Elswick Band Instrument Repair has repaired thousands of woodwind and brass instruments in the Central Virginia area and beyond since 1972.
We Are Back!!!
After an unexpected, multi-month absence, we’re back!!! I’m excited to get this website up and running. I hope the website will be beneficial in 4 ways: 1 - To show you a bit of my world, out here in The Repair Universe and possibly entertain you, 2 - To provide some good quality, used instruments and mouthpieces for sale at a good price, 3 - Possibly provide some info about the care and feeding of your instrument and 4 - Offer some useful tips about how to approach your instrument, for example, the way you hold the horn, the way you put your reed on the mouthpiece, when to change reeds, etc., etc., etc.
This website is definitely a work in progress so if you click on one of the links and nothing happens, check it again the next time you’re here. I might not have added any information to the link quite yet.
Before and After photos of an Olds trombone
Here we have an Olds trombone from circa 1969 - 1970 that has obviously not lived a good life. The owner is very sentimentally attached this instrument, and he definitely wants it fixed. So, here in the first photo you can see that the main body of the horn is pretty dang bent. I have seen worse, but not by much.
After more than an hour of bending and de-denting, I finally got it back into useable condition. In the process of straightening the bell some of the tubing came un-soldered so, I resoldered it. Plus, I raised and smoothed a plethora of dents that don’t show up in this photo.
This is a shot of the main tuning slide that is on the far right of the previous photo. Obviously, it is dented. When tubing is dented it can affect overall pitch of the instrument.
Here you can see that I raised and smoothed out the dents. Not that it looks dramatically better but, at least it will hopefully play a bit better in tune.
On to one of the other big problems with this horn. The water key a.k.a. spit valve is damaged beyond repair. Bad, Bad, Bad!
So, I replaced the whole assembly meaning, the w/k mount, which had to be soldered to the slide, the w/k itself, the screw to hold the w/k to the mount, the w/k spring and the w/k cork. Plus, I replaced the slide end bumper which is the little black thing at the very end of the slide.
I didn’t even address all the issues with the inside of the hand slide. The cleaning, the de-denting, the alignment of both inner and outer slides, yada, yada, yada! That took tons of time. Anyway, I think the customer will be happy.
Rejuvenating a silver plated Getzen Eterna II “700” Trumpet
This Getzen trumpet is an intermediate or maybe even an upper intermediate model instrument. It has not been taken care of for, apparently, quite a while. For example, 2 braces were missing, and 3 more braces were unsoldered or partially unsoldered. Also, the lead pipe was out of alignment with the rest of the horn. There were a few dents scattered throughout the body, so I smoothed them out. Plus, the slides and pistons moved slowly or not at all.
Here you can see the trumpet completely disassembled. And you can see how tarnished and dark the trumpet and all of its parts are. Of course, this is before I have cleaned it.
Now you see the trumpet completely cleaned, inside and out, and reassembled, ready to play. It looks dramatically better, and everything works the way it should. Plus, I replaced the finger ring and retaining screw on the 3rd slide. I like bringing instruments back to life.
Installing an Adjustable Finger Hook
I usually do Before & After photos but, I forgot to get the Before photo. This is an older Conn 8D French horn. The client wanted the original, stationary left-hand finger hook replaced with an adjustable finger hook. The original finger hook, sitting on the table, was soldered to the small silver plate underneath the new finger hook. So, I unsoldered it, cleaned off any excess solder and soldered on the mount to the new adjustable finger hook. That’s the piece with the 2 hex screws on it. Then you just slide in the new finger hook and tighten the hex screws. The hex key is also laying on the table. This is not a difficult repair, but it can become messy if you’re not careful.
Trombone Re-soldering Job
This is a Ventus VTB-10 Tenor Trombone with an “F” attachment. This is a brass instrument that has been lacquered. The round thing in the photo that is attached to the horn is a rotor and it is part of the “F” attachment. However, the trigger that activates “F” attachment has come unsoldered, disconnected, from the rest of the bell section. My job, should I choose to accept it, is to reattach the trigger section. Actually, the trigger section has another job. It is also the receiver for the hand slide section of the horn.
Here is the aforementioned trigger. I don’t know how it came to be unattached from the bell section, but I will reattach it using “soft solder”. This is how most all horns are put together, using soft solder. Soft solder is pretty strong and doesn’t require too much heat in the soldering process. Too much heat can burn the lacquer, which I try to avoid, if possible.
