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Re: Water Spots on Bell

Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-08-19 00:32

Your MD should be in contact with the venues you're playing at to see what their wet weather plans are, and the venues themselves should really provide the shelter for all bands that play there.

Fortunately the Selmer Signets have stainless steel screws and springs, so the plastic bodied ones are reasonably weather-proof in that there's nothing to go rusty on them if they do get wet.

But it's the cold that affects them, so the long keys (top joint trill keys and 2nd 8ve key and the lower joint feather and kidney keys) will need a fair amount of end play between their pillars so they don't bind up when the plastic contracts - and the 8ve vents will most likely get blocked with condensation.

I wasn't at all happy last November when I did several outdoor performances in Portsmouth's historic dockyard for the Christmas festival and my bari sax got rained on (as did the other saxes in the 4tet, and the other players weren't too chuffed either) - the pads got wet along with the springs, and the key felts absorbed a lot of water. So every night I left the bari out on it's stand in the warm so it could dry out, propping open all the closed keys so air could get through the entire instrument.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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