OhMySax — Learning to Fix What I Love

I play saxophone. Not well — but enough to know what a great horn feels like under your fingers, and enough to care when a vintage instrument sits in a case, unplayable, because nobody wants to take on the repair.

OhMySax is my project to learn vintage saxophone repair from the ground up. Not in a school. Not as an apprentice (yet). Just hands-on, horn by horn, mistake by mistake.

The Story So Far

Horn #1 — The Education

My first saxophone. Very old, very rusty, very hard to work on. I learned more from this one instrument than from any book or video. The horn is currently unusable — but the learning was invaluable. Dent removal, pad work, key alignment — all attempted, most failed, all understood better afterward.

Horn #2 — Almost There

A more forgiving patient. Disassembled, cleaned, mostly repadded. Not quite finished. Getting closer to a playable result. This one taught me patience and the difference between "looks right" and "seals right."

More horns coming as I find them and the skills to match.

What I'm Learning

Pad Work

The core skill. Getting a consistent seal across all tone holes.

Dent Removal

Body, bell, and neck work. Preserving original lacquer and engraving.

Key Regulation

The invisible art of making everything move together.

When to Stop

Knowing the limits of my current skill before I make things worse.

Why Vintage Saxophones

Modern horns are precision-manufactured and mostly excellent out of the box. Vintage horns — Conn, King, Buescher, Martin, SML, early Selmers — were built differently. Heavier brass, hand-engraved bells, keywork that feels different under your fingers. Many of them sit in attics and closets because the cost of professional repair exceeds what people think they're worth.

I think they're worth it. I'm learning to prove that with my hands.

The Long Game

Right now this is a learning project. Eventually — maybe — it becomes something more. A small repair practice. A way to bring dead horns back to life. A craft that doesn't depend on screens, servers, or software.

For now, I'm documenting what I learn, one horn at a time.

About Me

I'm Andrea. I live in Barcelona. By day I work in tech infrastructure. By evening I play saxophone (badly) and build electronic instruments. OhMySax is the part of my life where I work with my hands on something that was built to last a hundred years.

If you have a vintage horn that needs attention and you're patient enough to let a learner try — or if you know someone in Barcelona who repairs saxophones and might tolerate an enthusiastic apprentice — I'd love to hear from you.