Fitting a flute headjoint when normal methods won’t work.

So I had a flute come in with a loose headjoint. Normally, I would be able to get a mandrel or expander and get in the headjoint and expanded it to fit snugly into the receiver. The problem with this headjoint was that the end fit snugly but once you had it all the way into the receiver, it started to wobble. I could take an expander and bulge the metal outwards farther up the tube towards the lip-plate and that would probably make the joint fit, but I can’t do that because that would destroy the tapper of the tube which is a no-no and would cause acoustic problems. A better option is to add material to the outside of the headjoint to make it fit securely which is what I did. Using paper thin brass sheet, I measured and cut a strip that I then attached to the tube with contact cement. Next I used micro mesh to sand down the brass until it fit properly into the receiver. Finally, I trimmed and removed the excess sheeting with a razor blade so when the headjoint is fully inserted into the flute, you can’t see the brass strip. If I ever want to undo this repair, all I have to do is apply heat and the glue will release. If I really wanted to be extra fancy, I could have even silver plated the brass strip but the acid in the plating solution may have released the glue and rendered the whole effort pointless so I let it be this time. Maybe I’ll experiment on one of my own flutes later just to see if the glue will hold.

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Ultrasonic cleaning and why it’s great

I love my ultrasonic cleaner. You should love it too. Here’s why:

Ultrasonic cleaning is a process where transducers, on the bottom of a tank of water and mild cleaning detergent, generate millions of microscopic cavitation bubbles with sound waves transmitted through the water. These bubbles get into every tiny space on the object you’re cleaning and gently remove the dirt.

The cleaning process is fast, safe for instrument lacquer and finish, second to none in quality, and environmentally friendly to boot. The only downside is that the machine is expensive…very expensive. But hey, that’s my problem not yours. You as a customer get all the benefits. It’s recommended that instruments, especially brass instruments, be ultrasonically cleaned and serviced once a year. This prevents build up of calcium and dirt which can rot your leadpipe and damage your valves.

I can’t say enough good things about ultrasonic cleaning.

www.davidfrostmusic.com

It’s been a while

I haven’t written anything for the last couple of months; things have been really busy in the shop and at home. It’s rental season after all and in addition to that, all the teachers want their horns back ASAP. So I’ve been working a lot of overtime lately.

Update on that conn bass sax: I failed in designing a new octave system. That bummed me out but I ran out of time so I had to just copy the original mechanism. Horn ended up playing really nicely and looking good, but I really wanted to finish my design. Oh well, maybe next time. Frankly I hope it isn’t too soon, I’m not in the mood to overhaul another bass sax for a long while.

I lucked out not long ago and I found a guy selling his old r13 for $25 on craigslist. I overhauled it and now I’m trying to sell it for a decent price. It’s a nice horn for sure. A King Zephyr tenor sax I had sitting around for a while was also just completed. I’m trying to sell that horn too.

I’ll write some sort of repair related post soon.

Good sax pad work, why it matters, and what you can learn about a techs skills from it

see that light? those are leaks

Of all the woodwinds, saxophones are the most forgiving when it comes to leaks. Because they are generally softer than other woodwind pads and sit in much larger key cups, saxophone pads can be pressed harder onto the tole hole by the player and be made to cover in almost any condition. As the pads start to leak, the player unconsciously compensates by pressing the keys harder and harder as the leaks worsen. Eventually, the horn is leaking so badly, it won’t play.

Now my definition of ‘won’t play’ is probably different than a musicians. When I test a horn, I’m looking for the lightest possible key pressure, the firmest contact with the tone hole, and snappiest response. So if the horn isn’t playing like it’s new, I’m not satisfied with it until it does. Many times, after I work on a horn, it plays better than new. That’s because factories don’t always do the best job building these horns or setting them up.

So what do I consider to be good pad work?

You must you have 3 things before you start the actual padding of a key: A level tone hole, a level key cup, and a good quality pad.

Level tone holes:

The tone holes are supposed to be level however when the holes are drawn up from the body brass(this doesn’t apply to soldered on tone holes) when the instrument is made, the brass has ‘metal memory’. Metal memory is the stress that is left in the material when it is shaped. After a certain amount of time, the brass will relax. When this happens, the tone holes tend to warp and have dips in them. Tone holes will also develop dips and rises if the horn is dented or bumped severely. To remedy this situation we use rotary tone hole files that leave a perfectly level tone hole surface.

A level key:

Keys are most commonly made from nickel-silver, also known as German silver which is a copper alloy. German silver is harder than brass and more brittle but it still will bend somewhat easily. After lots of playing and pressing done the keys, they will sometimes warp. To make them level again, we use a small anvil and a wooden hammer to tap the edges of the key cup until they sit level on the anvil.

A quality pad:

Not all sax pads are made equal…not by a long-shot. A good quality pad will be made to exacting dimensions and have felt and cardboard inside that have not warped. If the pad is warped or the wrong size for the key cup, we will have a very hard, if not impossible, time of seating the pad on the tone hole.

