Klarinet Archive - Posting 000691.txt from 1999/07

From: James Leonard Hobby <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: mail order - local store policy repairs
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 22:35:32 -0400

It came in very handy. I could do some maintainence and repair on all the
band instruments, althought I readily admit being better on the single-reed
woodwinds. I could and did take clarinets, flutes, & saxes apart and did
some fairly major repairs. (I don't guess it would be PC to puff smoke
through a horn to look for leaks any more. <g>) The director of the other
high school in the county was a brass major. We would swap out on the more
major repairs. I took care of his woodwinds; he took care of my brass.

A real emergency repair had to go about 25 miles, for us, and we were the
closest of several schools.

Otherwise all the schools were staffed by a repair van that made the
circuit of all the area schools every two weeks. There were, if memory
serves, nine "preformance districts" in their circuit. Our "PD," for
example, was the high school, two middle schools, three elementary schools,
and a non-affiliated private academy. If you were first and third Tuesday,
all instruments needing repair from the PD had to be at (usually) the high
school on that day. The travelling tech spent the day (or as long as
required) fixing what he could. Big jobs were carried back to one of the
repair centers, and hopefully you got it back two weeks later. (I remember
one "rain catcher" that a 215+ pound tuba player tripped and fell ON took
somewhat longer than two weeks. <g>)

This van was actually bought by contributions from the various band booster
clubs. The techs came from the three stores, in rotation, that had the
rental concession, and there was a $2 surcharge on each repair to pay for
the gas, etc. (This was the late sixties, remember. <g>) (If memory
serves, a few years after I left, infighting among the central school
districts (not the music departments) caused the repair van program to be
discontinued.)

Obviously, a loose pad or broken spring or stuck mouthpiece or stuck valve
couldn't always wait for two weeks. If the band directors didn't have the
experience in making the repairs, we would have been in real trouble.

L8R, Jim

=======================

>From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>

<At 08:19 PM 7/19/1999 -0500, James Leonard Hobby wrote:
<I have to admit that I've always assumed that they did. I know when I took
<my BS in music education (yes, to become a band director) one of the
<required courses was instrument repair and maintainence. Two-hour course,
<one semester.
>
>Apparently the course is not required everywhere. Too bad. I'll bet it
>has come in handy plenty of time, hasn't it?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org