Conn 26M VIII Alto Sax overhaul

It's been awhile! Seems like there hasn't been any time to post lately, and there still isn't, so I'm just checking in with a few shots of a Conn 26M VIII alto sax that I had the privilege of overhauling last month. If you want to read a well-written and informative article about the 26M, there's one here on Matt Stohrer's blog. Matt's posts are always thoughtful and insightful. Anyway, here's mine:

This instrument was in beautiful condition, and was brought in by the son of the original owner. His father passed it along to him when he was in second grade and it was the first saxophone he played. SECOND GRADE! He must have been the most coordinated eight-year-old who's ever lived, because this thing had no dents, no significant misalignment, and no missing parts. All of the (numerous) adjustment plates were intact and only a couple were frozen, and those broke free with a reasonable amount of effort. The only notable damage was that several of the pearl rollers were cracked and broke apart from being rusted on their rods.

The overhaul was a big job, but once all the pre-padding work was done (cleaning, straightening the body, aligning posts, fitting keys, leveling and dressing tone holes), the padding process was enjoyable, and the setup after that was downright idyllic. Need to adjust a regulation? There's a screw for that. Want to to change the key heights of the entire lower stack? There are screws for that. Want to change the relationship of the touchpieces in the left hand pinky table? That's more complicated than just turning a screw, but a hell of a lot easier than any other sax. This instrument had a steep learning curve, and I don't know how long it will be until I get to apply what I learned to another 26M, but it sure was a lot of fun.