basic servicing that brass players should be able to do

[iiipopes]

Let's see: thorough cleanings; all aspects of lubrication; corks and felts (if you can see the valve ports on pistons, or sometimes the marks on valve stems; or alignment marks on rotors); a small rawhide hammer if you get valve caps cross-threaded; keep up with small hardware, like the valve buttons, valve caps, screws in water keys, screws in detachable bells, etc., did I miss anything?

The more advanced amateurs might be able to re-solder loose braces or take out small dents, but I leave that to my tech, because, to quote Harry Callahan, "A man's got to know his limitations."

[bort]

It's my understanding that people who carry service weapons ("guns") for their work (police, military, etc) both know how to use them, and know how to disassemble and do basic field repair to it.

Seems like that would be a good idea for brass players too. At the very least, know how your valves work (piston or rotary) and how to take them apart and put them back together.

No, I don't particularly enjoy taking apart a rotary valve... But I do know how to do it, and it's not that hard. And the first time I took one apart, it was extremely educational, and completely removed the mystery of how rotary valves work. Pistons are even easier to take apart, but you should know what you are looking at.

[bort]

Sidebar -- many years ago, young Bort has a roommate in college. The radiator in our dorm room was knocking and creaking, so I told him, oh, we just have to bleed the radiator. I figured he knew what that meant.

Later that day, I came home, and he's holding a large trashcan up to the radiator, and it's completely full of water. He hurriedly asked me for help, and said something like "this is the 3rd can of water, and there still more coming out!"



Moral is, know what you are trying to do, before you try to do it!

[cjk]

* removing and cleaning rotors
* replacing rotor springs
* adjusting spring tension
* changing rotor bumpers
* changing piston valve guides
* changing piston valve felts and corks
* changing piston valve springs
* changing water key corks
* bathtub or hose type cleaning

[pjv]

Many French horn players I know are very squeamish about removing their valves (for whatever reason). They also tend to treat their instruments in almost holy maner. (Or do I just know some weird horn players?)

To me personally, anything involving cleaning and lubricating your instrument is the bare minimum of what a musician should be able to do. Getting creative on the fly is always a pre (a rubber band to replace a broken rotary valve spring).

Taking "a torch" to an instrument requires an expertise level above that of which I am personally capable. Considering the number of botched jobs I've seen in, I feel comforted in never having done any further brass work.

It never seems to amaze me how many plumbers think that they can also repair their tubas.

[bort]

An important distinction, in my mind...

I do think it's okay to hire someone to do the work, even if you know how to do it yourself. Yes, I can take apart my rotary valves and put them back together. Do I have time to do it right now? No. Do I have space where I can do this safely and away from my kids' curious hands? No. Does my wife have any interest in seeing me repair a tuba, opposed to repairing just about anything else? No.

Sometimes it's just easier to take it to the shop.

[windshieldbug]

(Or do I just know some weird horn players?)

Hate to tell you, we ALL know weird horn players.
Some of them are even squeamish about their valves!

[Craig F]

In 5th grade, as a budding French Horn player with Asperger’s Syndrome who had to know how everything worked. I completely dismantled my horn – valves and all. The components to each valve were carefully placed on newspaper separated by valve number in the order the parts came off.

I then reassembled everything. Valves were a bit sticky, so I had to get them aligned right and make sure they were properly oiled. They soon were working smoothly again.

I never did that again.

[basslizard]

An important distinction, in my mind...

I do think it's okay to hire someone to do the work, even if you know how to do it yourself. Yes, I can take apart my rotary valves and put them back together. Do I have time to do it right now? No. Do I have space where I can do this safely and away from my kids' curious hands? No. Does my wife have any interest in seeing me repair a tuba, opposed to repairing just about anything else? No.

Sometimes it's just easier to take it to the shop.

This. Sometimes I have to remind myself that just because I can doesn't mean I have time to do it.
I can sew clothing. It's cheaper to buy ready made. I can clean fleeces, comb the wool, and spin it into yarn, and dye it, then knit it up into a sweater. I buy sweaters.
I can do lots of basic maintenance on brass instruments, up to and excluding soldering.

