Elswick Band Instrument Repair has repaired thousands of woodwind and brass instruments in the Central Virginia area and beyond since 1972.
We Are Back!!!
After an unexpected, multi-month absence, we’re back!!! I’m excited to get this website up and running. I hope the website will be beneficial in 4 ways: 1 - To show you a bit of my world, out here in The Repair Universe and possibly entertain you, 2 - To provide some good quality, used instruments and mouthpieces for sale at a good price, 3 - Possibly provide some info about the care and feeding of your instrument and 4 - Offer some useful tips about how to approach your instrument, for example, the way you hold the horn, the way you put your reed on the mouthpiece, when to change reeds, etc., etc., etc.
This website is definitely a work in progress so if you click on one of the links and nothing happens, check it again the next time you’re here. I might not have added any information to the link quite yet.
A Saxophone in the process of being repaired!!!
This is a 1946 Martin Tenor Sax, actually, it is technically “The Martin Tenor,” as engraved on the bell. I thought I would show some of the prep-work that I have to do before getting to the repadding, recorking, regulating and adjusting. There are 4 sets of Before & After photos.
#1 is the bottom of the sax which is called “the bow” and it had some dents in it. There are several smaller dents, but the biggie is the oblong looking dent with scratches around it. This is a location on the horn that is not very accessible so, I use a tool called The Dent Eraser which is a steel ball that goes inside the horn and a large, powerful magnet on the outside of the instrument. The magnet pulls on the steel ball and normally, raises the dent pretty nicely.
#2 The left photo is on the upper part of the horn. These are the high F, D# & D tone holes that have mold on them. That’s the green stuff. Plus, the body of the horn is dusty and dirty. The right photo is after the cleaning and de-molding.
#3 This is down the back of the main body of the horn. This is a key guard mount that has dented the body. This mount is also unsoldered from the body, which is not apparent in this photo. The right photo is showing the body de-dented and the mount resoldered. The streaking of the lacquer is a byproduct of raising the dent, which causes old lacquer to separate from the brass body, plus, the discoloration is a product of soft soldering the guard mount/post back to the body. Even though I used a heat gun to solder the pieces together, much lower in heat and no open flame, as opposed to an acetylene torch, still, old lacquer just doesn’t do well during this process.
#4 We’re back to a different section of the bow, the low D# key guard. It obviously took a whack and was bent. This was hindering the key from opening properly. This key guard is soft soldered to the body of the horn in 3 spots. Luckily, I was able to straighten the guard without busting loose any of the 3 solder spots.
Now I can start reassembling the horn and repadding it.
Don’t Run Over Tubas With Your Car!
Here we have a very nice Mirafone tuba from the mid-70’s that accidentally got backed over. Mirafone is the brand name. The photos are arranged in a “Before & After” format meaning, the photo on the left is “Before I repaired it” and the photo on the right is the “After I repaired it”. By the way, the metal on this instrument is very thick and was difficult to manipulate. I have some special tools that help assist me with this type of repair and also I have biceps of steel!!! I shouldn’t have to say “Don’t try this at home” but just in case, “Don’t try this at home”. I can de-dent any metal instrument meaning saxophones, trumpets, flutes, French horns, euphoniums, baritone horns, trombones, etc.
French horn rotors are always dirty
It’s very difficult for you to extract your rotors from your French horn yourself and clean them properly. Since this is true, it’s normally a long time in between cleanings. Consequently, the rotors are always nasty and badly in need of cleaning. These rotors are from a local players instrument, who shall remain nameless.
Wooden Instruments are Subject to Changes by Humidity and Temperature
Leveling a saxophone bell rim
This Conn alto sax, a student model horn, took a pretty serious fall to bend the bell rim that badly. This repair involved a rawhide mallet to bend the rim back, somewhat close, to its original position and a special tool called a Fast Eddie to do the final smoothing of the metal.
A Trumpet that got dropped
This is a Bach, model 37, trumpet, a professional model horn, that obviously got dropped. As you can tell from the first photo the bell section is definitely bent. Second photo, I straightened the bell. Same situation with #3 - bent and #4 - straightened. These last two photos were a little clearer, I thought.
A badly damaged French horn bell
French horn bells constantly get dented and bent out of shape. Same scenario as above; “Before photos on the left” and “After photos on the right”. Fortunately, the metal of French horn bells is not nearly as difficult to work with as tuba bells.
Patching a hole in a trumpet slide
Someone was trying to clean their trumpet and poked a hole in one of the slides. First, I had to flatten the damaged area as much as possible, which also makes the hole much smaller and easier to cover. Since this was a silver-plated horn I luckily had a piece of silver-plated scrap brass to use as a patch. When I was done, the slide was completely airtight, which is what you want.
Musicians in the shop
John D’earth was in the shop back in November picking up one of his students saxophones that I had just repaired.
Leveling and straightening another saxophone bell rim
This is a Selmer Reference 54 tenor sax which is a professional model instrument that costs about $7000.00! Not only did the bell rim get bent but the bell was knocked out of alignment. This means that the 3 lowest keys on the horn, low C#, low B & low Bb were unable to cover the tone holes that they are supposed to cover. This means you couldn’t play those notes. So, the repair was more extensive than just a bent bell rim and more involved that what you see at first glance.
Also, Don’t Run Over Trombones With Your Car!
Obviously the first 2 photos are of a damaged trombone bell. In the 3rd photo you can also see the damage case. And, of course, the last 2 photos are of the repaired bell.
