A big thanks to Lee Stofer

[opus37]

The reason I go to Lee to fix my tubas and other low brass is the honest, straight forward, personal service. I'm not one of Lee's big customers, but I fell like he treats me like one. I am a repeat customer. I have purchased a tuba from him, had a second restored and traded a sousaphone for a helicon. Recently, I acquired a couple of old horns. (They seem to appear on my doorstep). One was a 1911 Conn double bell euphonium. Not being a euphonium player, I had Chadtuba, a really good euphonium player, test it. He really liked it, but said it was difficult to tune to 440. I sent a picture of the horn and the tuning slide to Lee. He immediately saw the problem and asked me to sent the tuning slide assembly. He shortened the tuning slide assembly to tune to 440 and separated the insert from the actual slide. The insert/slide assembly had been stuck together by the matt silver plating on the horn. Since the horn has never been replated, this assembly was stuck together for 104 years. The horn now tunes and plays wonderfully. Lee is currently working on tuning bits for an 1892 J.W. Pepper imported Helicon for me. Tuning bits for this old horn are not "standard" off the shelf items. Experience like this is hard to find. Although there are others on this board who have similar expertise and work ethics, Lee has been my "go to" repair person.