Open letter of thanks to Chris Bluemel
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 7:18 pm
Friday October 24 I went down to Charleston, SC to pick up an EEb I had purchased online that Chris Bluemel, owner of The Instrument Doc had agreed to check out for me. Chris's primary horn is an EEb. I might add that when I went down to pick up my horn (a couple of hour drive one way for me) Chris had stayed at his store later than he planned as he was playing the Shostakovich 5th Symphony with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra that evening. From our phone conversations (Chris had been out of the store when I dropped the horn off), he was aware that I have only played BBb and had some questions about EEbs in general and mine in specific.
When I walked into his store, there were three tubas sitting by a chair in the customer area. Chris said he would be with me in a minute but while I was waiting he wanted to play the horns sitting there. One with his extremely nice & expensice EEb that he was using for the Shostakovich that night, another was one he had built from a York Bell and parts and pieces from thee old King Sousaphones, and the third a 100 year old Eb that he had pulled out of the attic for me to see. After I had a chance to spend some time with all three horns, he then came out and talked with me about my horn as well as the differences between EEb and BBb. All told, he probably spent an hour to hour and a half talking with me about what I had wanted done with my horn as well as the difference between EEb and BBb. And he had a solution for a concern I had that required no work on the shop's part. When I wanted to pay him for his time, especially since he had do no actual work on the horn he refused.
The quality of the shop's work is outstanding. His shop has done work on my King, a friend's ancient as the hills Yamaha C and a couple of tubas from my local Community Concert Band. I can't say enough good stuff about Chris and David, the shop manager, both who are Tuba Players.
Chris, thank you for your time, your advice and your recommendations. I appreciate doing business with someone who does excellent work, is supportive to a customer's need, and looks out for your customer best interest.
John
When I walked into his store, there were three tubas sitting by a chair in the customer area. Chris said he would be with me in a minute but while I was waiting he wanted to play the horns sitting there. One with his extremely nice & expensice EEb that he was using for the Shostakovich that night, another was one he had built from a York Bell and parts and pieces from thee old King Sousaphones, and the third a 100 year old Eb that he had pulled out of the attic for me to see. After I had a chance to spend some time with all three horns, he then came out and talked with me about my horn as well as the differences between EEb and BBb. All told, he probably spent an hour to hour and a half talking with me about what I had wanted done with my horn as well as the difference between EEb and BBb. And he had a solution for a concern I had that required no work on the shop's part. When I wanted to pay him for his time, especially since he had do no actual work on the horn he refused.
The quality of the shop's work is outstanding. His shop has done work on my King, a friend's ancient as the hills Yamaha C and a couple of tubas from my local Community Concert Band. I can't say enough good stuff about Chris and David, the shop manager, both who are Tuba Players.
Chris, thank you for your time, your advice and your recommendations. I appreciate doing business with someone who does excellent work, is supportive to a customer's need, and looks out for your customer best interest.
John