EZ Blog
Elective Time Distribution - 31
A number of people have noticed that for several months their emails and requests for work have been very slowly answered (or not answered at all). So what the heck is going on? Well... I'm not dead or hospitalized - though were that to be a result of racing around Nürburgring in a
When asked, “How are you doing?” 97.5% of the time the answer is “I’m busy.” Well, that’s never been truer than it is now and I have had to make some adjustments to my “elective time distribution”.
EZmpc.com was started with the primary and sole purpose to save time - and it has done just that. Over the years, operations have been fine-tuned to be more efficient while still managing to provide an ultra-quality service. However, there has been less and less time to commit to mouthpiece work due to life’s increasing demands.
I may not be Clark W. Griswold, but I am a family man first and foremost. Those of you with kids appreciate that with age they don’t just need more food – they need more time and attention as well - whether they want it or not! My wife has been an absolute Saint about accommodating my mouthpiece enterprise and it’s time for some serious payback.
Second, I am a full-time professional engineer and my responsibilities as of late have required more of my attention and time such that I've not been able to maintain the usual pace with mouthpiece projects.
Third - Health! I need more sleep and exercise and I've been able make some headway there but have a way to go to restore the balance one needs to live fully and happily.
In short - as life’s demands evolve, there is less time and energy to commit to mouthpiece work. I refuse to “call it in” or “go through the motions” forsaking quality for quantity. I will only do mouthpiece work on the terms that I can be absolutely focused and passionate about each individual project. This is how the trust of my most gracious clientele has been established, and this is precisely why I am unable to keep up with the demand for my services.
I will finish the projects I have on hand and continue to work on the multitude of mouthpieces I have in inventory to make them available for purchase. As a matter of procedure, I will “leave the lines open” allowing new requests for work to be submitted, but that is only recommended for those who are incredibly patient as turnaround times will be absolutely unpredictable.
I wish everyone the best for 2010!
- EZ
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Balloon Boy Science -
Warning - Off Topic Information below which could be extremely harmful to your health - if you happen to have a lot of helium and mylar at your disposal...
By now, you have probably heard the big news about the six year old boy, Falcon, trapped in a balloon craft 8,000 feet up in the air sailing over
I got home at about the time that it landed on the ground and the boy wasn't anywhere to be found. Saw the footage of the pitchforks and shovels being stabbed into it to make sure it didn't float away. Didn't it seem like a more surgical procedure was appropriate considering a child might have been in there? It was as though the craft landed on a farm in the Middle Ages and the commoners came out with their hand-tools to slay the silvery beast - never to threaten the village again. But I digress...
After seeing the size of the craft, something didn't pass the smell test. It was not a small craft, but it didn't seem big enough to lift up a six year old. It would have needed to have some sort of rigid wings or airfoil to get additional lift against the oncoming wind. It didn't have wings, though. It could only rise by the buoyancy of the helium alone.
Whatever, if anything, fell from the craft wasn't a child - that's for sure. To be suddenly free from that much weight would have sent the craft FAR higher into the atmosphere than the 7,000-8,000 feet it was clipping along at. Having lost some of it's helium and making it's descent, it was apparent that there was barely enough helium in it to keep it afloat (which is how something being supported by buoyancy alone would behave). I point this out because the wind speed could have been 2 mph or 100 mph and the craft wouldn't ascend or descend any more or less (assuming the craft could withstand such forces to begin with).
Being an engineer, I decided to do some calculations. Given the reported size of the craft, it's apparent shape, and an estimate as to how much the thing weighed, it would have taken only a few calculations to have determined that the craft never had a person inside of it from the time it lifted off the ground. Not that CNN has many engineers on staff, but surely someone in the building took physics at one time or another and paid attention...
Buoyancy is based on displacing a volume of liquid or gas. When you displace the air with a lighter gas (helium), you get a lift force based on the differential between the mass of the air and the mass of the helium. Displace more air with helium and you get more lift. Displace cold air with hot air which is less dense (as a hot air balloon works) and you get lift.
The craft was light in color - even reflective - so one can assume that the temperature of the helium inside the craft was the same as the outside air temperature. At least close enough not to consider the thermal effects of the helium expanding due to heat and becoming less dense and creating more lift.
Here's the calculations which made it fairly clear that there was nobody in there.
I estimated the mass/weight of the balloon system to be about 10 pounds. You'll see later, though, that it could have weighed nothing and it still wouldn't have gotten off the ground with little Falcon at the helm.
The diameter of the craft was about 20 feet. The height around 5 feet. Given the conical shape of the craft, this gave it an approximate volume of 524 cubic feet. (PI*R^2*H)/3. Based on the densities of air and helium given the elevation and temperature of
LINK TO CALCULATIONS
So if Falcon was a newborn baby - MAYBE - this "Plan 9 From Outer Space" contraption would have gotten off the ground.
In a nutshell, there was no way a craft of that size had a chance of lifting Falcon over one mile up into the sky.
I'm glad that Falcon is OK (aside from the anxious vomiting). Something tells me, though, that the family was none too surprised he wasn't in the craft. Surely his father had a hunch. Maybe he's more a publicity enthusiast than an actual science enthusiast.
I'm always stressing to my kids how important it is to learn their math and science. Today's news made this abundantly clear.
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How's your neck? -
Aside from it being sore from all those hours of practicing with too thin of a neckstrap...
