Band Instrument Repair - Making Tools to Suit the Task

"body">of choice for releasing and reattaching springs on
Repairing musical instruments is one of the mostflutes, saxophones, clarinets, oboes, English horns and
interesting and rewarding trades there is. Woodwindsother instruments that have spring loaded keys.
and brass have a lot of the same operating principlesDental tools have many, many uses such as scraping
but their own unique sounds. When repairing them, oneand manipulating solder on joints. Cleaning off old solder
always comes to a point where no tool seems to beand smoothing out new solder etc. Also, removing old
right for a particular problem. This seems to beglue and scraping off rust in hard to reach areas.
inevitable.Drum sticks, leather hammers, razes blades, bottle
Shortly after you learn to repair instruments you willtops, cigarette papers, etc. After a while you can
start to look at tools in hardware stores in a verypicture almost anything being transformed into a useful
different way. For instance, pliers in one trade becometool. There are a handful of people who will make a
completely different in instrument repair. I know of onenew tool and after it proves itself as being useful that
brand of $2.00 pliers that were sitting in a big bin at theperson will patent it and mass produce it for the
hardware store that were purchased and turned intoinstrument repair field.
at least 5 different and unique tools for each of theIt seems though that there will never be an end to the
techs in our shop.inventiveness of repair techs. As long as there are
Crochet hooks (metal) become spring manipulationthings to repair there will be creative minds looking to
tools that you can't do without. They become the toolmake a tool to make the job easier and more efficient.