ProShop Saxophone Overhaul
Make Your Sax Better Than New. Our ProShop Saxophone Overhaul is the job that SaxophoneRepairs.com is known for – and a primary reason Selmer Paris recognized us as an Official Pro Shop.
Saxophone overhauls are widely misunderstood. Just as not all players perform at the same level, not all technicians do either. Most technicians can handle everyday repairs – dents, neck corks, routine adjustments – and do so competently. But completely rebuilding a saxophone, taking it apart down to the bare body and restoring it to peak performance? That’s a different discipline entirely. It requires specialized training, purpose-built tooling, and the kind of hands-on experience that only comes from doing a large volume of overhauls over many years.
Our ProShop Overhaul goes beyond a standard re-pad. We’ve developed a meticulous three-step process designed to bring your saxophone to a performance standard that exceeds factory specs – the sound and character you love, combined with the mechanical precision and consistency of the best new instruments made today.
The Additional ProShop Saxophone Overhaul Steps
Beyond the standard overhaul, our ProShop Saxophone Overhaul goes to extreme lengths that will bring out the utmost performance out of your sax. Regardless of vintage or previous bad repairs (including bad re-lacquers), these steps are transformative to finding the hidden performance you likely never knew your sax had!
Diamond Tone Hole Leveling
Most saxophones – even new ones – have tone holes that aren’t perfectly level. This happens due to imprecise factory work, lazy past repairs, or impact damage that wasn’t fully corrected. The result: pads must work extra hard to compensate, creating an uneven compression in the leather and felt of the pad that leads to leaks and instability more quickly and often than you wound want.
We correct this by using advanced rotational diamond leveling files on every tone hole – the same professional standard used by the top technicians in the world. With precisely flat tone holes, we can seat harder pads that seal consistently and stay in adjustment far longer.
This step also acoustically transforms the way a saxophone sounds and responds. By using the harder pad, we decrease the amount of acoustic dampening caused by soft, over-compressed pads and further unlock the resonance and responsiveness your horn was always capable of – but couldn’t achieve without this.
Full, Excessive Mechanical Refit
Key fit degrades naturally over time as hinge tubes and rods wear against each other. Even on the world’s best horns, this happens over time and increases the “slop” of your keys. Most shops address this through “swedging,” which pulls the hinge tube of the key against the posts – but it doesn’t address the fit of the hinge tube to the rod itself. If the rods aren’t straight or are worn, no amount of swedging will give you a truly tight, precise action.
With the ProShop Saxophone Overhaul, we spend 2–3 hours on keywork refitting alone. We check every key rod for straightness and proper fit, fabricating new rods when necessary. We then refit all hinge tubes to their rods for a tight, precise feel throughout the mechanism. The result is keywork that moves like the best modern Japanese saxophones – fast, responsive, and without play.
Combined with leveled tone holes, this gives your vintage horn a modern, stable, confident feel under your fingers.
Premium Pad Selection
Pads affect far more than just sealing a tone hole. The type of pad impacts your saxophone’s resonance, the feel of the action, and – critically – how long your adjustments hold. Standard soft pads on unleveled tone holes is a recipe for constant re-adjustment. Hard, premium pads on level tone holes stay in adjustment for far greater lengths of time – with some players have reported going 3+ years, with heavy use, without adjustment! While we still wouldn’t recommend going that long, the sheer fact that they CAN is astounding!
Our ProShop Saxophone Overhaul features Pisoni Pro pads as our default pad of choice with your choice of nylon or metal resonators. This pad has become our pick for the best leather pad currently available. Most of your highest end horns made today from Selmer Paris, Yanagisawa (Elite Series models) & Yamaha Custom Series models are using these pads as well – proving it to be the right choice for premium performance! We also offer a range of kangaroo leather pads in white, black, or tan, with your choice of resonator style.
Your saxophone. Your sound. Your way. Your best.
Pricing & Timing
- Average cost: $1,800 – Payment Plans Available!
- Average turnaround: 2–3 weeks
- Warranty: 1 year on pads & adjustments
We can also discuss optional upgrades to further enhance your saxophone’s performance, including premium necks, mouthpieces, ligatures, and accessories.
Convinced? Ready to Send It In?
Call or email us – we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about shipping your horn to us safely.