admin I strive in my job to be invisible. I figure these instruments will be around for 200-300 years, the guys who designed them were smarter than me, and when in proper operating condition they work extremely well. I try to make them to where the designer could look at it all these years on …
Been working on it for a little while and finally had a horn (the Conn 6M pictured above) that had the perfect situation to allow me to record a baseline overhaul time on a horn that is in *excellent* condition to start with. I have subtracted the time spent polishing, since that is not “baseline”, …
Absent much other information freely available on the web, here is A Possibly Wrong Primer on Musical Instrument Engraving I say possibly wrong because it is written by myself (introduction) and my partner at the time Bianca (the more helpful bit with tool links), and between the two of us we barely constitute an …
This is an advanced repair that can be undertaken when a hinge tube in a saxophone (or other similar musical instrument) has been so worn or has so little expose hinge tube that normal swedging will not fix poor key fit. The pictures and text for this article have been graciously provided by Larry Gerhardt …
This was a very clean Buffet SDA tenor that sported what some folks call “sparkle lacquer”, although for me the jury is still out on whether that is a real thing or not. (It looks like crazing close up, and I’ve been told by folks who bought theirs new that it developed over a few …
Fairly standard overhaul done on this beauty. I used flat metal resonators. These like thin pads- you’ll be using minimal adhesive as well to get them as thin as the horn wants (assuming key geometry hasn’t been bent all around in the past to accommodate thicker pads). Cool horn. I like the woody tone of …
Solid sterling silver Selmer Series III alto, full mechanical overhaul. This one was a doozy! While it arrived playing decently, it just played dead and stuffy all around, with no clear culprit. In fact, the owner (an extremely accomplished classical player) had been chasing this problem for a couple years, and was growing frustrated that …
This unique horn was made in 1929 during the time period that the “New Largebore” Selmer was being made, but sat unfinished and unsold at the factory until the late 1930s, when it was finished, given a contemporary engraving pattern of the Balanced Action, and sold. Thus the engraving is out-of-time, but completely original. I was …