Anti-Roll Tanks for boats have been around for over a century.  They basically consist of a tank that runs athwart ship filled with water.  When the vessel heels to port, a surface wave (or the entire volume of water) runs to port.  Various methods control the water's arrival until just after the boat has begun to rock back to starboard.  The water's additional weight transfer, and the water's momentum in hitting the port side of the tank, effectively neutralizes some of the righting force, i.e., it takes some of the "snap" out of the recovery and reduces the abi ..read more

 When I installed a diesel heater on my boat, I was concerned about the exhaust noise.  I had tried the muffler that came with the heater, but it was a fail for two reasons.  1) it was spot welded around the edges and therefore was not possible to use aboard.  It would leak exhaust fumes.  2) It barely worked.  There are two versions of the stainless muffler that comes with these diesel heaters, although they look identical on the outside.  One is a straight-through design and the other has a little bend.  They are a "glass pack" style of muffler with th ..read more

I once started a list of all of the various remedies for a stuffy 2nd D (D2).  Sometimes the complaint also included a warbling low D1 (or lower notes).  The list of possible fixes got so long and complicated that it was of little value.  Although some claim that their D2 is stuffy, others describe the same problem as D2 being unstable or weak.  There is a general agreement that D2 is an unstable note and is an acoustical compromise.  Since there are various solutions to eliminating a stuffy D2, many of which actually work, it appears that D2 can be unstable in va ..read more

One of the oddest mouthpieces that I have come across is the Gale "Triple-Rail" mouthpiece.  Lots of vintage mouthpieces have tried things to differentiate themselves from conventional mouthpieces.  Odd shaped chambers, metal tables, anything to make the mouthpiece stand out.  Of course, the manufacturer also has to make a claim as to why the design modification is superior, or what problem it solves, or how it improves the sound or tuning or something.  As we have seen with musical accessories, the claim doesn't need to be true or even make sense.   Most of the i ..read more

 This is really the only sauce that I've ever had on lutefisk.  I don't have a refined recipe for this for two reasons.  First, I was quite young when I watched Grandma.  I had been dropped off at her house while my parents went about some other business where my presence wasn't needed (Holiday party, Christmas shopping, etc.)  I remember that she found out that she didn't have enough butter so it was off to the grocery store for just butter.   Butter is one of the main ingredients. The other reason that I don't have a written recipe is that Grandma didn't us ..read more

 Well now that the election is over, it is time to celebrate.  The holidays are coming and there is one thing that saxophone players all agree on, it is that lutefisk is required for fete and frolic.  Well, they may not all agree, but it is universal at my house.  My Grandma Olsen was Swedish.  She convinced all of her grandchildren that they were Swedish ("Eat this, you'll like it.  It's Swedish like you.")  I was probably in college when I finally figured out that I'm more English than Swedish.  But by then it was too late.  No way would I eat som ..read more

Okay, a $12 mouthpiece might not mean a lot to some of you.  This blog gets hits from all over the world, so I need to convert $12 into other currencies.  I'm going to convert that in accordance with the countries that view this blog the most.   The primary readers are in the U.S., so that's done.  My second most common blog visitor is from Russia (WHY?), so $12 converts to 769 rubles.  Next is Portugal (again WHY?) at 11 euro.  United Kingdom at 9.30 sterling.  France and Germany are euro.  Canada at $16.  Australia at $17.73.  Ukraine would be 288 hryvnias (My auto-correct kept trying to ch ..read more

I know, you haven't seen all of my prior mouthpiece rescues.  It takes more time to write a blog about refacing a mouthpiece than it does to reface a mouthpiece.  Rescuing old saxophone mouthpieces is what I enjoy doing, not writing blogs about them.  I mainly write blogs to show how it is done, not to chronicle all the ones that I've done.  Usually it is only the "lost cause" mouthpieces that show up in a blog.  If it just needs a touch-up, that doesn't make for good reading, IMHO. What does a truly "lost cause" mouthpiece look like?  How about this one. Yes, that is the horrible discolor ..read more

I saw that fake Jody Jazz mouthpieces were appearing on Ebay.  The text in the Buy-It-Now "auction" was constantly changing.  It first appeared as a Jody Jazz mouthpiece.  Later, it said that the mouthpiece was a "JJ" brand, however the name on the mouthpiece was obviously Jody Jazz in the same gold font as the real thing.  Some auctions said it was hard rubber, others said that it was bakelite.  Bakelite (the real name is polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride)  is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin that is not universally considered "food safe."  It might not be something that you would ..read more

I figured that this would happen.  Just when I thought that I was done with the M.C. Gregory Saga, something else comes up.  Technically, the M.C. Gregory Saga is done.  Malcolm Culver Gregory was involved in the designing of mouthpieces ("Model A" and "Model B") for his employer (Rico Products, Ltd) until the late 1940's.  Rico later used the Model A mold rebadged as the M.C. Gregory "Master."  Mr. Gregory may have been involved with designing the "Mickey Gillette" for Rico.  He and his wife may have finished mouthpieces for Rico.  End of Saga. But there is the loose end caused by Malcolm Gr ..read more