Here we have the finished product. The trigger/hand slide receiver assembly has been reattached to the bell section, as it is supposed to be.
Below you will see the photo with 3 blue dots. The single dot, to the left, is where the trigger assembly was resoldered to the bell section. The other 2 dots are showing a brace that was only partially soldered so, I leveled and resoldered it also. Some of the lacquer was compromised during the soldering process so, I buffed off the burnt lacquer and relacquered the area. The photo to the right is just a view from another angle. It came out pretty good and I was happy with the finished product.
Cleaning a Flute for a New Student
This is a Gemeinhardt “2SP” flute, which is a student model instrument, that recently came into the shop to be rejuvenated for a student. This photo shows the flute completely disassembled meaning, all the keys have been removed. This is the best way to show you the tarnish and grime, all the dark spots, on the body of the instrument.
This photo is of the flute after I cleaned all the main body parts. It looks much nicer, don’t you think? No more tarnish or dark spots.
Here, I have also cleaned the keys and reassembled the instrument. Plus, I added the other head joint to the photo. This flute comes with a straight head joint, which is standard for all flutes, and a curved head joint. The curved head joint is for younger, smaller students so you’re not having to reach out so far when holding the instrument. This makes it a bit easier on young arms.
Yamaha YEP-211 Baritone Horn
For a little clarification, this baritone horn is a “brass” instrument. It’s like a small tuba. Sometimes people confuse it with a baritone saxophone which is a “woodwind” instrument. Now, with that out of the way…… this instrument has apparently been sitting in the instrument storage room of a band room for several years. All the valves and slides were stuck, and it had numerous dents and bent tubing. It was in need of a lot of repair.
#1 - Obviously, the left photo is of some pretty grubby slides. They were a pain to extract from the horn so I could clean them. The right photo is of the slides dramatically cleaner.
#2 - The left photo is of the bell section of the horn that has been dented pretty severely. And, of course, the right photo is the bell section after I de-dented it. It took a bit of time to de-dent it because the metal, which is brass, is fairly thick.
#3 - These 3 pistons, valves, should move freely, but they do not. I used a procedure called “lapping” to refit the pistons to the casing that they are in. Lapping involves using a compound that is kind of like liquid sandpaper to remove dirt and dents. Now they work like new.
#4 - And finally, in the first photo the mouthpiece receiver and lead pipe are seriously bent. This is where the mouthpiece attaches so you can blow into the horn. There are a couple of problems here if this isn’t fixed, first, your head and neck get put into a funny angle while you’re playing the horn, which is not good. Second, the tubing is crimped which hinders the proper flow of air going into the instrument. This can affect the sound of the instrument and tuning of the horn. Also, not good. In the second photo, I have straightened the mouthpiece receiver to its original position and partially straightened the lead pipe to address the air flow issue. This will work for now however, at some point the lead pipe should be replaced.
1951 Conn 6M Alto Sax
Removing Bends and Dents…. and some re-soldering!
This group of “Before & After” photos will show some of the “prep work” that needs to be done to this sax before I even begin to think about leaks. new pads, adjustment, etc.
#1 - Left photo is one of the low C# posts and there is a dent under the post. This throws off the key that is attached to it and doesn’t allow the key & pad the cover the low C# tone hole properly, meaning it leaks. This is bad.
Right photo is after I raised the dent under the post. Now the low C# key & pad will work properly. This is good.
#2 - Left photo is showing a key guard mount. Obviously, there is a dent under the mount.
Right photo is of the undented area. Dang, it looks pretty good.
#3 - Here we get into some more extensive damage. Actually, there are 3 major things going on here. First, the key guard is bent and second, the guard mount that is soldered to the body of the sax has been dented in. Third, the tone hole has been dented and warped. Look at the next set of photos and you’ll see what I mean. It not as apparent in this photo.
#4 - I was able to re-round, straighten & level the low Eb/D# tone hole without removing the key guard. Plus, the green stuff is gone. In the process of straightening and de-denting the key guard, the guard mound that had the dent under it came unsoldered, and I had to re-solder it. I thought that might happen.
#5 - And I found one more dent hiding on the backside of the horn. Of course, the Left photo is of the dent. This dent was directly under the “F” key which is the right hand, forefinger key and it affects the height of “F” key. This is important because it affects the pitch of that note and all the notes below it. Of course, the Right photo is after I raised the dent. Again, looks pretty good!
