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From part 1 of The Repair Technician’s Paradigm:

“[To be a successful instrument repair technician] there are several areas of knowledge and expertise that can be identified and myriad skills to itemize, but I have compartmentalized and narrowed down the specifics into 3 areas of necessity for this job. These include:

• skills and experiences of a musician

• thought processes and dexterity of a mechanic

• knowledge and understanding of a machinist”

Part B will talk in my rambling manner about some applicable skills and experiences of a musician and how they relate and contribute to being a successful repair technician.

Certainly it is important for a technician to know how to play the instrument they are repairing. Playing the instrument is a diagnostic tool. You can tell a whole lot about how the instrument is functioning by playing it, even if you are not the best player. “But, Mr. Woodwindfixer guy,” you may ask. “How well should you be able to play an instrument? The better you play, the better you fix it, right?” Many people, both in and outside of repair, would intuit that the better the instrument is they are fixing, the better the technician has to be as a player; or, the better the technician can play the better the instrument will be fixed.

I would call them mostly wrong.

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There are basic behaviors and habits I had drilled into me from a young age that not everyone considers. First, make sure you have some sort of insurance coverage on your instrument. If you don’t have the disposable cash on hand to go out and buy another one right now, get insurance. Something that goes along with or is required for insurance is to document the serial numbers. Having pictures of your instruments is also a good idea. In this age of AI photo manipulation, please keep your documentary pictures of your instruments OFF social media. If you ask, sometimes your technician may be willing to do the pictures when it is in for service. Then you have documentary pictures in 2 places.

Another behavior that is important to establish in a musician’s routine is to not leave your instrument in your car. If you are going out for dinner or drinks after a performance or rehearsal, your instrument goes in with you. Smash and grab robberies on cars literally take seconds to pull off.

If you are carrying your instrument through a busy or crowded area, do not set it down and lose contact with it. Where you go, it goes. If you are standing in line for something and need to set it down, put it between your feet or rest one foot on top of it. If you have a smaller instrument, avoid having it loosely sitting in the top of a tote back or other open luggage. At least tie, loop, or clip it to something so it can’t just be lifted out of the bag when you stop to tie your shoe.

Thieves are opportunists above anything else and some are quite bold about it. I used to enjoy watching the Ghost Hunters television show many years ago and there was one episode where they were investigating a building in a large city. The building was a museum of some sort and had restricted hours so they were assembling all their gear outside on the sidewalk waiting to be let in. They had a large pile of black pelican cases for the cameras and whatnot and had their camera crews there filming. A man walked by and casually picked up a large case that was on the edge of the pile without breaking his stride, continuing on at the same pace without looking around. He was several steps away before the crew shook off the shock of disbelief and gave chase.

(Episode linked here and it happens around the 24:00 mark)

It can happen fast, but even if following all of the proper precautions and being aware of your surroundings, instruments can get stolen. Unfortunately, there can be violence and threats involved, such as being mugged. Your house or business could be broken into when you are not around. I have a client whose contrabassoon was stolen from a locked locker in a restricted and secure area of the concert hall where she worked. It was found and returned to her 6 years after it was stolen, a happy ending which is unusual.

Instruments getting stolen is thankfully a rare occurrence, but if it happens to you, what do you do?

1. Call the police. Get the police involved as soon as you can. Before you ask for a plea for assistance on your instagram page (which is farcically insufficient) get the professionals involved. You will need a police report number and details to file an insurance claim. (You do have insurance, right?)

2. While waiting for police to arrive write down any facts you can: what is the instrument, was the case taken too, identifying features, how/when it was taken, etc. The police will use the information they need so do not make a judgement of “oh that’s not important”. Let the professionals make that determination.

3. When you circulate appeals for help around your friends and community, make sure you provide the police department phone number, incident report number, and officer or detective handling the case. This is important because if someone spots your stolen instrument in a pawn shop, you want them to call the police directly so they can sort it out quickly. You don’t want to be in the middle and wasting time because someone left you a voicemail you missed while in the shower.

4. Maintain optimism, but accept the reality that the instrument may be gone. Let the police do what they do. It will take time. Also prepare yourself for the fact that many stolen instruments that are recovered are damaged severely. The thief can’t move it so they chuck it in the nearest dumpster or out the window of their car.

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Things not to do

• Do not try to just handle it on your own. Even if you know who stole it, get the police involved. It is safer all around.

• If you spot an instrument you think is stolen being sold online or in a shop, don’t jump to the direct “hey! that’s stolen!” position. What will that accomplish? What authority do you have other than hoping to shame the person into seeing the error of their ways and returning it? Yeah. Like that’s gonna happen. 99.9% of the time one of two things will happen, they will disappear never to be seen again and/or they will get confrontational or aggressive with violence being a very real possibility. Think it through.
  
  Instead, aid in the instrument’s recovery by pretending to be an interested buyer. Gather information on the instrument and the seller and relay that to the police. If you have the incident report details, do not contact the owner until after you have contacted the police. You are wasting time to do otherwise and some details may be lost or distorted if you only tell the owner.

• If you see a stolen instrument on ebay or in a shop, do not buy it to “save it”. You will not get your money back and you may complicate matters.

• If you have an instrument stolen, make a successful insurance claim to have it replaced, and the instrument is found and returned (even years later), you DO NOT get to enjoy a back up instrument. That recovered instrument is often now considered the property of the insurance company. To quietly not notify them and keep it is what they call insurance fraud, and if you were to think insurance companies do not have teams of lawyers working on such situations every day, you would be gravely mistaken.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop for professional musicians in the National Capital Region. Visit the JWS website for more information.

