Take a peek at a school repair quote (undoing the industry of young scholars)

[bloke]

Eastman double horn # XXXXXX
free and grease stuck slides; replace worn rotor bumpers; replace missing stop arm screw; restring and adjust rotor linkage; remove dents and creases; straighten and partially re-solder thumb hook; re-solder main slide brace; re-solder contact brace; replace F-side main tuning slide one-piece broken brace.

Eastman double horn # XXXXXX
remove dents and creases (including more involved dent under the nickel hand guard); free four frozen rotors; free one frozen slide; grease slides; re-string thumb valve; and replace missing stop arm string screw.

King euphonium # XXXXXX
remove dents and creases from bell and outer bows; re-solder bell to bottom bow ferrule; line up and re-solder mouthpipe to #1 casing and upper bow to #1 slide brace as well and - since the mouthpipe tube is already un-soldered from the #1 casing – remove the mouthpipe from the instrument, remove mouthpipe dents, and re-install; free four badly stuck slides and grease; restore proper angle of valve slides (due to the lower #4 slide brace being severely mashed into the top bow); pull small slide of main tuning slide up away from the #4 valve casing (for alignment; and to eliminate valve sticking); replace #3 water key assembly; remove upper #4 slide bow dents.

King euphonium # XXXXXX
remove dents and creases from bell and outer bows; undo/redo bad solder work on the small side of bottom bow and the knuckle leading into the #4 valve casing; replace both #4 slide braces to the upper bow and re-solder small brace from #3 to #4 slide – all while realigning the #3 and #4 slides to the instrument and to the valve casings; replace complete #3 water key assembly, replace 3-piece brace assembly from the large upper bow to the small side of the main tuning slide; free frozen #1 and #2 slides and grease slides.

[York-aholic]

Students of the present generation = Keeping Bloke gainfully employed!

[bloke]

The point is that none of these instruments need one or two little things done to them. LOL

They all sort of remind me of that video from quite a few years ago where a father and his son decided to launch a Jupiter brass sousaphone body from a trebuchet over and over until there wasn't anything left of it.

[York-aholic]

Agreed. The school system isn’t really set up to fix one thing when it breaks (ie brace holding mouthpiece receiver to bell) either time wise or 30 bucks here, 30 bucks there). As a result that instrument gets played, hoping it makes it until the end of the season, until the whole mouthpipe becomes unintentionally a detachable “feature”. Then add in how much less responsible the average student is these days and the complete lack of any consequences…

We’re sort of swirling the drain, me thinks.

[prodigal]

I used to cut bridges for our school celli and basses, but then the cords for the sander and bandsaws were cut to prevent the scholars from getting hurt. No more freebies.

[bloke]

I used to cut bridges for our school celli and basses, but then the cords for the sander and bandsaws were cut to prevent the scholars from getting hurt. No more freebies.

Having done all of them back when we rented those things, it took a heck of a lot longer to fit a cello bridge to an instrument than to fit a violin or viola bridge to an instrument. After a while, I got pretty good at hacking down a cello bridge within a pretty close amount of the final fit, which saved a tremendous amount of time. Of course when you both take height off of the top and the feet, you start having to plane down the sides, because otherwise they'll end up chunky and mute the strings.

Here are some things that indicates quite a few things:

When we rented out bowed stringed instruments, we didn't rent the very cheapest ones that we could buy, but we rented the very cheapest ones that we could buy and could rent out in good conscience, due to the epic theft and damage when it came to renting out these particular types of instruments.

The string teachers at the schools ooh-ed and ahh-ed over our instruments, simply because they came with the bridges cut down as low as possible so that the instruments were easy to play (as well as something ridiculously simple that we did, which was to break in the rosins and pre-rosin the bows). Even at that, we left the bridges just a little bit high on the violins and violas, because to bring them down to optimum height would have defined that the strings would buzz against the little pieces of tape that the teachers put on the instruments' fingerboards (to show the kids where to put their fingers).

Neither of us ever got any "training" in setting up bowed stringed instruments. It's just a bunch of common sense, and an ability to be sympathetic with the player. Truth be told, even though it's more hand work and less mechanical work, it's easier and quicker than setting up an electric guitar or bass. ... and we didn't always use the prescribed glues to repair broken things on the bodies. We used stronger glues than those prescribed. These weren't 17th century Italian instruments, but things that were dropped and used as baseball bats, seemingly.