Do you have dirty pistons or clean pistons?
These are 3 trumpet pistons (valves). The first photo is of the pistons when I just pulled them out of a trumpet. They are pretty dang grubby. Potential lifeforms are growing in the port holes of the pistons. You can detect these lifeforms by their lovely shade of green. The second photo is of a set of clean pistons. The lifeforms have been eradicated.
If one little speck of the green crud breaks loose and moves around between the piston and the casing, then this could foul the piston, so it sporadically moves or doesn’t move at all. Dirt is the enemy in brass world.
While we’re in the world of “Lifeforms in Trumpets” I decided to add 3 more recent photos of another trumpet that is getting ready to be cleaned.
Just a nice photo!
Not that this photo is anything musical or referencing anything musical, but I just liked it. It’s a photo that my wife, Vanessa, took. I believe that this is a tiger swallowtail butterfly or in Spanish, mariposa cola de golondrina tigre. Sorry, I’m learning Spanish so when I see or hear a new term or phrase, I try to learn it in Spanish.
A Recent Gig!!!
I recently performed at a wedding reception that was the most incredibly opulent display of wealth that I have ever seen in the past 56 years of playing music, and I have played at some “over the top” venues.
The first 3 photos are the venue where we played. It was built in 3 days before and specifically for the wedding reception. It was designed to accommodate 300 people for a sit-down dinner. The next 3 photos are of the elaborate table settings and the stage where we performed in the center of the room. I was performing with a jazz quartet.
The next 3 photos are of the room behind where we were performing. It had a dance floor and a stage for a band that was flown in from Paris, and I don’t mean Paris, Kentucky! The last of those 3 photos is the bar in that same room that took up the whole wall.
The first of the last 3 photos are, of the food prep area. This is where they “plated” the food before it was delivered to the tables. There was over 100 caters, wait staff & bartenders at this event, all from northern Virginia, D.C. & Maryland, none from the local area. Oh, there was also a couple of make-up artists to touch up the guest’s make-up if needed. The last 2 photos were of the transport that shuttled us from the venue to our vehicles. A bar and 2 TV’s were built into the van but no damn alcohol! We were not permitted to drive directly to the place where we performed. Well, that was my weekend.
An Eb Tuba (An E flat tuba)
The far-left photo is yes, an Eb tuba. This Besson Eb tuba, Besson is the brand name, is 30” tall. Most tubas you see are Bb tubas or sometimes referred to as BBb Tubas, “double B flat tubas” which are much bigger. They can range in sizes from 40” up to 45” and I’m sure there are even bigger tubas. The second tuba photo is also an Eb tuba that lives on my front porch and serves as a planter and a Christmas ornament holder during the holidays. It’s useful, playable lifetime has long since passed so now it has become a topic of conservation. Tubas weigh between 20 - 30lbs, again, depending on the size and thickness of the brass.
Many times, people confuse a tuba with a sousaphone. The photos below the tubas are all sousaphones. The 1st photo is obviously a BBb Fallopian Tuba (sousaphone) which is made of brass. My wife snagged a photo of this at The Women’s March in Washington, D.C. a few years ago. Notice that the sousaphone is sitting on the woman’s shoulder. Unfortunately, the little play on words perpetuates the incorrect belief that a sousaphone is a tuba. Anyway, tubas are not so good for marching. The 2nd photo is also a standard brass sousaphone without any covering over the bell section. And the 3rd photo is a white, fiberglass tuba. Fiberglass sousaphones are lighter than brass sousaphones and since they sit on your shoulder, they are much easier to carry over long distances, like a parade that goes on forever and ever. Sousaphones are around 13’ to 18’ in length, depending on the diameter and thickness of the tubing and brass ones can weight up to 50 lbs.
Contrabass Flute!!!
Unless you’re in a flute ensemble of some sort you will rarely see a contrabass flute. This one was in the shop from Richmond, VA. for a little soldering work. Of course, I couldn’t help but take a few photos before it got picked up.
From the 1st photo it’s kind of hard to tell exactly how big it really is. I mean, in its case it doesn’t really look that big, does it?
This particular instrument is made by the company DiZhao in Tianjin, China. From my research, Mr. DiZhao teaches everyone, himself, how to make these flutes. The line of copy that I read actually said, “The workers are all superbly trained by directly by Mr. Zhao”.
I believe that this particular contrabass flute costs $10,000.00. Wow! Such a deal, I think I’ll take two!
