 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-11-19 21:27
I imagine that a good repair tech is a bit like a well respected Emergency Department of a population center hospital: instruments, like people in the ER, come in with various severity and complexity of problems, requiring varied amounts of work and urgency.
With both I get the need for triage. One player has their backup horn in for an overhaul that if if it takes a month of two to finish, so be it.
Another player has one instrument, one busted pad, and a concert that's hours away. Their repair is quick, easy, and urgent. I get how priorities need to frequently get shuffled around given what life throws the tech.
And I clearly appreciate that repair techs often (need to) work on various instruments peacemeal, spending time on instrument "Y" while "the glue dries" on instrument "X," rather than repairing instruments in their entirety in a strictly serial fashion. No differently the Emergency Room doctor isn't waiting for your lab results to the exclusion of examining other patients while those results get processed by the lab.
But what frustrates me is that one of the techs I use might tell me, "yeah, drop the horn off by me, but I probably won't get to look at it for a week/month."
Well, if it's still playable, why can't I drop it off in a week or month? Why can't I make an appointment such that you at least begin looking at my instrument on or near the day I bring it in? Why can't you operate with at least a flexible structure of a schedule?
If you know techs that operate under this flexible schedule paradigm and effect their craft well, do share.
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Author: m1964
Date: 2023-11-19 22:22
I would hope that if your instrument need a repair quickly, the tech would do and others who do not need an emergency fix would wait.
Is it your only instrument? If it is, did you tell that to the tech?
Your situation is the reason I started fixing my own clarinets myself- could not get to a tech from where I was living at the time.
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Author: Julian ibiza
Date: 2023-11-19 23:30
That sounds like the way people come to behave when they become accustomed to having a monopoly.
One way of dealing with that attitude, would be to leave them the instrument and then return a few days later on some other pretext that makes them go round the back, you then grab your instrument and pass it to a friend out in the street and when the Tech returns, conclude your small business and leave, cheerily wishing them a nice day. When they eventually call you, be sure to answer the phone saying " Oh great!...you've fixed it ."
These are the sort of rancid fantasies I start to get after week two of waiting.
My wife on the other hand would just march in, announce that she needs the instrument repaired ASAP for a concert ( all lies) and tell them when she would be passing by to pick it up the next day.
Because I just can't do that, I am by default that sucker who just ends up waiting a month.
Julian Griffiths
Tel. 34 696 798 853
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2023-11-19 23:50
At the shop where I go, I write to them by email ahead of time, with photos or a description of what needs done. They book me in on the diary several weeks away. I then drop it off on the agreed date and the work is done quite quickly. Sometimes there is a delay of a week if they are short-staffed but usually it is one when they said it would be done.
If I really need something quite big done urgently, then I phone around several places and ask who has the shortest waiting time, and then post it to them. There is usually someone who has time to do it straight way even if it is a full repad.
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-11-20 00:57
I do effect some of my own repairs out of frustration, I imagine the tech I speak of would do an emergency repair for me quickly, although it's likely academic as I have two B flats and while he is my preferred tech, he isn't the only game in town.
In addition to techs receiving and sending instruments through insured mail from all corners of the US where I call home--although I'd rather physically transport the instrument and work with the tech personally, living in a major metropolitan area there are plenty of techs who are driving distance from me.
I ended up using another tech who I love, who is both nice and highly skilled, and promised the instrument 2 weeks from drop off for a complete overhaul. That's not bad.
I'd like to throw the other tech business. I told him, "if you're in a lull call me, I'll have repair work for you." He doesn't call.
Those that claim I should take business elsewhere when dealing with a difficult tech speak complete fairness. I just think that more techs could make more clients happy if they committed to some semblance of an albeit flexible schedule.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2023-11-20 02:37
If it's a relatively small or easy job like replacing a pad, key cork, spring, tenon cork or some minor regulation work, then I usually fit these emergency repairs in between the stages of a service or an overhaul on an instrument that's currently on my bench and can usually be done while they wait.
Sometimes a more involved job like crack repair, tonehole bushing or keywork repairs can be done in between stages of already working on another instrument if it's not going to impact on when the current job will be finished or being collected and the owner can spare it for a couple of days.
Sometimes I'll lend someone an instrument to use while theirs is being serviced if they don't have a back-up or need to use one to get by for a lesson, for teaching or for a rehearsal, but that's usually at my discretion and only if I already know the player and can trust they'll return it in the condition it was in when I lent it out to them.