My idea of basics -

Disassemble and clean completely
Lubricate all parts that require lubrication
pads/felts/corks/waterkeys
tune springs/screws/valves
proper polishing for whatever finish your horn has

I stop short at reed making. I'm an oboe player too. Oboe players are nuts. $30 for a reed is pricey. $300 for a poor man's reed making kit, plus countless hours making reeds to a demanding professor's exact specifications, years of learning to get it right, replacing the tools because you bought cheap student junk the first time.... $$$ for cane, thread, and staples... $30 to a college student per reed starts sounding reasonable.

And most importantly, how to know when you're over your head and need to ask a professional before you make the repair more expensive.

[tbonesullivan]

I know how to change the oil in my car, but it's a pain. Some things are left to the people with a nice lift they can use to raise up the car so they don't have to squeeze under, and who have the special wrenches that can grip the oil filter without dropping it and spilling oil everywhere.

I clean and service most parts of my trombones and my euphoniums. But things like dent removal or rotary valve disassembly, I usually bring that to a tech to do. They are a bit more involved than piston valve or axial flow valves, and can be screwed up relatively easily if one is not careful.

[The Big Ben]

I'm a retired HS teacher in a small town. 5 of the 10 counter people at the auto parts store (old time small town parts store with everything) are former students. When I need something, one of them comes out, we pass the time of day, I get asked what I want and, if it is maintenance stuff, they remember what I have, get it off the shelf and, if it is something easy like windshield blades, they get installed while one of the other ones cashes me out and I usually get the "professional mechanics discount". Don't ask for it. It just happens. I like to see my kids work well.

[Rick Denney]

Like Bloke, my father had a range of skills in the three-dimensional world, and felt it his obligation to be able to perform basic maintenance on the things he owned. This extended to the house and the bicycles, but it did not extend to the cars, simply because he didn't want to mess with it. But he imposed no limitation on my learning efforts. Where he drew the line: Torches, power tools and electricity. When he did the electrical parts of my projects, though, he explained every step he was taking. By the time I was 15, I had learned enough from him and others (because I was encouraged to seek those opportunities) to do basic electrical work safely and correctly. Plumbing and carpentry, too.

And, yes, I did all the work on my own bicycles. By the time I got to college, I was performing nearly all the maintenance on the cars I drove (and then when I drove them too fast and was required to stop driving them for a while) on the bicycles I raced. I worked summer jobs as a bicycle mechanic, and then my last two years in college I worked part time as an auto mechanic (my second job)--at the same time as building a race car out of a 1976 Toyota Corolla with a blown engine that my roommate and I bought out of a junkyard.



The current hot rod is this:



And I've done everything to it except the new paint job that it desperately needs (and which truly is beyond my capabilities) from replacing the rear body cap to remodeling the interior to replacing the electrical system, generator, fuel tanks, engine, transmission, front suspension and drivetrain (it's front-wheel-drive), and rear suspension including a conversion to disk brakes at the rear and much larger brakes at the front.

So, what am I willing to do on my tubas? Depends on the tuba, but generally all valve maintenance, corks, bumpers, felts, springs, ball-joint linkages, and simple dent removal. I carry a small screwdriver and a small rawhide hammer in my gig bag. I've build tuning sticks and demonstrated general soldering incompetence, but only on tubas I'm willing to sacrifice to that learning objective. Any brass player should be able to do routine valve maintenance and basic cleaning and lubrication, and that should be something teachers teach, even if it means arranging a session with a repair guy. I learned that stuff the way I learned auto mechanics: Hanging around guys who knew how to do it, and letting them show me.

Now, we live in a rural area, and self-sufficiency means lower costs, quicker time to repairs, and being sure the work was done correctly.

Rick "who hates being at the mercy of the trades" Denney

[Rick Denney]

An important distinction, in my mind...

I do think it's okay to hire someone to do the work, even if you know how to do it yourself. Yes, I can take apart my rotary valves and put them back together. Do I have time to do it right now? No. Do I have space where I can do this safely and away from my kids' curious hands? No. Does my wife have any interest in seeing me repair a tuba, opposed to repairing just about anything else? No.

Sometimes it's just easier to take it to the shop.

Yes, particularly that when I have to make repairs to something, the list is always long enough that what I want to work on is at the bottom of it and never gets done. That's why my fiberglass Martin is in the same condition as when I bought it.

