My so-called "education" started in 1980 when my HS band director had the tuba technician from the music store across the highway come out to give all 20 of the tuba players a four-hour master class on rotary valve care. It was fascinating to me. As a part of our band's repair and maintenance budget, each of us received a brown Naugahyde Mirafone zipper pouch with a wooden hammer, a dowel, a flathead screwdriver, oil, grease, a cloth, etc. I still have my pouch, and I still use the hammer and dowel on a regular basis.
Anyway, four hours was not much, but the info is stuff that is no longer taught, and you have to learn it on the job. (Like how to true up a rear bearing plate, which on these old Mirafones had no internal lip to drive the plate home true. I am sure you know the trick.) The important thing that happened that day was that I got to know this tech. I started coming on Saturdays to watch him work. I did this for four years. I never was allowed to touch anything, but they did not kick me out.
Ever since then I have wanted to work on tubas.
In the Army, the School of Music had an outstanding repair shop with a great crew of sergeants and petty officers who put the fear of a very wrathful Uncle Sam into you when you tried to clean and turn in your GI instrument at graduation. They handled this like an armorer taking in M-16s; it had to be CLEAN! :-) These gentlemen were also very giving of their time and experience, and I learned through osmosis again for a few months.
At my band, we had a complete repair shop but no repairman. I was the assistant Music Librarian, and the shop was directly across the passageway from the library. After some time I figured out that my library key fit the lock on the shop. This was a mistake by the Supply Sergeant, who was supposed to rekey all the locks in the building every year or so. Anyway, I "broke in" one night with some friends and we fired up a torch and started soldering. I used some spare French horn parts to create my first project: a water bong. It was bare brass, so it was probably very toxic to actually use, but I did not want to use it. I just wanted it to live on a shelf in my barracks room. What can I say? I was a 21-year-old nitwit.
At North Texas, they also had an excellent repair shop and another very giving tech who let me watch for five years.
After I won my job in Jackson I found our 2nd oboist was the foreman for the largest shop in the state, when I had to have a boo-boo fixed on my Kalison Daryl Smith. I applied for a job that same afternoon. Charlie was not there at the time, though. Later, at a rehearsal, he told me they had seven techs on full-time and did not need anyone to apprentice. I was really disappointed.
However, two years later he approached me and asked, "Can you start coming in at 9:00 every morning? We let some people go for various reasons and now need a brass person." The program was actually written down in a big ring binder with all the projects and tests I would have to do. It was fully paid (no commission, no real production work at all, but excellent BCBS insurance and a sort of lame pension plan, paid holidays, cash bonuses on occasion — very nice for a two-year apprenticeship!
I was really excited and I plowed through all that stuff in six months. All those years of watching helped me puck skills up quickly. I was on a "commission + hourly draw" deal that was far better than any of the other stores in the state. In slow times you could not end up owing the store when you did not work. Instead, we were cross-trained in a few things, so when it got slow we did that part of the time. I did sales, shipping, and some of the shop accounting since I had been a retail store manager in years past.
I stayed there for a decade. Since my boss was in the orchestra I never had issues with conflicts; the MSO won out every time. I would just work when I could, and pull late evenings to make up the hours if we were busy, or not bother if we were slow.
I learned enough to run my own shop during that time. And I learned that I hate doing work for people. I prefer to flip horns, where the work is done to my satisfaction and the price is posted — take it or leave it.
I had to stop doing this work for years because I had a sweet part-time teaching gig through the MSO, so again, when there were conflicts the orchestra always won out. From 2001 to 2010 I did no work at all in this field. In 2010 the old man who owned the store passed away and AMRO in Memphis bought up all the tools and parts. When I had to fix something on my horns I was always welcomed to come in and use their facilities and supplies for free, but this ended. That was when I decided to tool up and start working at home. I have done a lot of studying and hacking to get my skills back, and I still have some gaps. I am currently teaching myself double reed work and have an old, German wooden bassoon that hates me, but she'll come around, I am sure. I have five oboes sitting here, too. This is why I sort of disappear in the Repair Forum: I am doing stuff that no one here would care about. I have also been learning to use my crappy DDR-era German lathe. It is crappy because I am still locating some of the needed parts. However, once complete it will not be crappy at all.
Sorry that was so long…
EDITED for about 30 freaking typos. Stupid, tiny phone keyboard…