In photo #2, I measured this “bad boy” from top to bottom and it is 6 feet. If you straightened the flute out it would measure as a staggering 8.91 feet. Just as a reference point, a regular flute that you see every day is 26 inches long. The contrabass is 107 inches long. That’s slightly longer than 4 regular flutes.
In photo #3, I have the contrabass standing next to a flute lamp that I made for my daughter. This flute lamp is made from 3 regular flutes.
I thought you might like to see this unusual instrument.
Trombone slide with a “CRACK” in the crook
This is the hand slide from a Bach model 36 trombone which are nice horns. The instrument was in here for a dent to be removed further up the slide. I did that and then discovered this pretty serious dent in the crook of the hand slide, 1st & 2nd photos. The crook is the very bottom of the hand slide. At this point I checked the compression of the slide meaning; how airtight the slide is. It was not airtight which means there is a hole in the tubing somewhere. So, I raised the dent and discovered a crack in the metal, 3rd photo. From here I cleaned the area around the crack, and I took a piece of brass and made a small patch. Next, I soldered the patch in place, cleaned up the area and sprayed a clear lacquer over the area to keep the brass from oxidizing.
A Yamaha YAS-23 Alto Sax Disassembled
I am in the process of repadding this sax and before I put too many of the keys back on it, I thought I would show you what a disassembled alto sax looks like. This instrument has 24 keys with pads. The pads sit in the pad cup which is the round part of the key. Pads are the leather thingies that cover the tone holes on the body of the horn. There are another 7 keys on this horn that do not hold pads and 3 more key guards, which are on the upper left of the photo. Some saxes have more keys than this but since this is a student model instrument the number of keys and mechanisms are more basic.
At this point I am only part way through the repadding process. I have disassembled the instrument, taken out all the old pads and taken off all the old key corks, which are numerous. I have leveled all 24 of the tone holes and several of the pad cups that were unlevel. Next, I washed everything and then I buffed all of the keys. Now I am ready to start the repadding and recorking process. This is the part that is the most time consuming.
Upcoming Gigs!
MUSIC THIS WEEK:
THURSDAY, 7/18 - I'll be performing with the Paulien Quartet at Stinson Vineyards from 6 - 9p. If you've never been it's in Whitehall, where Sugar Hollow road starts. Come check it out.
4744 Sugar Hollow Rd. Crozet, VA
SATURDAY, 7/20 - The Michael Elswick Gathering will be performing at Glass House Winery from 5 - 8p. We will be performing inside. Great wine, great views and an all-glass room where we perform hence, Glass House Winery.
ME - saxes
Bill Edmonds - guitar & vocals
Liz Barnes - keyboard
Tom Harbeck - bass
David Drubin - drums
5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union, VA
A Carbon Fiber Trombone
Here’s something you don’t see every day. This is a Butler carbon fiber bass trombone. Well, the bell section and the tuning slide crooks, the black parts, are made from carbon fiber. The other parts are obviously made of brass which is the goldish tubing and the rotors. The rotors are the 2 round things with the metal linkages attached to them. It was brought here with a minor issue with 1 of the rotors. By the time the customer arrived here the rotor problem had somewhat subsided. So, I did some oiling of the rotors & the linkages and everything seemed fine. Always fun to see new and exciting instruments. The only thing I have that is made from carbon fiber is one of my bicycles.
A set of rods from a clarinet
What you are looking at is most, but not all, of the rods from a Yamaha clarinet. These rods hold the keys in place on the instrument. I have these rods arranged in pairs. The upper rods are covered with rust, yes rust. The lower rods are brand new rods that I am using to replace the rusted rods. Now, it’s not as easy as unscrewing the rusted rods and replacing them with the new rods. The rusted rods were actually rusted to their keys. It took me a couple of days to free the rods from the keys. I used a procedure where I apply the Aerokroil, “The Oil That Creeps” to every part of the rusted key then I have a device like a soldering gun that I use to heat the key. This causes the rust to slowly start separating from the key. I do this over and over until I can get the rod to start turning.
One of the keys, the register key, was not as lucky as the others. The register key is on the back of the upper joint of the clarinet and is activated by your left thumb. I was unable to free the rusted rod from the key so, I took a jewelers saw and sawed the key off of the instrument! Fortunately, I had an exact replacement key and rod in stock.
On the 2 lower photos you can see where the rod is still stuck inside the key barrel. Now you understand the excitement that I get to experience each and every day here in my shop.