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There are a lot of misnomers and misunderstandings surrounding what goes into and what is necessary to be successful in the field of musical instrument repair. This topic of discussion is not directed towards the curious tinkerer or hobbyist working on their own ebay finds, but to the professional repair technician who is engaged in this profession to make a living. In this series of articles I hope to shine a light on what I have observed and experienced as important to make this trade a viable career.

There are several areas of knowledge and expertise that can be identified and myriad skills to itemize, but I have compartmentalized and narrowed down the specifics into 3 areas of necessity for this job. These include:

• skills and experiences of a musician

• thought processes and dexterity of a mechanic

• knowledge and understanding of a machinist

If you think about it, these broad categories of base skills and knowledge make a lot of sense, but obviously there is more to it than that. Each of these areas will be covered in individual articles in the coming weeks. For this issue I would like to touch on the things often not talked about. These are the areas where the misunderstandings and assumptions can get people started off on the wrong foot or give them improper expectations.

I will do my best to stick to the facts and not be too terribly long-winded (stop laughing).

A bit about attitude and approach

A young acolyte approached his teacher who was busy preparing firewood and asked, “Master, what must one do to achieve enlightenment?” The wisened old teacher responded, “Every day you must chop wood and fetch water.” The student nodded thoughtfully, pondered for a moment, and asked, “Master, what must one do after enlightenment?” The teacher responded, “Every day you must chop wood and fetch water.”

There are 2 sides of the coin to consider. On one side, one of my coworkers from many years ago had a sticker on his tool box that said something like find what you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life. On the other side, I recently heard a working artist say to a class that if you want to make a living from your work then at times you have to suck it up and do the work; work is never fun, but you have to eat.

If you are extremely lucky and all the planets align and the wind always blows from the right direction, you may find yourself in the situation of the first side of the coin. I do not think this is realistic to plan on. You are much more likely, almost to a certainty, to be on the second side of the coin where you have to suck it up and put in the work. There will be drudgery, there will be hard times, there will be difficult customers, and there will be days you knock over the cat’s water bowl in stocking feet.

Even after you’ve “made it” you’ll end up with a soggy foot sometimes. Know that it is going to happen and deal with it as best you can. The better you are able to deal with whatever adversity, challenge, or tedium comes at you, the closer you will be to flipping to the other side of the coin.

Earnings expectations

I’m going to say this quite plainly. If you are only doing repairs as your sole source of income, you’re not going to be rich. Without supplemental income streams, you will probably only be barely comfortable. If income potential is how you measure success, either broaden your scope and imagination or get a different measuring standard.

Obviously you need to be able to make a living, and it is possible in this field, but it is a FIGHT. The higher your expectations and demands on your earnings are, the harder of a fight it will be.

In 2010, a landmark Princeton University study by Kahneman and Deaton found a link between degree of well-being and income. In that study they determined that people with low degrees of well-being (can be referred to as unhappiness) saw an increase in well-being as income levels rose. The increases plateaued around $75,000/year. This study was reexamined and clarified in 2023 by Kahneman and Killingsworth and the results held.

It is important to note that those who were “unhappy” in the study were a minority group, but significant enough in number against the participants showing positive well-being to generate reliable data and conclusions.

In 2025 dollars, that $75k figure today is over $111,000 to achieve the maximum improvement on non-medical perceptions of unhappiness. Instrument repair technicians do not make that much money. This does not mean that you will be inherently unhappy, but if you know that income level is a potential stressor for you, weigh that heavily when considering pursuing or structuring a career in musical instrument repair.

For direct comparison, the median US household income in 2024 was around $83,000. I do not make that much repairing musical instruments. The median income figure calculates to about $40/hour in a 40 hour week. Recent job postings for repair techs for municipal school districts or universities have been offering an insulting $18-24/hour

Working Structures

As a professional musical instrument technician, you will see 3 basic structures for employment. (1) You could be the only technician hired by an employer, responsible for everything: head chef and bottle washer as the saying goes. (2) You could be hired by an employer and working in a multi-tech shop where there is a hierarchy or compartmentalized work flow. (3) You could be self-employed.

One-tech Employee
Typically a one-tech operation will appear in smaller local music stores or at some of the small number of school districts or universities that have repair shops. In these situations you have to know a lot of things. You could go from a viola neck rest to a piccolo repad to frozen valves on a french horn in quick succession. Your storehouse of knowledge must be quite large and your self-sufficient problem solving skills must be of the highest order to make this sort of job work well. Institutional positions (school/university shops) have a little more flexibility for filling in areas of experience that may be weaker, but working for a music store in such an environment can be a high pressure situation due to the need for working for profit.

Multi-tech Employee
There are a variety of ways a multi-tech shop could be set up. In a utopian model, all techs may be similarly skilled and responsible for anything handed to them. In another model tailored to strengths and skills, one tech may handle clarinets and saxophones, another handles trumpets and french horns, while another handles flutes and tubas.

Multi-tech operations quite often have a hierarchy where there is a head or senior technician who oversees the work flow and output. Newer or younger technicians may be responsible for the less desirable or most mundane tasks while the more experienced techs get the more interesting or more varied jobs. Occasionally in a somewhat twisted form of “paying dues”, new techs may need to not only show their proficiency in performing the most basic tasks, but also do so with due obeisance to those assigning the tasks before being allowed more diversity in work. This can stretch the amount of “team-player-ness” an otherwise congenial and competent technician has to the breaking point.

