The $650 quoted price is far less than any shop should charge for that job. I would assume air-dry lacquer and an ok from a distance job.
Yup, air dry lacquer. For a professional player making a living, sending a $10k plus horn back to a German factory is probably the way to go. But for mere mortals playing in a HS, college or community band, paying for kids college and driving cars pushing 200k miles, HAAS is the cat's meow. It's in an old strip mall, in an old part of town, off the beaten path. But many of the High Schools in Mn send their horns to Haas to get fixed up. You see Sousa's lined up after the end of a marching season. I've heard that a major chain with it's own repair shops ship hard to do stuff to them also.
They knocked the dents out of my 100 year old Helicon, flushed it and replaced a rotten, stuck slide for $108.
Maybe not contours quality, but the Hass repairs are a super value for the $$. I've been toying with the idea of asking if I can hang around the shop and apprentice (do the cleaning) when I retire just to learn how they actually do all that magical work.
I probably will be sending them a challenge in a month or two. I'll post before and after then : )
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