On top of this, the clarinet came into the shop because it had a crack in the upper joint. In the process of repairing the crack I discovered that all the keys were rusted into place. It became a Pandora’s Box scenario.
A few repairs on a bass trombone
Here are just a few things that I had to do on a recent repair of a Yamaha YBL-621 RII bass trombone. This is an older professional model instrument that is still in very good condition.
Obviously, photo #1 shows the rotors that I just pulled from the horn which were pretty grubby. Photo #2 shows the rotors after I cleaned them. Clean rotors move more freely which is what you want.
This is one of the tuning slides to one of the rotors. Each rotor has its own separate tuning slide. Photo #1, as I was cleaning this slide, I noticed that one of the inner slides was loose, meaning that it was unsoldered from the slide crook. So, in photo #2, I resoldered it.
This is another one of the tuning slides to the other rotor. Photo #1, same scenario, as I was cleaning this slide, I noticed that one of the inner slides was loose, meaning that it was unsoldered from the rest of the slide. So, in photo #2, I resoldered it. Also, bear in mind, I don’t just “resolder the inner slide” back to the main part of the slide. These inner slides have to slide into their matching outer slides that are attached to the main body of the trombone. This means that the alignment of the inner slides has to be perfect. The inner slides have to align left to right, up and down, in other words, perfectly parallel.
This is actually the first slide that I previously mentioned. Besides having an inner slide unsoldered, it also had a fairly good-sized dent, photo #1, which could potentially affect the pitch of the instrument. So, in photo #2, I raised the dent.
Music This Weekend!!!
The Michael Elswick Gathering will be performing on Saturday, 6/15 at Glass House Winery from 5 -8p.
We play a variety of blues, jazz, Latin tunes and fusion. The crew-du-jour will be:
ME - saxophones
Bill Edmonds - guitar & vocals
Eric Franzen - keyboard
David Drubin - drums
Glass House Winery - 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union, Va. - 434-975-0094
Great venue, great wine, beautiful views
A Former Client of Mine!!!
Below, I am pictured with Micayla Rawling. While she was in middle school and high school her parents would bring her to my shop to get her piccolo repaired. During this time, I would see her on the downtown mall busking. The money that she was earning eventually was used to buy a nice flute from me. Since then, she has graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy and is now attending The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Last night she was back in town and performed a wide repertoire of flute and piccolo music spanning over a 300-year period. It was an excellent performance, and I am glad that Vanessa and I were able to attend.
When I am repairing a young students instrument, I rarely know where they will end up musically. I was gratified to see her progress and mastery of the instrument. Go Micayla Go!!!
An Albert System Clarinet in the key of A
This is a Holton “A” clarinet that was made in the late 1890’s and it has a fingering system that you rarely see, it’s called the Albert system. The Albert system dates back to the early 19th century. The Albert system is still used, mainly by clarinetists who perform Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Greek and Turkish folk music, Klezmer, and Dixieland styles. Often these musicians prefer the Albert system due to the ease of slurring notes provided by unkeyed tone holes. Actually, back in 2000 I was in Munich, Germany for a couple of weeks and I saw an accordion player and a clarinet player playing in the center of town. The clarinet player was wearing lederhosen, an Alpine hat with a feather in it and playing an Albert system clarinet. How quaint!
Just to compare, the photo below has the same Albert system clarinet and directly below it a standard Bb clarinet like you see every day. Notice the different key placement, the different number of rings and the ring placement.
I played the Albert system clarinet for a while and frankly, I think it’s cumbersome and awkward. Plus, it has less keys than a current day clarinet meaning fewer alternate fingerings. And what does that mean? That means that certain “difficult to play” musical passages might be almost impossible to play on the Albert system clarinet but relatively easy to play on a Bohem system clarinet. One of the things that I really like about this business is seeing instruments this old that can be brought back to life.
A Piccolo, a Flute & an Alto Flute
A customer just came in with these 3 members of the flute family and I just had to take a picture of them. I also have these 3 instruments listed on this website page under Family of Instruments, Flutes, but I think this photo gives a much better prospective. Most people normally see the middle instrument, the regular flute or the “C” flute. The piccolo is a bit less common but still periodically seen. However, the alto flute is much rarely seen unless, for example, you happen to see a flute choir.