Sometimes such shops are overseen by a manager who knows nothing about instrument repair but can generate a spread sheet with deadly effect. I have never known of a repair shop managed by a non-technician to have healthy employee retention rates.

Successful multi-tech shops are usually either run as a teaching shop where more experienced technicians impart their wisdom, experiences, and supervision to younger techs, or as a warehouse shop where techs generally are tasked with one type of instrument and that’s what they repair all day, every day. Much of this structure is determined by the business model of the company and what it needs the repair staff to do to best support the company objectives.

Self-employed
Self-employed technicians can cover a diverse range of models. They may contract out their services and work within a music store or they may have their own independent space. They may choose to engage in repairs on anything and everything (a generalist), or they may be highly specialized (professional trumpets only). They may offer retail sales of instruments or accessories (one of the aforementioned supplemental income streams) or they may be strictly repair and only repair.

While this may seem to be an attractive way to go to choose your own path, it is certainly not for everyone. There are a ton of hidden details many technicians are not ready for, especially if they decide to “stop working for the man” and go off on their own.

The biggest thing many do not fully understand is when you are self-employed, you owe the IRS 1/3 of your revenue. As an employee, you had automatic deductions from your paycheck you often never thought much about, and your employer paid about half of the tax withholding. Being self-employed, that’s all on you now, as are health insurance premiums and retirement savings, and all of the overhead related to your workspace, supplies, tools, and insurance. The supplies and expensive tools in a shop of employees are paid for by the employer. To set up your own shop to have similar capabilities from the start costs tens of thousands of dollars in initial expense.

I have been accumulating tools, machinery, and supplies for my trade and my business for over 30 years. If curious extra-terrestrials showed up in the middle of the night and removed it all, replacing it would cost me more than what I earn in a year. I should check if my insurance covers such an event.

The other big shock technicians can have when starting up their own business is the customer traffic. “All my repair customers will come with me” or the Field of Dreams aspiration is a nice thought, but be realistic. How many of the repairs at the former employer’s store were on instruments they rented? Will you be renting instruments? How many of the repairs were from school accounts? Sure, you get along well with the middle school band director, but she doesn’t really call the shots on where repairs get sent.

Starting out will be slow, expensive, and more of an uphill slog than you can imagine if you haven’t done it. It could literally be months or years of lean pickings until you get to a point where the business is marginally sustainable — don’t even think about profitable.

Learning around curves

Say hello to the Dunning-Kruger effect!

This is a behavioral trait demonstrated where a person knows a little about a topic, has little to no understanding of how much they do not know, and exhibits higher confidence in their presentation or application of that subject knowledge than bona fide experts. Essentially, the less you actually know, the easier and more elementary you think a topic is.

This lends to a severe downplaying and undervaluing of the skills and knowledge professional repair technicians have. Most professional musicians and music educators have turned a screwdriver, popped on a spring, tweaked a slide back into alignment, stood up a bridge, or other necessities done in the heat of the moment. The conclusion is “how hard could it be?” Their lack of knowledge of what goes into a proper repair, what tolerances the instruments were made to, and how incredibly lucky they were not to seriously damage anything promotes a depression in valuation of repair prices. (More on that in a future article…)

Regarding the technicians’ blind spots, in musical instrument repair you can always learn more about virtually anything. There are so many different paths that can get you to a similar result that it is unlikely for any one person to know about, let alone have tried every single one. Much of musical instrument repair is built on word of mouth teaching—one tech teaches another, who teaches another, who teaches another (like the telephone game) and pretty soon the precise method or rationale behind the process is lost to allegory and myth. There are unknowable amounts of “old-world” knowledge that have been diluted or lost to time and quite often when rediscovered such techniques become new again and are improved to accommodate modern materials, techniques, and tools.

The best thing any technician can do to further their career is to acknowledge and continually be aware that there is always more to learn. Anybody can be a teacher and anybody can be a student.

But, sometimes technicians don’t want to further their career. They are comfortable where they are and see no need to advance beyond current conditions. In my mid 20’s when sharing some techniques I learned at a repair conference, I had a colleague say to me in his thick southern accent, “Son, I’m too old a dog to learn new tricks.” (He was only in his mid 40’s). At the time I found that position and attitude discouraging, angering, small-minded, and lazy. I couldn’t understand how someone could not want to better themselves, to be more effective at their job.

But everyone defines their job and their function in it in their own way. We were techs in a warehouse shop and our function was to churn through [insert instrument] as quickly as possible because there were 100-200-1000 more right behind the one we were working on. He was satisfied with his production rate so no need to change anything up—put in his hours, do the job, go home to family time. It is a valid position I could not comprehend at the time.

While I can understand that attitude now, one of the personality types in this profession I try to to waste any time on are those who are incurious.

Sorry…rambling a bit… Onward!

Business and Interpersonal Skills

Of course, this section will largely relate to circumstances surrounding the type of work structure, exposure to customers, etc.

Business skills and knowledge of good business practices matter a whole lot if running your own shop (duh), but they also are important to have a basic understanding if working as someone’s employee. As an employee, having basic business knowledge helps minimize decisions or mistakes than can cost the company money unnecessarily.

Above all, in any situation you need to understand the value of your time and how you spend it. Time is a resource more valuable than almost anything aside from your professional integrity and reputation. Learning how you spend your time in the course of your work can often be one of the most important and difficult skills to hone.

