Mr Fixit

[Bobby G]

This is probably one for Griff; I am an inveterate tinkerer, in fact my job as an ATM engineer allows much tinkering which I enjoy a lot - plenty of mechanical bits to adjust, gears, drive belts, vacuum system (yes, it's basically quite primitive how your money comes out of that hole in the wall!), relative timing of various components etc.

I've done a bit of sax-related tinkering and enjoyed the results of having a better-playing horn at the end of it. Question is, if I wanted to learn how to fix horns 'properly', or become a recognised horn-fixer, how would I go about it?

Cheers, Bob

 

[griff136]

Hi Bob,

there are a few routes you could take and these are as follows:

try apprenticing with a repairer - not ideal and you could pick up some bad habits.

or learn from a book - not ideal either.

or go to college - the nearest to you is Merton. they do a 2 yr one day a week course in woodwind repair. you'll do saxes, clarinets, flutes, oboes, piccolos and bassoons.

www.merton.ac.uk