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Rotor from a Hirsbrunner tuba. The delrin insert is to reduce weight.

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I am usually pretty good at avoiding the needle springs* on clarinets and saxes, but I stabbed myself like twenty fucking times while overhauling this thing. Glad to finally be done. At least it plays real nice.

*Anyone want to guess why they are called needle springs? Go on, take a guess.

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Stacked cardboard slices used as top cap valve felts.

Y'know what? As far as improvised fixes go, this is fine. Should have been replaced with proper felts way sooner — these have been on here for a while, judging by the state of the cardstock — and not as good at dampening the sound as felt, but it does an acceptable enough job, is easily reversible, and I don't have to spend an hour cleaning dribbles of superglue off of anything.

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Been a while since I have had to do a full clean on a BE994. Forgot how heavy these things are when full of water.

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Old vs. new saxophone key pad.

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Saxophone in for a repair estimate.

Me: Looks like definitely one pad needs to be replaced, probably some new felts and corks, key adjustments everywhere, and one of the key guard feet needs to be resolder— is this glue?

Customer: Yeah I glued it back down when it broke off.

Me: ...Did you use superglue?

Customer: No idea. It was called "fast glue".

Me: Yeah, that's superglue. Okay, that's at least an extra half an hour of work to clean all this off because I'm not soldering around superglue due to really noxious fumes.

Customer: lol just leave it then; I don't want to pay extra for that

Me: Just... leave it unsoldered?

Customer: Yep.

Me: You're sure? Just leave it loose like this?

Customer: Yah.

Me: ...Fine. I'll throw a zip-tie over it or something to keep it in place.

Me: *screaming inside*

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Client hands me a clarinet case: Clarinet doesn't play.

Me: Did the player offer any info more detailed than that? Specific notes that sound off or keys that feel wrong?

Client: Nope, just that it isn't working.

Me, opening the case: The C- and B-trill key pads are both missing.

Client: Ah. That would do it.

Me: Also the C-trill tone hole is full of goo — looks like someone tried to emergency-fix the missing C-trill pad with a lump of some kind of poster adhesive — five out of six pads on the lower joint are falling apart, and several key corks have fallen off.

Client: This isn't a simple while-you-wait fix, is it?

Me: Depends on how long you're willing to sit and wait.

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Old Eb cornet. Cleaned up nicely but was missing a ring trigger for the third slide and everything I had in my parts stash was too big to fit without a lot of filing, so I made one from scrap. Cut the rod from a length of brass stock and the ring from some brass tubing. Filed a crescent into the rod stock to make a larger contact area for the ring, then brazed them together, cleaned up a little bit of solder overrun, and polished it.

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The result of using a strip of gaffer's tape on the gooseneck to protect it from the player's sweat and skin oils.

Llook, I get it, really. Some people have mega acidic body chemistry — I have seen trumpet valve casings eaten almost all the way through simply as a result of regular prolonged skin contact — and want an extra layer of something between body and instrument, be it a leather wrap or tape or whatever. But you gotta take that shit off now and then to clean under it, otherwise it starts looking like this.

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Thayer axial flow valve on a Shires trombone.

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Go in thinking: "Okay, just quickly tweak the alignment so the trigger action is smoother," and end up disassembling and reassembling the whole tuning slide.

Twice.

Just been one of those days.

Fuck you, slide.

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Different trombone on the bench same week as the one in the previous pst, with the same issue of misaligned inner handslide tubes.

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Trombone took a bit of a tumble, and now the slide is all jacked up.

Those tubes are supposed to be parallel.

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Bass trombone rotor before and after.

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Way off-centre pad in this bass clarinet key. Either it got bent out of alignment shortly after pad installation, or it was bent prior to that and whoever did the repad failed to notice. It was just barely sealing, and probably contributing to some of the notes in the upper register being difficult. Repositioned the key cup, ironed the pad to reduce the existing seat because I did not have this size bass clarinet pad in stock*, and reseated it, and now it seals evenly all the way around.

There were a few other keys on the upper joint that were leaking slightly, either due to pads not being level or being over- or under-adjusted to their neighbours. Biggest issue turned out to be the A/D key, which was slightly jiggly on its hinge rod. It closed just fine when activated directly by its own spatula, but when activated via connection to its neighbouring key it would pivot off centre by just enough to have the tiniest leak at the heel. Swedged it snug to the rod and now it's working fine.

* The ideal fix is replacing the pad because double-seating can lead to small leaks, but I see bass clarinets so infrequently that I don't keep the full range of possible pad sizes in the shop and instead just buy as needed, and the player couldn't wait that long.

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Crazy wild question, did you go to Western Iowa tech?? I got rec'd your blog randomly and saw an old post where you mentioned going to a 2-year repair school. Just thought it was a funny coincidence, as I'm literally about to geaduate from WIT for BIR

Eyyy, repair tech fistbump. Welcome to the squad. Nah, I studied outside the USA. Heard good things about WIT though.

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Client complaint: "The valves stick."

Me: Gee I wonder why.