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As I sit here and scratch my brain while looking at a picture of Patrick Sheridan's current Eb tuba, it occurred to me I have no idea who is presently re-finishing tubas (along with the requisite surface repair work) to bring them to a "new" or "newish" appearance. Specifically, for non-silver finishes is what I was stumped on (Anderson's is a known quantity for silver work). I'm NOT looking to have a tuba tricked out like Pat's, although I would love to know WHO did that work.

Oberloh used to be my first thought, but I thought I read he was getting away from doing tubas. And his work was always geared towards being as authentic / historically accurate as possible I thought.

I would love to compile a list of places doing this sort of stuff (including lacquer).

Dan works on lots of stuff. Since Anderson's stopped doing full rebuilds on valves, he is kept quite busy doing valves for people coming in his door and contract work for others. He has the abilities to do accurate restorations and all of the fabrication and machining to make obsolete parts. So, he's kept quite busy. He will do a tuba but it will take some time. If you want something done, give him a call and see what's possible.

Check out this post:

viewtopic.php?t=413

There seem to be more and more shops that will work on any musical instrument but not tubas. Or at the very least they are willing to quote prices on any sort or work but tubas are only taken on “by individual estimate only” or “on a case by case basis”. Some just flat out say they won’t work on tubas or won’t perform certain work on tubas. What is up with that? I mean, every major metropolitan area has multiple instrument repair shops. They have to, to serve the school market. So it makes me want to say, are you a professional instrument repairman or not? Is a tuba a musical instrument? Then why won’t you work on it? Why should I have to drive one or two or three states away to get work done? The situation is very frustrating.

The “official” list of trustworthy shops has nothing in western Pennsylvania.

Ok rant over. Thank you for letting me vent.

re: "What's up with that?"
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general comments:

Most older people - who occasionally were willing to do this for someone - aren't particularly interested anymore in holding up a 20+ pounds thing in the air and mashing it against a 3000 RPM noisy thing for hours while it's flinging dirt in their face...That, plus hours of hand polishing interior inaccessible surfaces, and then risking lacquer issues regardless of skill level) a whole bunch of large surfaces.

Many younger people seem to be generally more interested in doing work in front of a screen and keyboard in the non-real world. A few who think they would like to learn how to repair instruments - having seen posed pictures of repair people on the internet - have no idea how dirty, sweaty, and upper body intensive the work is.

I will probably refinish a trombone or trumpet for someone, but - even when I'm fixing up a tuba to sell - I'm looking at the valve section, and deciding whether it looks good enough to leave alone, and if I can just get away with refinishing the outside portions of the instrument.

Customers are really only looking at their wallets and what they imagine their piece of property will look like after they pull money out of it. Repair and restoration work doesn't hang on racks in Walmart.

...A band director wanted an old brown 1950s Conn 20K sousaphone all unsmashed and then the bell section (only) additionally polished and relacquered. I quoted different portions of the repair separately, and frankly was disappointed when the relacquering-the-bell part of the job was approved by the school system... but I just muscled through it and did it as quickly as possible yesterday afternoon. I feel horrible today.

...Probably most other people who do this sort of work avoid being this blunt and frank about it, and avoid raising potential customers' ire.

bloke wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 8:34 am

Many younger people seem to be generally more interested in doing work in front of a screen and keyboard in the non-real world. A few who think they would like to learn how to repair instruments - having seen posed pictures of repair people on the internet - have no idea how dirty, sweaty, and upper body intensive the work is.

I realize that it probably raises every red-flag/bad-idea/unsustainable-business-practice in the book, but I would love to have "hobbyshop" type access to try my hand had some of the work, on our own collection of auction/flea-market finds that are gathering dust and could benefit from (but not suffer too badly) some learning experience time.

Doubtful that any good craftsman is going to let someone green come in and use their tools - especially when most of them seem like they have plenty of work to keep said tools busy full time as-is. The hourly rate to cover excess wear and tear, and someone to babysit the shop/tools/greenhorn probably exceeds the regular shop rate (with lower profit...)

Probably a community college style "arts and crafts" continuing education type course would work - plenty of folks take welding classes, then continue to take them repeatedly to get access to the workshop and tools for their projects.

I also don't want some green horn trying to buff someone's $8,000 tuba and letting the buffing wheel grab it and throw it up against the wall.

Give it a few more years, and AI will have erased even more jobs... I'd like to think people will then re-discover that they have hands and brains and can use them to build and do things. People seem to think that AI will be the end of humanity; I think it will lead to a decrease in computerization.