A Disassembled Trumpet
Here we have a Bach, model 37, trumpet, circa 1975. This is a professional model instrument and very sought after by professional players. A brand new one costs around $3400.00. It’s in the shop for a bit of rejuvenation. In the process of disassembling, it I thought I would break it down into all its individual parts so you could see how many pieces there really are. For me this is an everyday thing but for you, you always see the trumpet completely assembled.
1st photo - The 3 pistons (valves) from the top down: valve stem, finger button, top cap & valve spring, valve felt & valve guide, piston (valve) and bottom cap. So, each of the 3 pistons have this number of parts. To the right of the pistons are the tuning slides. This trumpet has 5 tuning slides, but most have only 4. To the right of the slides are 2 trumpet mouthpieces.
2nd photo - All those parts have to attach to something and that’s the trumpet itself. This trumpet is a brass instrument that has been buffed to be a high luster and then lacquered. The lacquer keeps the brass from tarnishing or oxidizing or in other words, the lacquer keeps the horn shiny. Now, after 49 years the lacquer has given up in a few spots. For example, in the 3rd photo, look at the lead pipe, right in front of the 3 valve stems. The white specks are where lacquer has come off of the metal. Obviously, I did a much better lighting job in the 3rd photo.
3rd photo - This is the trumpet fully cleaned plus oiled and lubed. From a performance standpoint this instrument should play as well as it did when it was new. Besides fully cleaning the horn inside and out, I also checked the compression of the valves, making sure they are as airtight as they can be. I also check all the slides and the lead pipe for leaks. The lead pipe is the long tube with the hook on it. The trumpet mouthpiece connects to the left end of this tube.
In addition to all the cleaning and repairing, I also installed a new case handle.
Don’t leave clarinets alone in a dark basement!!!
There were only 2 clarinets here last night. Now look! There are 44 clarinets inhabiting my shop!! Actually, last week a local school brought me 44 clarinets to repair before school or, actually, band camp starts. No problem. I’ll have them done in plenty of time.
Always Check the Inside of Your Sax
This past weekend I played Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. This morning, I decided to do a couple of repair things to my Selmer tenor sax. I happened to look inside the bell and all the way down, at the bottom of the bell, this is what I found. Apparently, I unknowingly received a tip sometime during the past 3 days
Music This Weekend
FRIDAY, 5/17/24 - I'll be performing with a 19-piece, traditional Big Band called Sentimental Journey. We will be performing at The Pub at Lake Monticello from 6 - 8:30p, and we'll be playing tunes from the 40's, 50's & 60's. This is a great group with a male & female vocalist, 5 saxes, 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, piano, guitar, bass & drums. It's like swinging back to the days of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Harry James and Benny Goodman.... to name just a few.
The Pub is at 51 Bunker Blvd, Palmyra, Va.,
434-591-0106 - Call for reservations & there is a $10.00 cover.
SATURDAY, 5/18/24 - I'll be performing with my group, The Michael Elswick Gathering at Glass House Winery from 5 - 8p. Of course, the crew-du-jour will be:
ME - saxes
Bill Edmonds - guitar & vocals
Eric Franzen - keyboard
David Drubin - drums
Glass House Winery is at 5895 Free Union Rd., Free Union, Va.
434-975-0094
A Regular Bb Clarinet and an Extra Long Bb Clarinet
The lower clarinet in the photo is a standard, student model Yamaha. The lowest note that it will play is a low E. That’s the key to the far right in the photo. This instrument is 23.5 inches long. The upper clarinet is a professional model Buffet clarinet which has several additional keys. However, the one we’re looking at today is the key to the far right of the photo. This is a low Eb key. Consequently, the lower joint, the section where this key is attached is about an inch longer, 24.5, to accommodate this extra key. Even after repairing band instruments for 51 years, I have rarely seen one of these extra-long clarinets. I like unique instruments and this one falls under that category.
How-To Festival at The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
Tomorrow, Saturday, May 4th I will be participating in the How-To Festival at the JMRL at 201 E.Market Street. There are three 1-hour segments…. 10am, 11am & noon. I’ll be there to discuss Woodwind + Brass Repair and my segment will be from 11 to 11:45am on the Main Floor of the library. Please come by and check it out. Don’t be late or you might miss something new and exciting.
A Saxophone in the process of being repaired!!!
This is a 1946 Martin Tenor Sax, actually, it is technically “The Martin Tenor,” as engraved on the bell. I thought I would show some of the prep-work that I have to do before getting to the repadding, recorking, regulating and adjusting. There are 4 sets of Before & After photos.
