Helping Those Who Help Others This fall Julie Tomljenovic of Lord Roberts School in Vancouver, British Columbia contacted us about the mounting repair bill for the music program at her school. Like all other inner city school teachers, she has very limited resources and relies mostly on sweat equity. With forty four percent of […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
A better way to sand. At the last national NAPBIRT (National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians) convention in Tuscon, Matt Scott from MusicMedic.com gave a clinic and MusicMedic.com exhibited tools and supplies. Although these activities were great, the best part of the convention for us was attending other technician’s clinics. One never knows […]
As we enter the design phase of our project, I’d like to share a few pictures so you can have the before and after experience. This is quite a project and the end result will be impressive, especially if you see what we are starting with. For pictures I’m going to show you an aerial […]
Issue #3 – July 2008 Free Gas with every MusicMedic.com Purchase! Well, sort of… As gas prices rise, many shippers are adding surcharges to every package. Not when you order from MusicMedic.com. Our shipping prices are NOT going up. As always, we ship free shipping in the US and Canada with reasonable international rates. Use […]
If you are reading this blog, there is a good chance that you, through your patronage, moral support and friendship have helped MusicMedic.com grow and thrive. For this, all of us at MusicMedic.com are thankful. For the last 2 years, we have been looking for a new location for our business. We needed a space […]
Update: We have received a huge response to this blog post. So, this blog entry is now an article on our site. Here is a link to the Tone hole article: http://www.musicmedic.com/info/articles/num_39.html Here is a link to all our articles: http://www.musicmedic.com/info/articles.html Leveling Sax Tone holes For years we have been working in the shop on […]
MusicMedic.com is going to Germany to exhibit at the MusikMesse again this year. If you are going to the Messe in Frankfurt next week, stop by our booth and say Guten Tag! MusicMedic.com will be in Hall 1.1 booth A22. I’ll also be giving a clinic at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam for the Students of […]
Shows Shows Shows! Dear Friends, Over the past four months MusicMedic.com has attended more trade shows, music education fairs, instrument repair clinics and conferences than ever before. This seemingly endless line of shows has put our new products into the hands of many new customers! The popularity of the RooPads is growing exponentially, and we […]
The most reliable way to purchase a new woodwind instrument made in Asia. One of the most common questions I get is “which student instrument should I buy?” If you have searched for an inexpensive woodwind instrument made in Asian such as Flute, Clarinet or Saxophone, you know that there is a lot of information […]
I just got some great feedback on our Sax repair kit. I would like to share it with you all. Curt, I wanted to send a quick thanks to you and MusicMedic for making repair supplies available to the every day musician. I was able to repad and properly adjust my Mark VI tenor with […]
About 3 years ago I had an idea that I’m pretty certain is an original one. Although very odd, this idea worked so well that I now implement it in many of my repairs. I’ll outline this idea as a procedure to make it clear what I am doing and why. If anyone out there […]
Welcome to the first issue of ‘Bench Notes’, a woodwind repair informational from the folks at MusicMedic.com. From this humble beginning, it is our hope that we can share ideas, techniques, and great new tools with you. If you have a particular topic that you would like to see discussed, please let us know! On your next […]
For saxophonists, and particularly those playing acoustically in quartets or solo literature, the hiss that is often found on the second octave notes such as octave A, G# and octave D on many Alto and Baritone saxophones can be a real nuisance. This hiss is most noticeable when playing softly on a hard reed. To […]
After I posted the Buescher Alto modifications, I received a bunch of Emails asking for more modifications. It’s too bad we don’t take more pictures here at MusicMedic.com! Maybe this new blog will change that. I’ll try and take more pictures of our work as we finish. It may keep others from having to reinvent […]
In 1999 I started making RooPads (Kangaroo Skin Saxophone pads) in my small shop in Mississippi. The air there was so humid that everyone’s pads were sticking. Coming from NY, I had not seen anything like it. I did some research and found that Kangaroo Skin, when properly tanned, will not stick and is incredibly […]