The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Overhauled?

Author: ron b  Date:   2005-02-21 20:36 Yours is not a stupid question at all, Caliplaya 03. There are so many 'definitions' floating around out there, the techs often don't agree from one shop to the next. My stance is that a musical instrument technician is able to make the horn play like it should... forget the details, they can discuss those intricacies among themselves. I do not in any way intend this as "self promotion" - I'm not taking new customers now anyway. I'm stating from personal experience to validate my position, which is: I'm at the point of calling everything I do to [repair] a wind instrument, a "restoration". I take in an instrument that doesn't function (right), find the problem, confer with the owner in direct and basic terms and, preferably show them what's wrong. Then if the customer feels I know what I'm talking about and approves the 'work order, I correct it. When finished, the instrument has been restored so that it now works like it was intended to when it left the assembly line. Most of my customers don't care what I call the process, or the details, as long as the horn works like it's supposed to when they get it back. They're primarily concerned with how soon it can be fixed and a reasonable price for the work done. Maybe I should just call it Horn Fixing, I don't know... I wrote up some specs, a couple of years ago, like Pappy's repair guy but I've found that practically no one cares to read 'em. If they do, they want an interpretation. They really don't understand what "dressing a tone hole" means, or how you unstick a stuck pivot, or whatever, even after it's been explained twice. If I can make the horn toot again like it used to, they're happy. So... you can call it an overhaul or a repad or a play condition or anything else you can think up. I don't care what the terminology is, I can either make it work or I can't. My failure rate so far is .09999%, almost... I haven't totally given up on that one stubborn rascal yet - ron b - Post Edited (2005-02-21 20:41)

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