Installing the pad:

So we have all our prep work done now and everything is level. Next we have to find the right pad diameter and thickness for the key cup depth. Generally, Yamaha saxes all use thin pads while everything else takes the thicker ‘selmer-style’ pads. We want our pad to be snug in the key cup but not so much as to warp. The ideal pad will have no space between the key cup wall and the pad skin. You can observe this when you look at a brand new high quality saxophone.

After we choose our pad, we glue it into the key cup. I prefer using the ‘Z-gun’, available at musicmedic.com, which uses a synthetic shellac that is more durable but retains the firm feel of natural shellac. I like to scratch up the inside of the pad cup with a sharp point; this allows the shellac to adhere better to the key cup surface. I reheat the pad cup with my torch to melt the shellac under the pad and use my thumb to rotate that pad to spread the glue evenly behind it.

Once the key is back on the horn, it is time to seat the pad on the tone hole. Using my torch I carefully heat the key just enough to melt the shellac a little and I use my pad slick and other implements to get the pad to come done on the tone hole with no leaks. I use a leak light which goes down the bore of the instrument and allows me to see every minute leak. I shift the pad until have no leakage with the lightest possible touch on the key.I let the key cool and let the glue harden again. Then I check my work and make the necessary adjustments until I have what I want.

a leak light made by votaw tool company, the industry standard and must have tool for woodwind repair.

So those are the basics of good pad work. If you see glue has run out the sides of the pads, that’s a good indicator that the person who worked on the sax before didn’t do a good job. The great techs strive not only for functionality, but also for a neat, clean, aesthetic. Check the key corks as well, if they have jagged edges and look wildly uneven in thickness you can almost 100% be certain the rest of the work on the horn stinks. The neatness of our key and neck corks is a matter of pride among good repair technicians and quite often we can tell who worked on the horn before simply by making a quick observation of the key corks. I’m not kidding.

As always, any questions or comments, feel free to contact me!

www.davidfrostmusic.com

My Shop

www.davidfrostmusic.com

This is my company website if you’re interested in band instrument repair in the Philadelphia metro area and South Jersey.

Patches

Sometimes you have to patch cracks on brass instruments. If I can find a new part or can make one, I will do that before I use a patch because patches are usually somewhat unsightly and amateurish looking. But if I have no choice, then I’ll make a patch…but I’ll be a little artistic about it.

For instance, in the above picture, I made a patch on the back turn of a Selmer k-modified trumpet. I cut the patch into the same diamond shape as the braces. While the patch is still obvious, it looks a little better than just throwing a regular oval patch on the crack.

The most useful patch technique I’ve used so far is making a patch that completely circles the cracked tube. If you do it carefully, you can sometimes end up with your patch looking like it was originally supposed to be there.

Can you see the patch?

Bach Trumpet Modification

I added an amado water key to my bach strad trumpet on the third valve slide. Originally, to empty the water, you’d have to pull the entire section of tubing on the end out. Now, I can just press the little button and do it much faster. Some people don’t like modifying their instruments and generally I’d agree but in this case, it’s such a small modification with such a big benefit that I made it. Trust me, when you’re playing a musical, down time is at a premium so being able to do anything quicker is always a benefit.

How you might get an apprenticeship in band instrument repair

Do you want to work at a glamorous bench like this?

Then read on my friend!

So how do I find someone willing to teach me repair?

First, you’ll need to find someone that does repairs in your area. That’s a no-brainer right? Well, it’s easier said than done. Like I’ve said previously, there aren’t many instrument repair people in the first place… and just because a music store sells horns, doesn’t mean they fix them in house.

If you don’t know a repairman yet, go online and find one. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a repairman in your area using Google. Check out their website and you can probably find their contact info. Then all you have to do is send them an e-mail to get the ball rolling.

What do I say?

It’s a well known fact that most people enjoy talking about themselves. Repair techs are no different. Most repair people are more than willing to share information about their field with anyone who’s interested. If you send an e-mail or call (I prefer e-mail because it’s less invasive than a phone call but that’s just me), I would start by simply asking for advice on how to get into the field. You might ask if you could come into their shop and talk to them face to face about it. With the right line of questioning, you could end up getting yourself an apprenticeship but a word of warning: Don’t be pushy. (which should be obvious if you have any people skills)

I met my boss at a jazz festival my university holds every year. All the local high school jazz bands come to play and be taught by the college professors. My boss set up a table where he was doing free repairs on the kids instruments at the festival. (a great PR/advertising strategy). I had already found out some information about repair online and I was actually planning to visit a repair school in a few weeks but I figured that the more advice I could get, the better. I went up to the repair table and started talking. We chatted for a bit about repair and what it was all about. He even offered to let me come to his shop and mess around a little with my own instrument if I wanted using his tools. I told him that would be great and thanked him and left. When I got back to my dorm later that day, I wrote an e-mail to him thanking him again for his time and my interest in taking up his offer to see his shop. It wasn’t until I had already come back from visiting the repair school out west that I received an e-mail from him. In it, he invited me to have lunch with him to discuss repair and the possibility of an apprenticeship. That’s how I got into the repair business.

