this morning I called allegro of oxford to see if I could get an expert opinion on my missing F#.
The owner of Allegro was very good, as usual and offered to take a look at it today.
Apparently the proprietor has a colleague that carries out the repairs on a Tuesday and Thursday, so I took the opportunity and rushed home, picked up my Sax and took it in for a check-up.
After a quick look, it did seem that something was wrong, but it only became apparent when the instrument was played, when putting a light down the tube, there seemed to be no indication of leeks.
After a bit of a play, the octave key looked like it could do with a bit more play, so this was adjusted.
Then to test it myself I had a play, as soon as I did the professional ear of both these experts noticed that I was playing with a hard reed (I have been using Rico Royal 3.5), this seemed a bit hard, in fact it was referred to as a plank of wood.
So calling on over 50 years of experience I moved to the recommended reed which was a Vandoren Java 2.5 (in a red box), this gave a much better sound, it also showed that maybe the reed I was playing with was a bit hard, and this may have exaggerated the missing F# problem.
Anyway watch this space, the debut mp3 will be coming soon.