The managing of the time resource does not mean making sure every minute is occupied with active productivity. This is what the spread sheet wielding managers I mentioned before excel at (heh), and it is not healthy. It leads to mistakes, decreased productivity, injury, and burnout. The ability to learn how your brain and body works and how much work it can take before it begins to falter is one component to having a lengthy career.

People skills
In a general sense when dealing with people, nobody wants to be a jerk. Nobody wants to be difficult. It bears saying that dealing with people effectively, whether customers or coworkers, is a skill that can be learned and some people are more adept at it than others. If you have challenges in reading people, if you tend to impulsively say the wrong thing, if you just generally rub people the wrong way when trying to get your point across, these are skills that can be improved just like learning better and more consistent ways to install a saxophone pad.

It is important to fully understand that there are people that you simply will not be able to make happy. There will be people who, for no fault of your own, you rub the wrong way. This is going to happen. The best way to minimize its occurrence is to operate with professionalism, honesty, and to communicate. Communicating clear boundaries for expectations of scheduling, cost, or any limits to your abilities requires tact and practice to incorporate smoothly into your conversations with customers and coworkers.

Limits of your abilities may be a special training or certification required for a repair. It could be being honest about oyur experience with a specific repair. It could be an actual physical disability that must be accounted for. Thanks to my mom’s dad and genetic luck, I am colorblind. Because of this I cannot do any sort of reliable color matching when dealing with finishes, so I tell customers this up front.

Meeting a customer’s needs in instrument repair often requires meeting them where they are in regards to the knowledge of the way the instrument functions. You have to be able to speak their language, or at least be able to interpret their language into something usable for your understanding. Your lens of experiences may be (probably is) much different than theirs. Being sympathetic and empathetic enough to see things from their perspective is crucially important. This will be discussed more in the next article.

Last bit on attitude
Humility. You are human. You are going to make mistakes, get things wrong, and have terrible horrible no-good very bad days that make you want to move to Australia. Customers, coworkers, supervisors, employers, and random children on the street will call out your mistakes missteps, and shortcomings, sometimes gently but sometimes quite harshly. Some of these occurrences may be rightly justified, but some may be challenges you patently disagree with. How you react to and handle such situations can be quite difficult for many people but it is another skill that can be learned, a muscle to be exercised. Push down the ego and the kneejerk reactions. Look at things objectively, learn from it, and be better at your job tomorrow.

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At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop for professional musicians in the National Capital Region and beyond. Visit the woodwindfixer webpage for more information or to schedule a repair.

I have been attending the Saxophone Symposium as an emergency repair tech, vendor, and occasional clinician/lecturer for 15 years or so. The vendor hall is much like any other instrument-centric convention with instrument makers showing off their products, local merchants trying to get more face time with potential customers. and lots of people making noise playing instruments while others are talking over those playing, and then the players playing louder because the talkers are getting too loud. Good times.

I am often glad to be busy with repairs at this event because there is woefully little to see that is new. Whether the top tier instruments that are mostly stuck in their grooves protecting their market share or the second tier makers like Cannonball, Eastman, and P. Mauriat who have seized on the niche of pretty-good-for-the-price but seem to limit their innovations to architectural and industrial metal finishes, nothing has really gotten my attention in a long time.

To define more clearly what I mean, I don’t necessarily mean “bring something I like”, although that helps. Something that wows me is usually an instrument or company that is about the product rather than the profit. I want an instrument that is made with attention to the craft, honesty in the promotion, and integrity in the vision. At a saxophone event I want something that feels like it can move the saxophone forward as a tool for musical expression and artistry, not just another copy or emulation of some mediocre model of the past that has so much hype it is self-sustaining beyond all reason. That’s going to get my attention.

This utopian vision of craft, integrity, and forward thinking is not a fantasy. It can be seen thriving in the world of upper tier flutes. At that level there are no bad instruments, and often times if one dislikes an instrument it isn’t actually dislike as much as liking something else more. Makers create their instruments at the highest level and impart their own flavor on them, sometimes through math, sometimes through machines, and sometimes through mysticism. But there is always a base line of the craft which speaks to the maker’s professionalism and seriousness.

In the world of saxophones it is quite different. An extremely small minority of saxophone makers can meet a bar similar to what is present among flute makers. In the world of first and second tier saxophones I can tick off a list of things I definitely dislike for almost every maker. The makers and salespeople delude themselves into thinking it is merely a question of preference and taste, but there are concrete things that are simply not right.

So that’s the lay of the land—enough blabbing. This is turning into one of those recipe posts that goes through a 20 minute overly-effusive description before telling you what the ingredients are.

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Last year I noticed a new vendor in the hall: Morrél Musical Instruments. I didn’t know anything about them and didn’t have time to go explore beyond a quick walk by. This year I noticed they were back with a display of saxophones and clarinets. Saturday morning I had a pleasant gentleman approach me, introduce himself as Andreas (with a medium German accent), and invite me to come look at his instruments over at the Morrél tables. I was curious and he struck me as genuinely interested in my opinion. He did not have the salesman vibe at all. He wasn’t trying to impress me, nor did he use any of the sales speak “motivators” to try to entice or cajole me into looking.

Andreas and Victoria Moe are German (born and trained) instrument makers who now operate their business in Pottsville, PA. Andreas came off as very charming and unassuming. He had a tinge of professional pride in the way he spoke of their instruments but that pride was always well-balanced with a forthright humility. Victoria was a delight to talk to with her easy sense of humor and effortless manner of combining the accessible layman’s description with the more technical details relevant to me. They work closely with a quality-focussed Chinese company for the making of the larger component parts (saxophone bodies, etc.). Their pads are made in Germany to their specifications.