#1 is the bottom of the sax which is called “the bow” and it had some dents in it. There are several smaller dents, but the biggie is the oblong looking dent with scratches around it. This is a location on the horn that is not very accessible so, I use a tool called The Dent Eraser which is a steel ball that goes inside the horn and a large, powerful magnet on the outside of the instrument. The magnet pulls on the steel ball and normally, raises the dent pretty nicely.
#2 The left photo is on the upper part of the horn. These are the high F, D# & D tone holes that have mold on them. That’s the green stuff. Plus, the body of the horn is dusty and dirty. The right photo is after the cleaning and de-molding.
#3 This is down the back of the main body of the horn. This is a key guard mount that has dented the body. This mount is also unsoldered from the body, which is not apparent in this photo. The right photo is showing the body de-dented and the mount resoldered. The streaking of the lacquer is a byproduct of raising the dent, which causes old lacquer to separate from the brass body, plus, the discoloration is a product of soft soldering the guard mount/post back to the body. Even though I used a heat gun to solder the pieces together, much lower in heat and no open flame, as opposed to an acetylene torch, still, old lacquer just doesn’t do well during this process.
#4 We’re back to a different section of the bow, the low D# key guard. It obviously took a whack and was bent. This was hindering the key from opening properly. This key guard is soft soldered to the body of the horn in 3 spots. Luckily, I was able to straighten the guard without busting loose any of the 3 solder spots.
Now I can start reassembling the horn and repadding it.
Don’t Run Over Tubas With Your Car!
Here we have a very nice Mirafone tuba from the mid-70’s that accidentally got backed over. Mirafone is the brand name. The photos are arranged in a “Before & After” format meaning, the photo on the left is “Before I repaired it” and the photo on the right is the “After I repaired it”. By the way, the metal on this instrument is very thick and was difficult to manipulate. I have some special tools that help assist me with this type of repair and also I have biceps of steel!!! I shouldn’t have to say “Don’t try this at home” but just in case, “Don’t try this at home”. I can de-dent any metal instrument meaning saxophones, trumpets, flutes, French horns, euphoniums, baritone horns, trombones, etc.
French horn rotors are always dirty
It’s very difficult for you to extract your rotors from your French horn yourself and clean them properly. Since this is true, it’s normally a long time in between cleanings. Consequently, the rotors are always nasty and badly in need of cleaning. These rotors are from a local players instrument, who shall remain nameless.
Wooden Instruments are Subject to Changes by Humidity and Temperature
Leveling a saxophone bell rim
This Conn alto sax, a student model horn, took a pretty serious fall to bend the bell rim that badly. This repair involved a rawhide mallet to bend the rim back, somewhat close, to its original position and a special tool called a Fast Eddie to do the final smoothing of the metal.
A Trumpet that got dropped
This is a Bach, model 37, trumpet, a professional model horn, that obviously got dropped. As you can tell from the first photo the bell section is definitely bent. Second photo, I straightened the bell. Same situation with #3 - bent and #4 - straightened. These last two photos were a little clearer, I thought.
A badly damaged French horn bell
French horn bells constantly get dented and bent out of shape. Same scenario as above; “Before photos on the left” and “After photos on the right”. Fortunately, the metal of French horn bells is not nearly as difficult to work with as tuba bells.
Patching a hole in a trumpet slide
Someone was trying to clean their trumpet and poked a hole in one of the slides. First, I had to flatten the damaged area as much as possible, which also makes the hole much smaller and easier to cover. Since this was a silver-plated horn I luckily had a piece of silver-plated scrap brass to use as a patch. When I was done, the slide was completely airtight, which is what you want.
Musicians in the shop
John D’earth was in the shop back in November picking up one of his students saxophones that I had just repaired.
Leveling and straightening another saxophone bell rim
This is a Selmer Reference 54 tenor sax which is a professional model instrument that costs about $7000.00! Not only did the bell rim get bent but the bell was knocked out of alignment. This means that the 3 lowest keys on the horn, low C#, low B & low Bb were unable to cover the tone holes that they are supposed to cover. This means you couldn’t play those notes. So, the repair was more extensive than just a bent bell rim and more involved that what you see at first glance.
Also, Don’t Run Over Trombones With Your Car!
Obviously the first 2 photos are of a damaged trombone bell. In the 3rd photo you can also see the damage case. And, of course, the last 2 photos are of the repaired bell.
