KGUBrass Saxophone Neck Screws Heavy 135 (Antique Bronze, Lapis Lazuli)

First: I am actually an expert in woodwind products, as a specialized repairperson for woodwinds for decades. If you play a woodwind instrument, you probably know my name. I have had several clients who came in with “barrel” neck screws like this over time, and some were very nicely designed and executed. I generally do NOT think these are good for people who do not have very good technicians available to them to have or buy, because if your neck socket is not very well fitted, it is a likelihood that you will create serious problems repairwise for yourself down the line. As a general rule, if you get a big tonal change from using one of these, it’s because the added force you are able to exert on the tenon is causing it to tighten more than usual, and if you are doing that it’s because the tenon is poorly fitted, and it means you are damaging your tenon when you tighten it.

If the neck socket is well fitted, though – and the measure of that is barely having to tighten the screw once you encounter resistance, no more than 1/4-1/3 of a revolution – I think these are kind of awesome. I like the way they feel to turn, and when the threads are well executed and match the tenon well they are very smooth mechanically. So I wanted this product to be a good example and I wanted to like it.

It is not a good example. The threads are uneven, front to back on the screw column, meaning they are irregular and fit regular threads unevenly as you screw the barrel in – that’s not a good thing, and it means when you encounter resistance as you screw the barrel in you are changing (rethreading) your original threads when you force the screw through, which the larger ergonomic fit is allowing you do do. Not good.

If you are going to buy one of these anyway, here are some fit notes: does fit the China alto I tried it on, but does not insert fully as the shoulders of the screw do not enter the tenon housing the way they should (not good, long story short). It does not match the threads on the Taiwan tenor I tried it on at all, is a no-go for the makes with the double bullseye on the clothes guard. It DOES fit Conn, functionally, but feels loose, and on a relatively unworn (minty) Conn “Chu Berry” tenor the shoulders hang up at the entry where they should slide in (again, not good) so if you have a really clean Conn tenor you probably do not want this for that, although it will probably “work.” The one good, functional option was a Conn C-melody I tried it on.

To the company: IF you are varying your thread size to make this “self-fit” to more thread sizings, that is going to cause damage to existing threads. It is better to offer less universal threadings that fit closer and smoothly, because this design, when really well fitted, is a pleasure to use. I wanted to like this and to give you a great review, but the product is likely to cause damage that technicians will have to go to a lot of trouble to explain to customers who should not have bought this product, as it is made now.

I gave two stars instead of 1 because if you are asking for open promotional reviews, you probably do not intend this product to be as bad, I think, any genuinely expert saxophone technician would find it to be. It is mechanically a hazard for many.

I’ve been playing saxophone on and off again for the past 60 years, but have never tried a heavy mass screw accessory previously. I ordered the Nuummite version, advertised to fit Selmer, Yanagisawa & Jupiter horns; neck retention screw sizing is indicated to be 4 x .75 for these instrument lines.

The product is attractively manufactured with an angled serrated collar to grip while tightening; the center of the head of the screw contains what is described as a nuummite stone. The weight of this mass screw is 15 grams (see photo). The screw fit was perfect for my Jupiter Capital Edition alto.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with the, to me, noticeable difference in the sound produced through my horn after installing the screw. Although I have a very good sax that produces a focused/clear sound throughout its registers, the added heavy mass screw seems to enhance the richness of my sound, giving it just a bit more breadth/fullness and clarity. Not wanting to get entrapped by the potential for imagining what I thought was occurring, I asked my wife to stand away from me while I did a blind play test — alternating from the original Jupiter neck screw to the KGU heavy mass screw; she is an accomplished musician and noticed the same characteristic changes that I have mentioned.

So, from my personal experience with this product I would say the KGU Music screw did make a slight positive difference in the quality of sound produced from my specific instrument. Hope this review is helpful.

Beautiful heavy screw with a very demure stone inlay. The brass was almost a perfect match for our alto. The stone itself was not what we expected, as it differed quite a bit from the product photo likely due to cut and lighting, but it’s still quite beautiful. Workmanship is lovely as well.

This saxophone neck screw color palette options were good so you could match your saxophone. I was able to get one that matched very well. If you need to tighten your neck on your saxophone a lot it might be hard to do because it’s a circle but it worked fine for me. If you tighten it too much it’s hard to loosen it.