The next time I had a break I gathered up my mouthpieces and headed over to their tables. I will share my impressions from my cursory playing of the instruments. I did a test drive only. I did not look under the hood or even kick the tires. As always, since everyone’s physiology and playing style are different, your mileage may vary.

I reached the table with the clarinets first. I am always leery about playing clarinet in front of people because I am not a clarinetist; I am a saxophonist who knows how to play clarinet. On top of that I am woefully out of shape — for woodwind doublers, clarinet is the most difficult one to keep your chops in shape — and had a new brand of reed I had only played once, and a random mouthpiece I grabbed from my bench on the way out the door. But even out of shape I can tell what the raw characteristics and qualities of a clarinet are so I decided to give them a try.

Moe Custom Clarinets

Click here to learn more about Moe Custom Clarinets

There were 3 that I tried, and they were all nice. Really nice.

Really, really nice.

The room was loud and my chops were flabby, but I was surprised…pleasantly surprised. I could list off the stock platitudes of response, feel, tone, etc. but those are largely fluff. These are hand made custom clarinets so their starting point is going to be pretty darn good. Besides, the room was so loud it would be impossible to really drill down on details. I could, however, get a good feel for the response and how it felt in my face and under my fingers for the biofeedback, and all 3 were quite enjoyable.

To let you know my baseline, I am well acquainted with the Buffet R13 and my personal clarinet is an old Selmer Center Tone. Both of these have a different feel under the fingers and a quite different feel in your face.

There were no labels on the instruments I tried so I do not remember specifically what I played. I know I played the Jazz model (Custom J) and I think the other two were both the Custom P Philharmonic model. Under the fingers these instruments all felt amazingly comfortable. If I heard him right (loud room) the pads Andreas uses are quartz coated silicone and the keys have an incredibly solid feel. I preferred the nimble and easy response of the Custom J, but that was just my preference. The Custom P were definitely a more symphonic sound and response but didn’t feel heavy or thick. There was something funny going on with the lowest notes, almost a register break, but the room was so loud it would have been pointless to obsess over it.

Andreas was telling me about some of his design and fabrication objectives and they really resonated with me. For one thing, he chooses his wood carefully and makes the best clarinet he can from the fickle natural material. The result is no 2 Moe Custom Clarinets are the same. They all have their own qualities and their own voice. Of the 2 Custom P clarinets I played, they were obviously the same model, yet were quite different players in their own rights.

Typically clarinets can fall into the rough category of French or German. The clarinets market in the US is almost exclusively French or French-derived instruments. The German clarinets have a reputation (whether factual or myth) of being resistant, requiring more air, and several other descriptors that can scare off someone shopping for clarinets. Andreas said that people aren’t used to a German (pedigree) clarinet that doesn’t play stuffy. If he had not told me it was a German clarinet I would not have known with how effortlessly they all played.

If I remember right the Moe Custom Clarinets are priced in the $7000-7500 range. This may sound like a lot until one realizes that the elite clarinets from Buffet Crampon are near or above $10k.

In the brief exposure to the clarinets in sub-optimal conditions, I was highly impressed. Any clarinetist looking for their goldilocks instrument should really consider looking here.

Le Pharaon Saxophones

Click here for more on Le Pharaon Saxophones

After dealing with some customers back at my tables, I returned to the Morrél booth to see about the high end saxophones they had on display. They had a straight soprano, and alto and a tenor. I started with the alto.

As a classically trained saxophonist with tens of thousands of hours playing experience and thousands of saxophones of every make and model coming through my shop. I can usually tell within a few moments of playing if an instrument gets a thumbs up or thumbs down. The alto gets a thumbs up. It felt good under the fingers. It felt good in my face. The pitch was better than typical and the response was quite even. The tone quality in itself did not thrill me though. It was nice but seemed a bit ordinary. I did not dislike it.

But that’s when Victoria reached for the neck. The Le Pharaon neck has a tubular rail under the neck like a beefy brace. Mounted on that rail is a weighted ball that can be moved along it and locked in different locations. Victoria moved the ball from its original forward position to the other end of the rail. This changed the instrument in a significant way. So many of the characteristics I initially was on the fence about in a meh sort of way were now solidly on the favorable side of the fence.

This is a significant feature many could benefit from. It is conceivable that a player who has to switch between genres of music and normally would switch mouthpieces, may find enough flexibility in this neck to do so essentially on the fly with no equipment change.

I tried the straight soprano next. It is a fixed straight neck soprano.

Now, I am very picky about soprano saxophones in how they feel and how they respond. In general I find most straight sopranos barely tolerable, a small minority are seen as satisfactory, and I can count on one hand with fingers to spare the number of straight sopranos I have honestly really liked. Since this one had a profile resemblance to the Mark VI soprano (yuck!) I was prepared for nothing special.

I played one note…

Holy crap…

If you have read some of my previous articles you may have seen me describe finding the right instrument as a feeling of the sun smiling down on the swaying instrument playing trees while mice in feety pajamas dance on toadstools. Well, when I played the first note on this straight soprano, I swear I thought I heard a distant tree pick up a banjo and mice cheering excitedly.

In 34 years of playing soprano saxophone I have come across 3 other sopranos of any type that gave me any reaction similar and I own one of them. (For the curious gearheads, all three of these were Yanagisawa sopranos: curved 901, curved WO010, and straight 9930)

No notes.

