Well, it's a lot of work my body and mind are taking a beating! Everyone in the shop has worked wonderfully to help with this project. Some have gone to the building to clean and prep for the work that will happen and everyone has picked up the slack around the shop for those of us that are busy doing the many things there are to do around the building. All this work we've done and the work has not even started! Before we start any real work at the building we will need a permit. However, when talking about cleaning up a 40,000 square foot building, even sweeping is an all day job. So there is plenty to do! Everyone at the shop including, Jen, Jon, Matt, Rich, Mike, Drew and Justin have done their part to help. It really is a testament to what a great team we have!

Bravo guys (and Gal)!!

So, All the planning for the rehabilitation of the shop is done! The place is clean and ready for the workers to come in and do their part! I'm sure I'll get in there too and get my hands dirty. I secretly love this work and, although my days have often been 10-15 hours long, I have to admit I love every minute of it!

The folks at the City and County offices have been GREAT! They are as excited about this business as we are. They are doing all they can to help. I've heard stories about various zoning and inspection officials being very hard to deal with. This certainly is not the case here. Everyone has a keen eye on safety and a strong interest in beautifying the town, as these are also our goals we all seem to be on the same page. I really don't think I could imagine a finer group of guys and gals than we have here in public office at Wilmington NC.

We are taking the shop in a "green" direction. We have some cool ideas on paper and everyone is super-excited to see it come to fruition. The shop will have extreme daylighting with very modern LED lights connected to motion/heat/light sensors. That means when the sun is out the lights are out. When noone is in the shop, the lights are out. The lights only come on when someone is in the shop working and there is not sun. We're using Cork flooring (a renewable resource) in the offices and recycled rubber flooring in the shops and halls. Any fixtures we get will be low power consumption or heavily energy minded such as the On-demand tankless hot water heater and Energy Recovery Ventilators.

I can't wait to open the door and ask you all to come visit the new shop but alas, it will be a while before we're in there. Until then, rest assured that none of us at MusicMedic.com are afraid to get our hands dirty (or beat-up) and we're all trying to do our part for this great planet!

Thanks for checking in!

-Curt

The best modifications are the ones that you cannot see. How well do you know your Buescher mechanisms? This is a Buescher 400 Tenor you are looking at, can you tell what we did? -no, it's not the addition of a rubber riser on the D key...

If you can tell what the mod is than, good it was a success. If you can, let me know your thoughts about it.


All the best!

-Curt

Today we finished a job for a player in Florida named Martin. This work was done by Matt Scott here at the MusicMedic.com saxophone repair shop. Martin's saxophone (who's name is Ed) is a Buescher "New Aristocrat." Ed is a saxophone that we overhauled years ago. One problem with Ed, that most Bueschers suffer from, is an uncomfortable octave mechanism. The octave pearl on a Buescher Alto is located directly above the rest and it pivots in the opposite direction from a modern saxophone octave mechanism.

Although I didn't take a before picture, there is a similar saxophone on Saxpics here

Due to some hand problems, Martin took his saxophone with him to a doctors visit. After looking at the configuration of the octave mechanism on this saxophone the doctor explained to Martin that his octave mechanism may be adding to the problems with his hand. Martin decided to take the plunge and have a Selmer style octave mechanism put on Ed. Since Ed already had a C-bar (which is a simple version of Clyde the Glyde) we decided to add Clyde the Glyde to the mechanism to improve on the C-bar and remove lost motion.

Most Buescher Altos also have lost motion in the G key where it hits the octave pad. This has always been a problem on these instruments, so Matt decided to address that problem as well.

As this modification is intended to ease the players hand position and motion, we also wanted to make the amount of movement in the LH thumb variable, without varying the amount of movement in the octave pad. This is something I have seen on any saxophone in production but it is very handy.

All of these adjustments were made by allowing the relationship between the various opposing fulcrums to be completely adjustable. Although the intention was to make and install a Selmer type octave mechanism, the result is a greatly improved hand-made Selmer style octave mechanism.




Here is the whole mechanism before polishing and plating. It's not pretty yet but it works very well.



Here you can see Clyde the Glyde in his naked form before clean up.



This is the adjustment screw that allows the thumb lever's movement to be adjusted without changing the amount of movement in the octave pads.


This adjustment lever allows the technician to change the height of the G pad without adding lost motion to the mechanism. Again, this is done by changing the contact point between the two opposing fulcrums.



Here's Ed back to being beautiful. All polished and plated. The new octave mechanism works like a charm!



Another shot of Ed, this time from the back.

This mechanism works perfectly on the Buescher without adding any lost motion and even removes lost motion present on so many Bueschers. Martin tells me that the mechanism allows him to go over the break more easily and the new, more natural, thumb motion will certainly help technique avoid problems in the Left thumb.

Great job Matt!
Thanks for looking!

-Curt

It's kind of funny the things that excite a repair technician. In my shop I was struggling with files that I didn't really care for. So about 6 months ago I bought all new files. This made my repair-shop life a lot easier. Manufacturing keys and such is a breeze with good files. I'll never go back to inferior files in my shop. I've gone ahead and added the most popular files in my drawers to the website.

With some great new hand files and killer tone hole drill-file set, work has been a day in the park lately.

I use the coarse file for cutting and removing metal. The fine file is perfect for taking out the large file marks or removing small amounts of metal. The fine hand file on the site is so nice parts go directly from the file to the buffer.

life is good.

If you have a favorite shape that you like to use in your own repairs, please drop me a line and I'll try and get them in stock.

Here is a link to our files:

http://www.musicmedic.com/catalog/categ ... at_22.html


All the best!

-Curt

Changing the angle or location of spring cradles on woodwinds.


We do a lot of modifications in our shop and have developed some tools and techniques to make this work faster with better, more predictable, results. One modification that can be completely invisible to the player yet can make many vintage instruments feel a lot better, is relocating or modifying spring cradles.


When to move a spring cradle.

There are a number of vintage Conn's and many sopranos of all makes that can benefit from longer springs. The distance from the post to the spring cradle is sometimes not enough to get the needed feel. Springs that are too thick or short will have an uneven pressure. The key will get harder and harder to close as is it pressed.

This is also true when a player asks for very tight action on a small instrument such as a soprano and especially a vintage soprano.

Sometimes a longer spring or a longer spring cradle (one that extends further from the key) is the answer to key bounce.

Of course, when we make a key from scratch, deciding where to put the spring cradle is always a question.

In most of these instances, the quickest and most long term solution can be moving the cradle. Sometimes there is very little room on the key and the new location of the spring cradle is obvious; as far as possible. Other times, for example the low C key on many saxophones, there are many places that the spring cradle could go and the length of the cradle is a variable.

The temporary spring cradle:

To solve this problem, we made a small movable spring cradle with various lengths. It's not a pretty part but it works very well. If any of you have a need to move a spring cradle, you can make this tool quickly.

If we have a need to make more of these, they will be made from steel rather than brass. The bushing serves 2 purposes. First, it keeps the key from being marred when the cradle is moved around. Also, it allows us to use this little tool on keys of various diameters.




All the best!

-Curt