a reluctant craftsman

[UDELBR]

Looks great, Bloke! Mouthpipe drawing & bending isn't as hard as folks think.

[TheTubaGuy]

Ah... the craftsmanship debate.. This is my opinion: A craftsman is someone that has specific skill in a particular 'craft.' Now what I think a craft is: being able to do something by hand. This does not necessarily mean produce something from scratch into something new (implication doesn't dictate its reality). It could be manipulating something to be something else. Even repairing an instrument, whether it be a dent, or putting in a pad, you are changing what what the instrument is. Once someone buys an instrument it is no longer new it's used. You can use this general idea in a repair sense; once something happens to an instrument, you can never make it what it used to be. You could only try to get it as close as possible, or better (especially with some of the scary horns that come out of factory). This is where the skill comes in. You have to decide what is the outcome you want and what steps you're going to take to get there. For example your lead pipe, if you couldn't replicate it exactly, you made the decisions on what it will become. Whether or not is wrong is a different story, hopefully with your experience you made the best possible decisions to get the best outcome. You have trained yourself and your body to physically do the things you need to do. And so what if this is the first time you've done it? Skill might not be in the repetition of a specific task but in your knowledge of instruments and the repair-world as whole manifesting into a product you didn't know how to make (some might deem that artistic). Its best to have the capacity to think for yourself and be able to physically pull it off. Not everyone can walk in off the street and recreate that leadpipe without knowledge and skill like you did.

I don't have the years you have in. But, I've invested time and money into attain the knowledge from school and my ever growing experience. In the past couple of years my work is getting more efficient but even better, my ability is improving. I believe I am a craftsman and I want to continue to learn and get better at my craft.

Now.... Is repairing art? IDK, not completely sold on it. My supervisor and I had this discussion and I waiver back at forth sometimes... What keeps popping into my mind is expression. The energy and effort I put into a repair is represented in the outcome. That outcome represents me whether I like it to or not and will impact the player. No it definitely isn't a fine art but to do what we do takes creativity and skill. If you use creativity and skill to impact someone else in hopes of maybe leading them to an exalted experience isn't art, I don't know what is.

PS: It looks good. Now, any change on a leadpipe can affect the sound quality, intonation, etc. Does it play well? It looks good visually.

[Heavy_Metal]

Looks good, so what if the colors don't match. But if it plays well, I would call it successful.

[Donn]

These sorts of jobs are best left for people (perhaps such as those in Washington State) who actually know what they're doing, and who have some patience.

I damaged my leadpipe in a little accident recently and brought it to the place around the corner here in Washington State. She informed me that getting everything perfect would probably mean pulling the leadpipe off and doing a bunch of stuff with dent balls etc. that was a lot of work and not much fun. I didn't argue. Instead, when I picked it up yesterday, it was pretty good if not perfect, and at the most trivial expense. That's the reluctant craftsman in my neighborhood - one who knows what's good enough to serve the purpose. I.e., making the big fart noises, not goggling at works of unearthly perfection.

[pwhitaker]

A Holton doesn't flatulate; it eructates.

[Heavy_Metal]

Same thing, from the other end.

[Rick Denney]

A Holton doesn't flatulate; it eructates.

'Pends on who's playing it.

Rick "trying not to be self-incriminating" Denney

[Biggs]

It is folks like you and Dan that keep these old horns playing. Most shops would just say, "It's not worth fixing." Then they would try to sell you a new Chinese one. I have a great deal of respect for people who, even though they do it for a living, will take very little for their time to keep a piece of history usable and a musician happy. Kudos to all you guys who do so.

Ditto. I'd like to also drop Lee Stofer's name in there. He's endured not one, but two 'craftsman' requests from me on horns that are definitely 'historic' though likely far from 'valuable' and not particularly 'practical.' The work was beautiful, affordable, functional, and otherwise masterful.

Plus, bloke, isn't it at least a little fun to do a job like this instead of de-denting the same school sousaphones every year?

[Three Valves]

I'd go for "artisanal!!"

AKA Anal artist.