I played the tenor last of these three. I will offer the caveat that I do not like playing tenor. They don’t do it for me. Every now and then a tenor pops up that I click with and these are usually of the vintage American sub-species — King super 20, Martin Handcraft, Buescher True Tone — but I can’t think of a tenor sax currently in production that wasn’t meh for me. Yes, I can tell if a modern tenor is playing well, but it’s still meh to me.

But again, Holy Crap…

The Le Pharaon tenor was everything I could want in a tenor saxophone for sound and response. It has a rich, saturated tone, but still agile, not sodden or heavy. The response was quick and even with no notable thin or weak spots. I really, really liked it.

If I remember right the La Pharaon saxophones are priced in the $6500-7500 range, which is less than the latest Selmer model and in the same ballpark as other makes. But in my opinion based on my cursory examination of them, these saxophones are worthy contenders, if not likely winners over most things out there in their category.

Morrél Professional Saxophone

Click here for more on Morrél Saxophones

The last instruments I tried at the Morrél booth were the model 675 and 875 alto saxophones. These are a step down from the Le Pharaon in the ~$4000 price range. The 875 has a bronze alloy body. I am quite familiar with the bronze Yanagisawa instruments which are among my favorite current production saxophones. I found the 875 to be a nice playing solid horn but not quite my cup of tea. No complaints to detract from it but nothing special to elevate it to surpass the Yanagisawa bronze instruments. Very very nice instrument for its price point regardless. Victoria was commenting on how the tone color was different from their other horns, but I would need a quieter room and more time to really evaluate it specifically.

When I played the 675 (brass) it was quite good. Something felt really solid in the way the notes resonated. It had a real presence to it. I don’t know why I tried this, because I did not on any of the others, but I decided I would check how the overtone series felt. Even with my out of practice chops using my utilitarian playtesting mouthpiece, each overtone above low Bb slotted into its spot as if I had played the fingered note. It was crazy!

Bb-Bb-F-Bb-D-F-Ab(-)-Bb-C- D-Eb(+)-F…etc. eventually popping out a 4th octave Bb and C, which are notes I have not heard come out of an alto I was playing in this century.

I have never played a saxophone with a stronger and more defined harmonic series than that one. It was probably the most impressive thing of all the things that impressed me about the Morrél instruments I tried.

I am not thrilled by the use of spring loaded pivot bearings in these saxophones, but at least with the 675, I can overlook that mechanical shortcut for how freakin solidly it played. I do not know if they all play this well or if it’s an anomaly, but it makes it worthwhile to at least check them out if you are looking for a solid instrument in the $3500-4000 range.

I was quite pleased with the instruments I played at the Morrél booth. I was more pleased and encouraged by their philosophy and motivation to make a product they can make well and stand behind rather than something made to maximize profit. I hope to see more of their instruments in circulation and I hope to get up to their shop in Pennsylvania to have a more thorough examination of them.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a professional woodwind repair shop in Baltimore. Visit woodwindfixer.com for more information.

1. Most flutes in existence today are silver plated over a base metal of another non-ferrous metal, usually an alloy called german silver (which is an alloy of nickel and copper with no silver whatsoever). This plating layer may add up to a gram of total silver weight. They will hold zero value for silver content to a metals dealer.

2. The instruments that do have silver content will come in 3 forms: Silver head only, silver tubes only, and all silver. Silver head is just how it sounds—usually just the tube of the head joint is silver. Silver tubes mean the tubes of the head, body and foot are silver, but the keys and sometimes the ribs and posts are not. All silver instruments are exactly what it says on the tin: tubes, keys, posts are silver.

3. The price people are seeing if they google “silver price today” is the futures price for pure silver. This is NOT a number to be used to value your flute. For starters, with the exception of some high end hand made flutes stamped 999 (for 99.9%), silver flutes come in a variety of alloys and grades all with lower price points. Standardized grades are 958 (Britannia silver) and 925 (Sterling silver). Many flutes are stamped or listed as “Solid silver” or “Coin silver” which does not have a set alloy percentage. Generally this means about 90% silver, but it could be 91 or it could be 88. In order to determine a value of the metal, you must figure that in to a calculation against the price. (Price x .925, for example)

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   But wait, there’s more…

4. Remember, the price you google is the Futures Price. When you take an assayed silver bar in to a metals dealer to sell, you are now dealing with what is called the Spot Price. The spot price is usually a bit lower than the futures price but it all depends on the circumstances. If the futures price is $75/oz (and that’s troy ounces), which is about $2.41/gram, the spot price of graded bar or ingot of silver would probably be the same. But we’re not dealing with a graded silver bar, are we? That means processing and carry a lower price. If there is a lot of processing work to be done, such as removing other metals, assaying and grading, etc. then you move from the spot price to the Scrap Price. The current scrap price of sterling silver is about $1.30/gram, so a bit more than half of the spot price. Coin or ungraded “solid” silver would be less. This is often a range. The scrap price offered on a silver cigarette case may be higher than that on a flute.
   
   As a point of trivia, when jewelers recycle their own sterling silver scraps, the common practice is to melt an additional 1/4-1/3 by weight of pure silver casting grain into the scrap to maintain an approximate level of alloy grading.
   

5. How much silver is in a flute? Let’s say a typical flute weighs about 500 grams for easy math. Even in an all silver flute, there are not 500 grams of silver in it. There are the hinge steels and pivot screws. There are the springs and head cork carriage. Don’t forget the solder holding everything together. The silver content of the instrument is going to be a fair bit less than 500g.
   