Actually - I'm talking about the neck of your saxophone.
When you insert the tenon into the body of the horn, does it go in easily? It should go in with a slight bit of resistance, but not so much that you are having to force it in risking "push-down" damage to the neck.
Once the neck is fully inserted, do you have to tighten the receiver screw with much force for the neck to stabilize? Once the tenon is fully engaged and you start to feel some resistance when turning the receiver screw, you should only have to turn it 1/8 to 1/4 a full revolution. No more! If you are having to pull the receiver shut with the screw for more than 1/2 a turn to get the neck to stabilize, it is too loose and performance problems could result.
Just last weekend I was noticing I was having some trouble playing notes below low E. I got out my leak light and could find absolutely NO pad leaks. I knew my neck was a little loose, but I didn't think that would be the culprit. Perplexed, I attended to what I had been putting off and re-fitted my tenon to the horn and wouldn't you know... all better now.
And if your neck tenon has an uneven pattern of wear lines that run it's length in seemingly random locations, it's likely that either the tenon, the receiver, or both are out of round. Need both to be true to each other (like any happy couple) for optimum performance. With the neck installed in the horn (and the screw left loose), there should be an even feel of resistance as you rotate the neck all the way around. If it binds or goes loose on it's round-trip, then it's time to pay your tech a visit.
And don't put any lubricants into the tenon to receiver connection. All it will do is encourage the build-up of other crud that you don't want in there - unnecessarily scratching and wearing things out.
Also... Does your mouthpiece fit well to your neck cork? I can't emphasize enough how important this interface is. Also, the fit has to be right in the right place - which is the TIP of the neck. Just because a mouthpiece fits snugly at the shank end does not mean that it is fitting properly. Gaps within the mouthpiece at the tip of the neck can cause stuffiness, low end "warbling" and other performance phenomena.
So if the tip of your neck cork is chipped up - replace it - and when it's replaced, make sure the tech keeps the tip of the neck cork fat enough to seal well against the interior of the mouthpiece. If it's too thick, it can get damaged when attaching the mouthpiece to the neck, so be careful not to go too far with this.
And what's the deal with the "ferrule" at the tip of Selmer (and other) necks? It's there to protect the tip of the neck from damage, but I would much rather be careful not to damage the neck and get that piece of metal out of there and have cork all the way to the tip of the neck (like can be done with Keilwerth necks). In some instances you can have a thin layer of cork around the ferrule, but the fit can be tight in the mouthpiece so it may or may not hold up over the long haul.
Anyhow - make sure your tenon to receiver fit is solid and that your neck cork is in good health.
NOTE: Not all techs are knowledgeable or sensitive to what I've pointed out here. Don't be surprised if they look a little confused when you point out the specifics of what you need done. It could even be possible that your tech doesn't have the right tools to round and fit a tenon to receiver correctly. But that's another story for another day...
Reeds and Resonance -
Resonance occurs when a dynamic system reaches a relatively steady state such that minimal energy input is required to keep the system in that state. For a saxophone player, every time a tone is produced, the system's resonance has a say in what kind of tone results - further, how much effort is required for tone production.
Think of producing a tone on a saxophone as a complex machine. The reed, the facing, and other factors combined with the player's personal embouchure, determination and stamina all come together to form the system from which tone is produced. Yes - include the players' psyche as part of the system as the mind is part of the feedback loop as much as the ears.
Imagine some optimum configuration for the system which requires minimal effort to keep the machine running - a nice clear tone comes out and can be held steady for a reasonable duration - the performer can reach their lows and highs with an acceptable amount of effort - a minimal amount of effort, even.
Then imagine modifying one aspect of the system - taking in a different amount of mouthpiece, changing to a softer or harder reed, increasing or decreasing the tip opening, finally fixing that pad leak, etc. Now you may have to adjust other inputs or factors in the system to find that optimum configuration.
Fine tuning a player's system is a matter of going through reeds, mouthpieces, horns, technicians, refacers, gurus, psychologists... until that optimum point is found. This is why the holy grail (however one defines it for themselves) is so elusive. That's the thing about stars aligning... they never stay there.
About those stars... Having an efficient mouthpiece can have a dramatic effect on performance and the player's experience - similar to and as significant as having a horn completely refurbished. The system can now tolerate greater variation of inputs and parameters such that there are now fewer "bad" reeds. Altissimo is still attainable in high humidity, etc. The sweet spot has been expanded.
It's my observation that reed type and strength is one of the most significant factors when it comes to a player finding their sweet spot relative to mouthpiece choice, tip opening, and facing design. Having worked with hundreds of players through countless dialogues, I came to the conclusion a while back that individuals are geared towards certain reeds and reed strengths moreso than tip opening. I'm a 2.5 player. I can play 3's on some pieces and 2's on others, but I'm most happy with my playing experience (tone, stamina, etc.) when I tune my setup around a 2.5 reed.
Sometimes players go through mpc after mpc because they are on the wrong strength reed. Perhaps convinced they are a 3 player, they are really a 3.5 player and need to go to a smaller tip opening to find their sweet spot - their range of resonance for the tone they seek. Or they think they need to be on 3.5's (due to machismo, ill-informed band directors, etc.) and really what they need is to back off to a 3 and go with a little larger tip opening to find their personal tone zone.
What number are YOU?
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