We were contracted to move a Steinway Model L (6’3”) from the floor to the chancel of Christ Church Episcopal in Easton, MD for a Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival concert. The following day we moved it back again. Below are pictures of the move back to the floor.
Old Tenor from a school with a broken octave(and piece missing) key.
Digging through the “boneyard” I found an old broken sax trill key that will become my replacement part.
Clamped, aligned, and ready to be silver soldered.
Here’s my Frankenstein Octave Key. I’m keeping the other end in place until after I solder on the riser that will connect with the octave key on the neck.
I unsoldered and removed the key tube. Then I ground down a piece of brass drill rod to fit in the hole vacated by the key tube. Clamped and ready for soldering.
Soldered, unnecessary end cut off, ready for cleaning and buffing.
Cleaned and polished. Ready for heat shrink tubing on the riser and cork underneath.
Reassembled and ready to go.
Piano delivered and tuned on the Terrace for a Wedding Brunch @ The Inn at Perry Cabin. Arranged and coordinated by Eden Events.
I have thumb problems, so playing clarinet for long periods of time tends to be uncomfortable. I molded this thumbrest “cushion” out of Jett Sett heat-moldable plastic. It slips right over the existing thumbrest so it can be easily removed.
I had a bari sax come in with a missing brace. The part wasn’t readily available, so it was easier to fabricate one. I needed a think piece of brass, so a baritone bell ring from the “boneyard” became my starting point. After removing the bell ring, I’ve cut it in 1/2.
I’ve now thinned the piece down to the width I need.
Flattened and cut to final size
Polished, bend added, and holes ready to be drilled
Holes drilled, and corners rounded off.
Installed on bari sax. I was striving for sturdiness and functionality. The original was certainly more ornate, but school systems typically don’t have the money for ornate. Nuts are LocTited on, so we shouldn’t have to worry about it coming off again.
Noblet Bass Clarinet – I removed the Ab key to test some cleaning options
Ab Key after cleaning and polishing, in comparison to others
Neck was the same orange-brown color as the bell before cleaning
This is what is commonly referred to as a Banana Flute in the repair industry. Basically a flute that has been sat on and bent, making it look like a banana. Below are some before and after pictures from a recent flute brought in for repair. This particular Gemeinhardt was bent between the Thumb Bb key and the B Key.
Several factors come into play on this type of repair.
You can still see where the “dents” were, when the metal stretches the silver-plate micro-fractures, leaving the “cloudy” appearance. The plating can be stripped and the instrument re-plated, but most customers don’t opt for that.
Summer HoursEffective June 1, 2009, Salisbury Music will be closed on Saturday’s. We will re-institute Saturday hours sometime in August, but we look forward to taking some much needed time off. For the summer our hours will be:
Buffet Crampon
Showcasing Buffet Crampon woodwinds, Besson brass, and Antoine Courtois brass, the new Buffet Crampon New York Showroom will be celebrating its grand opening on Friday, June 5th from 2pm – 6pm at 160 W 48th Street, 4th Floor, NYC, 10036.
G. Henle Vertag no longer hand-engraves their printing plates as computer notation programs have advanced. However you can own a piece of history. G. Henle is selling their vast inventory of Lead Engraving Plates. Retailing for $91.00 each plate is unique, however, you CANNOT order a specific title. You get whatever they send.
15% Music Teacher Discount on Most MusicDid you know that Music Teachers get a 15% discount on most music that we have in stock or order for you?
Plus we never charge shipping on orders we deliver by van to the school.
Stretch those budget dollars!!!
Trumpet Valve Cleaning Rod
Retail Price = $5.50
Normal BD Price = $4.40
OVER-STOCK PRICE = $2.99
While Supplies Last
I’ve Never Seen Trombone comes in with a plastic Kelly Mouthpiece broken off in the mouthpiece receiver. Customer should be glad it was a trombone with a straight shot up the slide…a trumpet, baritone, tuba with limited or no access from the other end would have been MUCH harder to remove, which also meant it would have cost A LOT more t0 fix. Even with straight access on this trombone, I had to be EXTREMELY careful not to damage the tapered leadpipe in the receiver side of the outside slide.
Several months ago I attended a band instrument repair clinic in Norfolk, VA, where one of the clinicians talked about the "proper" way of cleaning the inside of brass instruments. Over the years there have been many theories and processes of chemical cleaning, but each had their issues. Due to those issues Salisbury Music has never been an advocate of "chemical cleaning". The clinician, Ken Skitch, had a trombone customer that also happened to own a chemical company. One day, while the customer was in the store he asked Ken how he "cleaned" the inside of brass instruments. After Ken explained the process he used, the customer told him he was doing it all wrong, and would get back to him. Long story short, Ken and the customer developed a brass cleaner that effectively cleans the crud and gunk out of the inside of a brass instrument, without etching or degrading the structural material of the instrument, whether it’s brass, nickel or silver. This solution is safe with lacquer and plated instruments.
One of the more common problems with brass instruments I have been seeing recently is the corrosion and degradation of the brass from the "junk" that’s not getting effectively cleaned out. This is even more evident on newer instruments that have less metal mass than older sturdier instruments. Compare a 30-year-old Olds Ambassador Baritone to a new Jupiter Baritone and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.
Salisbury Music is now proud to offer this "chemical-cleaning" service to the customers on the Eastern Shore. While our system is hardly high tech, we are now able to chemically clean the inside of the following instruments:
Basically anything other than tubas at this stage, although we may be able to fit small 3/4 tubas in our tank, but we’ll have to see.
Below are some before and after pictures of a trumpet we chemically cleaned. If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to contact me.
This is a very cool website I stumbled across on the history of King Musical Instruments.
Check it out HERE
A typical problem with saxophones is the height (or lack of) of the palm keys, that are played with the left hand. Depending on the size of the players hand, theses keys are sometimes quite below the palm of the hand. Adding Palm Key Risers is a fairly simple customization, allowing a player with larger hands to have a better “feel” for the instrument. In the pictures are the Custom Palm Key Risers I made for my personal sax (Yamaha YTS-875 Custom Series Tenor). These risers are made from a polymer material, baked to 
harden them, and then lightly glued on. They are completely removable, should the player ever wish to sell the instrument or need to remove them for some reason. They are available in a variety of colors, mine just happen to be yellow.
Piece for 4 Contrabass Saxophones (More specifically, 2 Eb Contrabass Saxophones, 1 Eb Tubax and one Bb Subcontrabass Tubax)
Written by Adam Gilberti, performed at UCLA by Jay C. Easton, Grant Green, Blaise Garza, and Adam Gilberti.
Pictured are just some of the screwdrivers I use in the repairing of band instruments. The 3 Red-Topped on the left are Wiha Phillips head screwdrivers. The other 11 multi-color top screwdrivers are Kraus slotted screwdrivers. These are screwdrivers made specifically for the band instrument repair trade. The colored tops are interchangeable, and I use the colors to denote what size blade each screwdriver is. That way if I’m using a green-topped screwdriver and need a longer or shorter length, it’s very easy to grab the correct one. Using the correct blade width is critical so that I don’t damage the slot in the screw/rod, or have the screwdriver slip out of the slot.
Want to own a set?
Each screwdriver body, colored top, & blade costs me approximately $39.
Joel Smith Music 