Decent violin and viola bridges - at that time - only cost a few dollars. We were economical, but not to the point of being cheap or putting out bad products. If one of us screwed up a bridge, we tossed it in the trash and started over. I didn't screw up very many bridges at all, but probably screwed up more than Mrs bloke, because I tried to get them done as fast as I could and she took her time. Getting it done faster allowed me to get back to doing other things, but it cost a few bridges. Her taking her time kept her away from her other work longer, but cost fewer bridges... It's nothing more than a pretty simple math problem.

Factory-supplied strings tended to be quite cheap and undersized, but we used them. They were new and vibrant and worked. Being undersized made them easier for beginner children to depress and increased levels of success (much as with starting beginner woodwind players on reeds that are softer than optimal). Due to all the mishandling though, when we would replace them, we wouldn't put anything on them any more expensive than "Super Sensitive".

[prodigal]

I lack the patience to do a decent job on viola and violin bridges. I have more tools for celli, since I play it more, so they were okay investments for me.

I will straighten bridges for kids, it generally works once or twice.

I tell my students to NEVER, EVER throw their old strings away. They do break, and when they do, you want a stretched out string ready to get you through your audition/gig/rehearsal. Also, never change your strings anytime before a concert.

I recommend Pirastro Tonica for most of my fiddlers, with the gold label E they are pretty decent. (If they are serious about playing and have a decent instrument, then I encourage them to try other strings out, with a measure of sense. If they are an aggressive player, I like Evahs.)

Replacing cello strings makes me appreciate tuba mouthpieces more and more!

[bloke]

Those are good strings... and there's no doubt that really good strings sound a ton better.
We had good strings for sale, and we're willing to sell better strings to people who rented from us, but we wouldn't supply them for our rental fee.

When we rented out beginner trombones, we supplied no-name 6-1/2AL mouthpieces for a very low price, but - where there might have been some weirdo/impractical band director who required something like a Schilke 51 small shank, there's no way that we would have (back then when all prices were lower) supplied that for 20 bucks.

[tofu]

In my 4 years of HS I cannot recall a single instrument getting seriously damaged. I can’t even remember a single accidental drop nor intentional damage. At best some dents from airplane cargo hold tours around the country. I just don’t understand how this kind of damage is able to happen or allowed these days. My band director ( survived one ship being bombed & sinking at Pearl Harbor and a second one later in the war - a tough old bird who was a lights out musician) would have killed us and tossed us out of the band. But my dad would have been my worst worry. That kind of stuff would have simply not been tolerated. He valued good tools, good products that lasted and taking care of your stuff.

I will say this though, it really demonstrates the value and enduring use of brass for instruments as it can be ably repaired. Imagine if these were plastic tubas which don’t seem cheap enough for once and done abuse & use.

[prodigal]

I think that the problem is that we are in a disposable society. Most of what we use is "use it up and throw it away." Any electronics, plastic everything. The idea of durable goods is lost in this culture.

I grew up as the only kid around, so I interacted with adults more than my peers. I like doing things that use durable goods, like fishing (fly), started shooting 22s at 7, working on machinery, cutting firewood. Dangerous stuff, but it taught me respect for my tools.

My band director showed me the receipt for my school's 184 when it came in. I took care of it.

[bloke]

I think that the problem is that we are in a disposable society. Most of what we use is "use it up and throw it away." Any electronics, plastic everything. The idea of durable goods is lost in this culture.

I grew up as the only kid around, so I interacted with adults more than my peers. I like doing things that use durable goods, like fishing (fly), started shooting 22s at 7, working on machinery, cutting firewood. Dangerous stuff, but it taught me respect for my tools.

My band director showed me the receipt for my school's 184 when it came in. I took care of it.

I was born in the 50s, but my brother and sister were born during and right after the end of WWII. My parents were born just before WWI and grew up during the Depression. It's difficult for people who were born in the '70s and laters to have a clue.

Besides the increasing crime and skyrocketing property taxes, another reason that we shut down our brick and mortar music store was that the quality of rental clientele was dropping precipitously, whereas they would either steal our instruments or bring them back all torn up. Unlike most music stores, we charged a good bit less for the entire year than what the instruments were actually worth, rather than considerably more. That business model worked into the 90s, but fell apart (as society fell apart) in the 20th century. Astonishingly (or not), some of the worst rental customers were members of the clergy. Rather than being sheepish and apologetic when we finally tracked them down after stealing our instruments, they were typically indignant.