I’m sure your experiences will vary. You have to do a lot of this people stuff by feel and it’s hard to give advice without being in a situation myself. I was lucky! I happened upon someone who was willing to teach me repair. But it isn’t all dependent on luck.

The way I approached the situation was probably more responsible for getting the apprenticeship than luck. Being respectful and genuinely interested in someone is key. Too many people today think things are owed to them. They think they’re special and go around expecting everyone to give them something without giving anything in return. Don’t be like those people, especially if you’re trying to get someones help.

Well, that’s my rant for the day. See you next time. Oh, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!

So you want to be a repair man?

There seems to be a fair amount of interest in learning band instrument repair among musicians. Especially with saxophonists…not sure why; maybe because their horns are more mechanically complex than other horns? Anyway, if you happen to be interested in learning the band instrument repair trade, this post is for you!

There are two ways to get into the band instrument repair trade: Going to a repair school or apprenticing. A combination of both is also a possibility.

Repair Schools

If you went to a repair school you would be taught the basics of each instrument. You’ll learn how to do re-pads and adjustments on woodwinds and you’d learn dent work on brass instruments. Those are the fundamentals of repair and the majority of the work you’ll do in an all around shop. Some schools may delve slightly deeper into repair; possibly doing finish work, making parts, or other things.

Repair school programs are no longer than two years and the time you spend actually learning repair varies between schools. Badger State Repair, run by Ed Strege in Wisconsin, is a 9 month program that consists entirely of hands on repair training. At the other schools you have to complete a normal associates degree program that includes math, English, and anything else a normal community college would require you to do to graduate.

When you leave the repair schools, the knowledge you have should be sufficient to get you hired at least somewhere, probably the big chain stores like Sam Ash or Music and Arts. However, without more training and on the job experience, you will be severely limited as a repair tech.

I believe the main reason many people choose repair school is because it is the only option to get started in the trade. Apprenticeships, especially with good repairmen, are extremely hard to come by for a few reasons I’ll explain later. If you can’t get an apprenticeship, then repair school is really your only option.

Repair school information can be found here:

http://www.napbirt.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=57220&orgId=napbirt

Apprenticing

The other option is being trained by a senior tech in an apprenticeship. In this situation, you would work in a shop under the supervision of a repairman while you learn. Unlike many unionized trades, the band repair business has no set rules or regulations concerning training. This means that whatever you learn, if you get paid, how much you get paid, etc. is entirely up to your boss.

There are a lot of benefits of apprenticing that the repair schools can not offer. For one thing, you actually get to do real work. Whether the horn be a rental or a customers, you are working on an instrument someone will be playing at some point. I think that is a nice morale booster to be able to say, ‘I worked on that horn and someone is playing it now’. When you know someone needs that horn to work, you make sure you do a good job. If it was just some classroom example, who cares if it works or not? No one will ever play it anyway.

Cost is also big factor in learning the trade. To attend the repair program at Badger State Repair it costs $16,000 at last check. That doesn’t include anything other than some basic tools and the actual training; no lodging, no food, no nothing. I don’t know the specifics about the other schools, but assume they are comparable to other community college tuition rates + the cost of your tools. In the cost category, an apprenticeship wins hands down because it’s free and you might even be paid a little while doing it if you’re lucky.

The most important thing about an apprenticeship is that you will be trained one on one. If you find a great repairman to teach you, you can learn much more than any school could teach you in the same period of time. If you’re ready to move onto a new topic, you can because you won’t be held back by classmates who aren’t there yet. Conversely, if you need more time on something, you won’t be rushed. This way, you will learn what you need to and not miss things that you might with a schools schedule.

There’s one major obstacle inherent in training in an apprenticeship: Getting an apprenticeship. Instrument repair technicians are not like car repair technicians; there aren’t thousands and thousands of them, there’s maybe 3-4,000 instrument repairmen on Earth. (you’d think I’d be paid more) And out of those, there are few and far between that are actually worth learning from.

Even if you do find a good repairman, he has to be willing to take on an apprentice! Good repair techs are busy. If they take an apprentice, they lose time repairing and that means lost money. If you turn out to be a good repairman, it’s worth the time for them because now they have a skilled employee they know can do the work to their standards of quality.

Just a closing

Now you should have a fairly good idea about the ways people get started in the band instrument repair trade. As you can probably discern, I’m a big proponent of apprenticeships and not so enthusiastic about the repair schools. I was trained in an apprenticeship but I’ve visited a repair school and have met techs trained in repair schools. In my experience, the apprenticeship is the way to go if you can find one. My next post will talk about ways to find those elusive apprenticeships. If you’re interested, come on back to The Horn Kicker and read it then.

Red rot looks like this

Here’s some red rot on the leadpipe of a Bach Stradivarius trumpet:

Bach trumpets are great horns, the standard, but they are known for their rotting lead pipes. If you clean your horn regularly you won’t have a problem but if you don’t, well, you get what you see in those two pictures. Once it starts, the lead pipe is finished and you need to replace it. You can have it patched, and it might last for a while, but you’ll have to bite the bullet in the end.