   Most instruments with all silver construction are far more valuable as instruments than for scrap. All silver flutes are generally the top of the heap. You would be hard pressed to find a new all silver flute for under $4500-5000 in today’s market, which can translate to $2000-2500 on the used market. Or would you prefer ~$500 from a metals dealer on a very good day? Hell, if you really need the money, sell the flute to a music store or flute dealer for $1000. You’re better off and a good flute remains in circulation.
   
   If you have a flute with non-silver keys, which is how the majority of flutes are, it has even less silver content. Get rid of the keys, maybe the posts and ribs, and sometimes the crown and head receiver barrel (lots of mass in those), and you’re well under 300 grams and likely approaching 200g of salvageable silver.
   
   A metals dealer being faced with a flute will have to consider the actual silver content and the amount of labor needed to get it to a suitable state to sent to their refiner. So if the scrap value is around $1.30/g, they may offer $1.00 or maybe $0.90/g to account for their extra work involved.
   
   The bigger concern is how many metals dealers will actually look twice at a flute to even make an offer. If most are turning them away for the amount of hassle, that means the one place in the city that is willing to take them is in the driver’s seat. Nobody else will take a flute, so they can offer $0.75/g, take it or leave it.
   
   I switched to metric grams because precious metals are measured in troy ounces. 1 troy ounce is bigger than a “regular” ounce. If you have 30 ounces on your kitchen scale, it is only about 27 troy ounces, which is what the price is based on. So most people are walking in taking a 10% cut on their back-of-the-envelope figuring.

So on the question of if it is worth it to scrap a flute for the silver content, it comes down to your personal feelings, priorities, and needs. If you need $150-200, well, then you need it. Many people are getting pie-in-the-sky ideas, though. They plunk their flute on their kitchen scale and see it says 30 ounces (a very heavy flute but a round number) and get all excited that they can sell their flute for over $2000! Hopefully the points I have outlined in this article make it clear that this is not the case and your flute is arguably of more value as a flute.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a professional woodwind repair shop in the National Capital Region that specialized in fixing instruments and knowing things. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com for more information.

A new customer enters my repair studio with a [piccolo/flute/clarinet/oboe/saxophone] in need of repair. What it is specifically does not really matter because I have encountered this situation with owners of any of them. The instrument is a professional level instrument, perhaps vintage. It is in well-used condition but not damaged. The repair needed is nothing crazy and often fairly mundane—a COA and a couple of extras usually does it. More often than not it is an instrument that was played for years and then put away for one reason or another; the player now wants to play it again for enjoyment.

I look over the instrument and give my best ball park estimate for the repair needed. Sometimes the player takes the estimate in stride, sometimes they are taken aback. But all too frequently after they agree to have the repair done I next hear a very common off-hand comment: “I’m not a professional musician, you know.”

…

Another form of this comes when a customer shows up with a vintage instrument that they have owned for a long time or something nice that they scored at a flea market or eBay sale for cheap. I look over the instrument, give them the price for repair, and I hear, “Did I mention I only paid $X for it”.

What is meant by these remarks? What are they trying to tell their socially awkward technician who has chronic subtext blindness?

Were they unprepared for the price I gave them and are hoping to get a discounted price? Are they hoping there are tasks or processes I can omit because they are not a professional, and thus end up with a cheaper repair? Modern America does not have much of a price negotiation or haggling culture any more. Is this a vestigial haggling skill clawing its way to consciousness and compelling the person with the force of their ancestors to do something that feels like dickering on the price? Are they making idle small talk that is unrelated but conveniently adjacent to the topic of price?

I don’t know. I am not in their heads. I do not know what their experiences with other techs has been. I don’t know what their financial/employment situation is (a very real concern in the National Capital Region in recent times). It doesn’t really matter. They are under no obligation to have me perform the repair, but they choose to have me go ahead. And then these comments…

What I can tell you is how things are from my professional perspective.

Musical instrument repair shops come in many forms. If you consider car maintenance and repair, you can go to Jiffy Lube, you can go to the corner garage, or you can go to the dealership. Any of these places may meet your needs if the services they offer are within the scope of expectations and skills required. The capabilities and working styles of the different choices will vary. There is an obvious price difference to be expected between these 3 garage options as well.

So which garage am I? A specialist repair shop like mine or many of my colleagues can certainly offer the expected common services. Some may think of us like the neighborhood corner garage. In reality I am closer to a NASCAR pit crew. Yes, I can change your oil and bleed your brake lines and deal with collision damage, but my skills are tailored to high performance, sometimes custom equipment. Your mundane oil change is going to get the same attention to detail I would give to a high performance race car. The skill of the driver does not matter.

OK, dropping the metaphor…

One of the tenets of my instrument repair shop is to make the instrument mechanically the best it can be within the scope of the service and the design/material limitations of the instrument. When possible and appropriate, I will go beyond the “factory specs” and improve vital tolerances. Every repair specialist has their niche and extreme mechanical precision is mine.

If you show up to my shop with a 50 year old hand-made flute or a flea market find vintage pro saxophone, the scope of my service is based on what the instrument was designed and intended to be, not what you are able to do with it and certainly not what you paid for it. Regardless of unspoken motivation, people seem to think that their not being “a professional musician” means they don’t need the same functionality or standards in an instrument a professional may use. This is counterintuitive and logically inconsistent.