I'd like to think a handful of people will become instrument repair techs. Even if it's 1 out of every 1,000,000 people who decide on this as a job... that's still 330+ people. Not a lot, but enough to get by, and surely plenty of people will want to try things for themselves.

Since buying our first house a few years ago, I've done a LOT of work myself, and have realized (late in the game) that I probably would have been well-suited for trade-work like being an electrician -- and there ain't no robot taking that job away.

bloke wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 9:54 am I also don't want some green horn trying to buff someone's $8,000 tuba and letting the buffing wheel grab it and throw it up against the wall.

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting any any instrument repair hobbyshop type stuff would occur on instruments provided by (other) paying customers. That would be crazy...maybe even illegal?

DonO. wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 8:26 am Is a tuba a musical instrument?

I wouldn't ask a repair shop that question, unless I was sure I knew what their answer will be...

I don't know about illegal...??

We all like shiny stuff that works right. But, I'm not sure that having a complete restoration done on a serviceable $1500 King 12/2341 to make it shiny, lacquered and dent-free gives the best value. If you want to have a King 12/2341 that is shinier, better lacquered and less dentier, find a better example and sell the other one. Add money to the proceeds and get a horn in better condition. For that matter, if you can tolerate a Chinese horn, you could probably get a new instrument for the price of the horn and the cost of the repairs to make it all nice. Enough Chinese horns have been sold over the last few years that they have a track record of being instruments which are comparable or better than a lot of other new horns and for less money.

I like the idea of fixing up old stuff and making it nice but, unless you have access to a bloke who can slick out your horn in a reasonable way, in a reasonable amount of time and for a reasonable price, it might be better to go another direction. If you would like a beautiful 100 year old, BBb 4/4 York in satin silver, there are people listed who can do that for you if you want to spend the money and take the time to get it created for you.

Relacquering often doesn't need to be "complete" to look good...

...and I'm concerned when anyone uses the word "overhaul" when talking about musical instruments.

Finally...unless someone is manufacturing or remanufacturing individual components to .xxx" or .xxxx" tolerances through-and-through, I still grimace at the term "tech".

I might be pretty proud of myself for coaxing a Holton 345 bottom bow MUCH rounder than when it was originally formed in Elkhorn, but it still may be .020" or even .050" out of round - when I decide to give up trying to make it any better, and that's not particularly "technical".

If someone chooses to label me a craftsman, I suppose that's OK (when I CHANGE things), but MOSTLY I view myself as a REPAIRMAN...

...and yes: "-man", as I IDENTIFY as huMAN.

Musical instrument fixer-upper.

yes. I fix horns.

You should have seen and heard it BEFORE I worked on it; it was pretty good!

travisd wrote:

bloke wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 9:54 am I also don't want some green horn trying to buff someone's $8,000 tuba and letting the buffing wheel grab it and throw it up against the wall.

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting any any instrument repair hobbyshop type stuff would occur on instruments provided by (other) paying customers. That would be crazy...maybe even illegal?

I had a friend who has a shop.when I was in a short term break from aviation maintenance after 9/11 left me unemployed I took a job that left me furloughed for a couple months a year. I worked in his shop for free during that time to help him and learn a bit. I did get to use a hydraulic tube drawing machine that he built and made trump side tubing. I also ran a lathe and made trumpet finger buttons. He was able to sell this things I made and I really enjoyed working there. I did zero work on tubas except on my own.


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Beeman brass in cleveland ohio. Tuba player. Specilaizes in tuba complete refurbishment.

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Anytime someone is willing to completely polish a tuba to a mirror finish, degrease it, and then risk that polishing job by shooting lacquer on it - which can always go wrong when spraying such a large and odd shaped object, they're doing the customer a huge favor, because there's no way they can charge as much per hour to do all that work compared to what they normally charge.

If and when they skip over doing someone's tuba for months while doing other work, this is why.

"I could start on this tuba, but - with interruptions - the soonest it will be finished is two weeks from now, and then I'm going to have to wait for the tuba's owner to pay me and/or arrange for shipment (which sucks up more hours), etc. In the meantime, my car note, house note, credit card bill, and light bill are all due..."

Also, repair shops probably really don't like being paid in advance, because that gives the customer special permission to call and ask and call and ask and call and ask.

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For most repair people, painting horns - and that's what lacquering is, let's face - it is a sideline. Imagine being only a painter, and you had the choice between painting a whole bunch of gutter downspouts or painting fire trucks (... and they paid about the same per hour.) Both had to look perfect, and you would only be paid after each downspout was done or each fire truck was done. Hell... it might be more boring, but I would sure choose downspouts over fire trucks.