A few months ago I acquired a vintage silver Rampone soprano saxophone. It had been in someone’s grandmother’s attic, without a case, for who knows how long and was in quite a state of disrepair. Every pad (pretty sure they were all original) and most corks needed replacing, some keys and rods were bent, and the whole thing needed a good polishing. I have some basic repair skills and take care of basic pad, cork, and felt replacement and adjustments on my horns, and have done a full strip down, repad, and polish of a metal clarinet once, but have never undertaken a full restoration of a saxophone before.
Micing a clarinet, and especially a bass clarinet, is difficult. I had a list of several requirements of a microphone…