I have a friend who has a Cannonball Stone Series tenor which has a very small piece of rock on the base of the neck that is supposed to improve the sound. He could not explain to me exactly how it worked. Can anyone here help?

Little tiny elves live in small caverns in the piece of rock. When you blow air into the saxophone, the elves become excited and start to dance. The stamping of their feet sets up sympathetic vibrations that improve the tone.

It could be considered as a fancy nodal weight, but I prefer the stuff explained by Bill. In fact, if you replace the tiny elves with blue suede Elvis, the horn really rocks.

IMHO,I doubt those stones have enough mass to make a difference...except in the hype about what they're supposed to do.Nice decoration, though! :)

the inclusion of this little piece of rock and the claims made for it speak volumes about Cannonball and where they are in the world of serious saxophones....

This is why nobody takes Cannonball seriously. They have been on the scene for many years, and are still just a horn that students and amateur players buy, so far as I have seen. I don't think there are many professionals out there depending on a Cannonball to pay the bills. They have had plenty of time to establish themselves as a serious horn, but it has not happened. They are what they are, and that's most likely all they are ever going to be: step up horns for students.

Bill, that's really funny.

I dont think rocks "WORK" per se' after all, they are just rocks. But it is my experience that anything you do to a neck by way of adding to or taking away mass changes things significantly. But adding and subtracting mass is usually done with adding brass or taking away brass, it's not usually done with rocks.
But Tevis says it works.

I can say this much for sure, I spent a week at Cannonball in Sandy Utah as a guest.

I can honestly stand before all of you and testify I never seen any elves over there...unless they are working a 2nd shift.
* Last updated by: jim_scimonetti_sr on 4/6/2012 @ 9:36 PM *

I don't think there is enough mass in the rock Cannonball uses to make a difference you can hear.

Scott, I don't think so ether.

I had the rocks fall off the necks of customer's horn's and I tried them without the rock before I glued another rock back on. I couldn't tell the difference, but they sure look pretty!

I do see a difference if you remove or add a little BRASS from a sax neck.

Steve's Nodal Weights add a LOT of mass.....

In my opinion, Cannonball has an excellent line of professional model saxophones. Some professionals have indeed selected Cannonball as their horn, even Skip Mesquite. I just saw a video of him the other night playing a big bell stone series tenor and he sounded amazing as usual. As for the question presented about the stone on the neck, I do agree that there probably isn't enough weight to make a difference in the tone. (My horn is a Cannonball Vintage tenor, Berg Larsen Metal 110/2 SMS, Rovner Versa lig, still experimenting with reeds)

i would be extremely suspicious of any company making such a claim.

I don't know if their website still says this , but they used to claim the stones on the keys helped the sax play more in tune! No, seriously, they did.

I'm sorry to have to say it, but those guys at Cannonball are just bogus. They should offer conclusive proof of their claims.

I don't see any mention of what the stones do on their website now. I guess they have backed off their initial claims of the stones effect on the neck and key touches.

I say this without adequate knowledge of "the stone" and saxophone acoustics, but it appears the stone on the neck is fairly close to an area that receives considerable vibration (this is only based on my perception of the vibration in that area). It seems that if one were to solder an adequately weighted and dense material to that entire area (the entire circumfrence of the mid/lower neck), that might just very well have a percivable impact on sound/vibration.

As for the stone, it seems meritless. Also, is the stone glued on? It seems like it might just fall off.
* Last updated by: Benjamin_Allen on 10/4/2012 @ 12:49 PM *

It's bling...it's pretty but it's just a cool alternative to mother of pearl. However, it is kinda nice is the left had palm keys and the right hand side keys can be ordered with larger stones to serve as palm-key risers.

The down size if they are rocks and it adds a little weight to the horn. The added weight never bothered me when I played Cannonball saxophones, but I had customers who were sensitive to the added weight and they didn't dig it. That said, the stones are pretty. But I am not convinced stones really do anything sonically to the instrument. Cannonball saxophones are nice sounding saxophones in the hands of a lot of players - with or without the bling.
* Last updated by: jim_scimonetti_sr on 10/4/2012 @ 11:13 PM *

The Stones are not soldered they are hot glued.

I take back what I said about Cannonball. I just got back from trying a couple Reference 54's and a P.Mauriat 66RUL and 66R. Holy crap, these horns blow the Cannonball out of the water. I feel like Cannonball severely lacks that quality and consistency that professionals need, especially if the stones are falling out like a few others mentioned. Also, their "fat" neck takes away from the high register, which is really dumb, and it also seems to give wonky intonation. I'll soon be offloading my Cannonball...hopefully