 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2005-01-07 15:48
Yesterday evening a neighbor came over to me to ask my opinion on her daughter's clarinet. Seems after school the daughter was talking to some friends waiting on the school bus and somehow the bus ended up running over the daughter's rental clarinet. Amazing what a bus can do...g
Anyway, I'm hoping to talk the music store out of it because I want to see if I can mount it on a board and shadow box it. The idea of a completely smashed clarinet mounted on the wall is somehow darkly satisfying. Anyone else done something similar?
Best
RW
Best
Rick
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-01-07 17:20
When I taught in the public schools, I was in a school which owned many instruments and assigned them to students for the entire year at no charge.
One day a beginning student came in for his trumpet lesson and mumbled something about his trumpet "falling off the table". Before looking at the instrument, I eventually got him to admit that his mother had accidentally backed over it with car. He had been outside practicing and left the trumpet on the driveway.
Needless to say the squashed trumpet was quite a sight - flat as a dinner plate.
I eventually gave the "frisbee style" trumpet to our school repair tech to use for parts. However, about a year later he informed me that he had a trumpet of mine which was now repaired and ready for pick-up.
He had actually fixed it by somehow reopening up all the flattened areas (I assume with dent balls and rods) and it was playable again.
His fee to fix it was ridiculously small. I think he had done it as a personal challenge - just to see if he could do it...GBK
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Author: HedgeWitch
Date: 2005-01-07 17:43
I've seen a wooden oboe with the upper and lower joints smashed into about 4 pieces each, the breaks going right through the tennons, I also saw the instrument after it had been glued pinned and filled, the repair was hardly noticable and apparently the instrument played very well, although I can't personally vouch for that fact. Unfortunately I have no pics.I saw the before and after pics in the music shop I used to work in, I believe it was a personal project by a friend of our then repairer just to see if it were possible to make it vaguely oboe shaped again.
Post Edited (2005-01-08 09:33)
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Author: CPW
Date: 2005-01-07 19:03
...and this was a rented Herbert Wurlitzer, right?
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Author: Bob A
Date: 2005-01-07 20:43
"and apparently the instrument played very well."
But who could tell! Right?
Bob A
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Author: Tom A
Date: 2005-01-07 23:14
Sydney readers who have been to Steve Giordano's workshop may be familiar with the sight of a 2-dimensional F horn. The story seems similar to Rick's. Child gets off bus, puts instrument down to pull up socks, bus takes off. There's a challenge for GBK's tech with his dent balls and rods.
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Author: Contra
Date: 2005-01-07 23:56
AT one of our local music stores, there is a completely flat saxophone. I need to ask aboutit next time I'm there.
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Author: Pam H.
Date: 2005-01-08 00:13
Theres a guy that does the art shows in our area that makes art sculpture out of old, beat up instruments, or more accurately, their parts. Sells them for a tidy sum too. I'd be tempted to buy them except I figure if I spend money on instruments, I'd rather have them be playable!
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Author: Gandalfe
Date: 2005-01-08 02:40
"...there is a completely flat saxophone." Sounds like Northwest Winds in Seattle. It is a saxophonist's mecca. And Brad is a repair phenom. I love those guys.
Jim and Suzy
Pacifica Big Band
Seattle, Washington
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Author: ron b
Date: 2005-01-08 06:04
Personally, I love those flat out challenges. Right now I have a bus-smashed sax neck I plan to revive; school horn of course. I mean, man, it's flatter'n a skworshed frog and the band director believes it's totally hopeless. I do these ocassionally just for the 'fun' of it because I like to see people smile. It's also good 'practice'. Like practicing an instrument to keep in shape, a repair challenge once in awhile is a good way for techs to stay humble.
The things dumpsters have been known to yield ( no, no I mean besides that ) is phenomenal... 
- r![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif) n b -
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Author: HedgeWitch
Date: 2005-01-08 08:13
There is a picture of a similarly abused oboe with pics before and after the repair http://www.music-1.co.uk/
Post Edited (2005-01-08 08:22)
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Author: Amateur Artist
Date: 2005-01-08 16:39
I haven't done anything similar but one of the girls that taught me how to play clarinet and is now in college had her first clarinet turned into a lamp. her father is an electrician and he wired the clarinet to light up through the mouthpiece. now she can take it apart and play if she wants to but she has a new clarinet so that probably won't happen.
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2005-01-09 21:15
This gives hope to our saxophone project, the one that got sat on when the big guys were horseplaying while the sax was laid on an open case - oops! Of course nobody admitted anything until the day when I wanted to start my saxophone career during a lazy summer.
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Author: MisiMcG
Date: 2005-01-10 01:37
I have 2 similar "accidents" in my office, a flute that looks more like bicycle handlebars (dad's pickup truck tire)and a school bus flattened french horn. I use them each year as examples of why my students' parents should purchase the maintenance plan that is offered with their trial purchase instrument.
Misi
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Author: Dori
Date: 2005-01-11 02:13
At the repair shop I go to there is a squashed trumpet hanging on the wall with a repair tag reading, "Plays flat. Please repair."
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