Rick "just about done with the new staircase to the attic" Denney

[Ace]

I have found it difficult to keep calm when bad things happen to my instrument just before the concert starts. In 1955, I was playing principal trumpet with the Redlands CA Symphony. The program was to open with the Bach Orchestral Suite #3 in D, and I had the high trumpet 1 part. I had no instrument other than my Bach Strad Bb, and I was very nervous. My hands were sweating and, as I shook my horn to get the water out, the horn flew out and hit the floor bending the bell back. Just in time for the down beat, I had managed to bend and press things back fairly well and successfully played the concert. The horn was later repaired to perfection by a guy on Pico Blvd in Los Angeles who had a shop in his garage and who was the "go to" guy of many Hollywood studio musicians. On another concert, in 1989, I was playing principal horn in a Bay area group and the program's second half opened with the Prok 7. Ten minutes before downbeat the first-valve string snapped and I panicked. I didn't know how to re-string the thing. Fortunately, the third horn player recognized my plight and had my horn operational in no time at all. Whew!

Ace

[Ken Herrick]

On the topic of horn players and things, other than servicing, that some do, or don"t do to their horns...….
When I was at Northwestern U. over half a century ago, I was often called on by hornists (should that be horn players) to rescue them from things like broken valve strings or sluggish valves and stuck slides.
There was a practice, reportedly encouraged by Dennis Brain, of pouring milk through the horn to coat the inside to make it smoother and lower air turbulence and resistance. Imagine what that did after a few months or years with no internal cleaning at all done. Funny thing....., after a good cleaning to remove all the green slime, the horns invariably played a lot better, not to mention the fact they no longer smelled like something dead was inside.

[pjv]

Milk? Did they also have to bless it in chicken blood?

But seriously; they didn't know how to replace a broken rotary string? Talk about lazy.

[Charlie C Chowder]

I was the Electrician one would call to their house or business to build or repair things, Retired. I can work on a lot of things in the 3D world. But time is not something that I have a lot of. And trouble shooting, i.e. the act of figuring out what is the problem is, is time consuming. I am lucky enough to be able to pay those who are smarter then me to find and then fix the problems on anything I do not want to spend time on so that I may spend what little time I have left, at the age of 69, on other problems that I need to fix or on the many things I want to do. I have done for others my whole life. Now it is time for me. I let my local music shops deal with my instruments if I cannot fix it in five minutes.

And work done with out a permit is not cover by you home owners insurance,
CCC

[sweaty]

A new AC unit will probably be much quieter and give you lower monthly electric bills.

[Rick Denney]

And work done with out a permit is not cover by you home owners insurance,
CCC

How will they know? I bought my house, had it inspected by a home inspector, but neither of us studied the permits issued down at the County to determine what in the house was or was not an unpermitted improvement. And neither did my State Farm agent when he underwrote the policy, nor did the adjuster on the one occasion when we made a claim.

What they will look for is evidence of not being up to code. But they have no answer if I say--hey, it was here when I moved in, BEFORE you guys agreed to insure the house.

That said, all work done on this house is absolutely up to code, and a whole lot of what was here when I moved in wasn't (it is now).

Rick "who has designed traffic signals for 40 years and is a member of IEEE" Denney

[Rick Denney]

A new AC unit will probably be much quieter and give you lower monthly electric bills.

When I bought a new system, I spent a year with the system failing because they didn't solder the refrigerant line correctly and the compressor lost lube. They put in a soft start (not the problem) and did several other things before just replacing the outside compressor as they should have done from the start. They say they did all those things to make sure Carrier was happy so they would warranty the part, but the replacement occurred when I started asking them the address where I should have the lawsuit served.

And Puron is more efficient than R-22? Uh, no. The system may be more efficient, but that isn't necessarily so. My brand-new Carrier system was no cheaper to run in the summer than my previous worn-out Ruud. It was cheaper in the winter, because I bought a hybrid heat-pump system that runs except when really cold, and preserves (expensive!) propane.

Now, the evaporator arrangement on the inside was installed much better than the previous system, which was screwed up in a variety of ways. That didn't make it more efficient in dollars to run it, but it sure did make it more serviceable and reliable.

Rick "the old system had an A coil, upside down, upstream from the filters and air handler--sheesh" Denney