable amount of money on it. Luckily I haven't needed a full pad job from him, cuz as great as the work would be (the precision he's got as well as the choice of glue, which makes it that much harder and time consuming and is why it costs so much), that's still a lot of money. Also, it doesn't cost $500 for a repair person to put your horn back together. Even if you bring it in and it's just in a pile of stuff and they have to figure out what screws are for what parts, it's still not gonna cost even close to that much.

Just keep in mind that if you're gonna take an instrument apart, you have to keep track of exactly where each screw, rod, and rod screw came out of, because they all have to go back into the exact same place they were before. In fact, a good idea would be to put those back in place after you get the key off that they were holding in place. Just so you know exactly where they belong.

[Superman]

It's still a Bundy II. Take it apart one part at a time so you don't get confused. And remember, IT'S A BUNDY II. Yeah you can use it for marching band, but is saxophone really the most important section in a marching band? Nope. It's a BUNDY II. Spend the money on the new horn, and then start messing with the BUNDY II. If it's a messed up BUNDY II it's not exactly a useable BUNDY II.

It's a student horn, if you have some cash get something else. It's like trying to repair a Hyundai. It's probably cheaper just to buy a newew one.

[Saxophoneguy2001]

You know what? We're just trying to give advice on not messing up a saxophone that can still be played, regardless of what kind of saxophone it is. Regarless of what it's gonna be used for, it's still a useable sax, and we're trying to help him keep it that way without messing it up beyond repair or wasting more money than necessary. We all get your point that it's a Bundy II and it's far from the best sax out there (VERY far), but that doesn't mean that we can't give him advice on not messing it up.

And no, saxophones are far from the most important section in a marching band, but every section is important in their own way anyway. Besides, no matter how important your section is perceived to be, you still need to be playing a horn that works.