If it's anything more involved like a service or a full overhaul, then if the player isn't being stupid and expecting me to drop everything as they need it in a matter of days for a concert or audition instead of planning well ahead and booking it in much earlier when they knew they had plenty of time to (especially if they buggered off on holiday and weren't doing any playing in all the time they were away for, then got into a right tizz when they got back), then I let them know the earliest opportunity I'd be able to start work on it. If people give me impossible deadlines, then I'll give them a taste of reality.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Chris_C ★2017
Date: 2023-11-20 03:34
The tech I use is very helpful. I contact him (usually by email) with a description of what needs doing, whether it's unplayable at present, and with any indication of urgency. Then he suggests a drop-off date and time and a pickup date and time - which for a service might be a few days, but for something like a pad replacement might be "why don't you go for a walk for 30 minutes". He usually asks what day of the week my rehearsals are, and if there's a concert involved, and fits all his custiomers in like that.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2023-11-20 04:50
The tech that I used for years would ask to see the horn before he scheduled it. He not want surprises and find it needed more work than you told him. Once he saw it, he assessed what work was needed and how long needed to keep it. He would put it on the calendar and you knew exactly how long was needed so you could schedule the repair around your obligations.
If it was an emergency and you had a gig that was a different story, but this system worked great for regular maintenance.
I have known of those techs who ask you to drop it off with no game plan or schedule. That is great if you don't need it or have multiple horns. That is not realistic for most folks.
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Author: m1964
Date: 2023-11-20 09:32
Ed wrote:
> The tech that I used for years would ask to see the horn before
> he scheduled it. He not want surprises and find it needed more
> work than you told him. Once he saw it, he assessed what work
> was needed and how long needed to keep it. He would put it on
> the calendar and you knew exactly how long was needed so you
> could schedule the repair around your obligations.
>
> If it was an emergency and you had a gig that was a different
> story, but this system worked great for regular maintenance...
The above is very reasonable, IMO. I just fixed a R13 for someone I play with in a local band. The clarinet is from 1975, looked OK under the church lighting when he gave it to me for re-pad.
Once I started taking it apart, I found multiple problems, mostly caused by corrosion.
When I returned the clarinet to the owner, he told me that it was in salt water for about 24 hours, when his house got flooded about 10-12 years ago.
He said he washed/rinsed it and gave it to someone to fix but, apparently, the salt was not washed off completely. Despite that, the clarinet got nice tone and decent tuning.
Post Edited (2023-11-20 16:24)
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2023-11-21 21:08
>> But what frustrates me is that one of the techs I use might tell me, "yeah, drop the horn off by me, but I probably won't get to look at it for a week/month."
Well, if it's still playable, why can't I drop it off in a week or month? Why can't I make an appointment such that you at least begin looking at my instrument on or near the day I bring it in? <<
The way I do it in this type of situation is I'll tell the owner that e.g. I can't get to it in a week and it's their choice whether to bring it and leave it all this time or we can schedule a time that I can start working on it. I prefer the latter options, why have the instrument sit here and take up space for no reason.
However...
>> The tech that I used for years would ask to see the horn before he scheduled it. He not want surprises and find it needed more work than you told him. <<
This is standard. It's not really possible to know what's needed without seeing the instrument. It's at best an educated guess. Some players are pretty good at understanding what the problem is and maybe even what's needed, but most are not (statistically speaking).
It might be necessary to bring the instrument and only then you can really say how long it would take. In that case, some people choose to leave it until I can get to it (and save an extra trip) and some prefer to schedule a different time to bring so they have it in the mean time.
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2023-11-21 21:36
I think it helps to either live close to the shop or have a really cheap horn that you can post without insurance. Either of those options make it easy.
If you have an expensive horn that is pricey to post and the shop is not easy to get to then that makes it harder.
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-11-21 23:30
clarnibass wrote:
> The way I do it in this type of situation is I'll tell the
> owner that e.g. I can't get to it in a week and it's their
> choice whether to bring it and leave it all this time or we can
> schedule a time that I can start working on it. I prefer the
> latter options, why have the instrument sit here and take up
> space for no reason.
>
> However...
>
> >> The tech that I used for years would ask to see the horn
> before he scheduled it. He not want surprises and find it
> needed more work than you told him. <<
>
> This is standard. It's not really possible to know what's
> needed without seeing the instrument. It's at best an educated
> guess. Some players are pretty good at understanding what the
> problem is and maybe even what's needed, but most are not
> (statistically speaking).
> It might be necessary to bring the instrument and only then you
> can really say how long it would take. In that case, some
> people choose to leave it until I can get to it (and save an
> extra trip) and some prefer to schedule a different time to
> bring so they have it in the mean time.
As this thread's orginal complainer I'd consider everything you said Natai to be very reasonable. It's not just people who take care of their instruments that techs service, it's people who take lousy care of their instruments and/or don't reveal known problems that good techs have to work with us well.
Clearly, the metaphorical door of frustration can legitimately swing in both directions with player and tech alike feeling legitimately disenfranchised by the other.
I'd say it's all the more reason that when you find a good tech, covet them.
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