A professional who is a master of their instrument can play through problems, flaws, and inconsistencies in their instrument that you wouldn’t believe. I frequently describe some of my customers (figuratively) as being able to take a chunk of garden hose with holes in it and make it sound fantastic. Masters of the instrument undoubtedly appreciate an instrument at or near 100%, but people below that level of proficiency benefit from it. The flaws and foibles of the instrument are out of the way so they can focus on their tone, their technique, and their musicality without impediment or distraction. An instrument in tip top shape helps them get better faster.

Beyond this, when a customer suggests obliquely that they don’t require the technician’s best output, it puts the technician in a bad spot. Do they do what the customer wants (or suggests they want) for the sake of making the sale? Or do they risk losing the sale by sticking by their standards? This is a local government decision and each technician must judge it in the situation. I know for my own business, I tend to swing to the stance where the price is the price and the job is the job. Otherwise, you can shoot yourself in the foot in a big way.

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will. What happens when a tech repairs to the self-esteem of the player and not their own standards and the needs of the instrument is things get missed. The standard becomes “good enough” and rigorous scrutiny easily cedes the high ground to completion and cost. And then the player has a problem in a lesson and their teacher plays it. All the teacher knows is it was “just in the shop” and it does not play the way it is supposed to. They don’t know the back story. It doesn’t matter that they don’t know the back story. In the effort to satisfy one customer’s desire for “good enough”, a black cloud now hangs over their name in the mind of that teacher—don’t go to that shop because they don’t fix things right.

Many technicians, socially maladjusted as many of us are, learn about this trap the hard way and recovering from it is not easy. I know some technicians who never fully recovered, remaining relegated as a second or third tier repair choice by musicians for years, sometimes forever. As a customer it is best practice, not to mention courteous and respectful, not to make such demands on your technician, spoken or suggested.

There are more musical instruments in circulation in need of repair than there are capable technicians and hours in the day to fix them (my overhaul calendar is backed up for over a year). In order to satisfy the needs of everyone it means there is need for Jiffy Lubes as well as pricey dealership garages, not to mention NASCAR pit crews and hot-rod shops. Let them each do what they are best at in their way, and providing you drove up to the right garage, everyone’s expectations will be met.

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At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a pro woodwind repair facility serving the mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com for more information.

But what does it all mean? What is the intent of a seller mentioning such things, and why do buyers not only seek them out, but gladly pay a premium price for the trouble?

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Original Condition

The term Original Condition is short hand that can mean many things. Most often it refers to the cosmetic appearance of the instrument and is commonly used when signifying a saxophone or other brass instrument has not been refinished or relacquered. The lacquer need not be in pristine condition to carry an original condition label. It could be quite worn in places but since it was degraded through normal use and not with the intent to remove it, the original condition monicker holds.

Another interpretation of original condition is the instrument has been maintained to retain the original factory specifications. This means than not only is the cosmetic appearance quite good, but also the key openings are the factory prescribed dimension, the bumper material is the same material used in the factory, and the pads are of the same type and installed in the same way as the factory.

Of course, original condition could very well be a euphemism for “my 60 year old instrument has never seen the inside of a repair shop”. This may be a good thing or it may be a not so good thing. More on that later…

On wood instruments original condition may mean the instrument has never cracked. On flutes it may mean the embouchure hole has never been recut. It may mean the instrument is in its original 100 year old mildew infested case that should be taken out back and burned. It really is coded language that needs clarification in the individual circumstances. Many times the sales person (especially on ebay or the like) doesn’t have a clue and they just use the language they see other sellers using.

If you are seriously after an instrument in original condition, you need to drill down on the specific details hard.

In many ads or hypefests, Original Condition refers to the cosmetic finish, but it can refer to small parts that may often be lost and replaced or simply discarded if superfluous (such as lyre screws). This can get into a grey area where there are no right answers. On one hand if you say original condition then all the original bits and bobs should be there. People can get blinders in looking for any detail out of place.

On the other hand, if a neck screw on a saxophone was replaced with something more ergonomic and made for purpose (for example), that should be an obvious derivation from original and not taken as something meant to dupe people. Clearly you don’t want a galvanized machine bolt from the hardware store or a hose clamp from the the vacuum cleaner store attached to the instrument, but do aftermarket changes of replaceable parts such as wing screws or thumb rests take it out of the realm of “original”? This is for the buyer to hash out in their head and determine if the seller’s definition is in the same ballpark.

Reasons for Original Condition

There are some arguments people make for seeking out original condition instruments which stem from an attempt to be a conscientious buyer. You don’t want a lemon. You don’t want something that was run over by a truck and rehabbed. You may have heard that relacquered instruments are risky (sometimes yes, sometimes no). You may think that no technician is as good as your tech and don’t trust anyone to do it right.

People may be partially right in this approach, but often they get stuck either with analysis paralysis or buying a pig in a poke. I have seen many players who were told to get such-and-such instrument because it was the same instrument so-and-so played on, and here’s one in “original condition” at a “great price”. In today’s marketplace of remote internet sales and impulse buys before someone else grabs it, quite often people buy an original condition instrument at top dollar and it is just a bad fit for them.

If you are seeking an instrument for your profession, for your education, or simply for maximum playing enjoyment, never buy an instrument blind and avoid non-functioning instruments.

The quest for an original condition instrument to try to control what has been done to it in its lifetime is a fool’s errand. You have no idea if the person claiming the state of original condition is accurate in their assessment or what their definition is.

This widespread digital marketplace has increased demand and along with it prices, but I think there is another force driving the way people think of original condition: the Keno effect. Anyone who has watched the Antique Roadshow (US version) on PBS will be familiar with the Keno brothers, Leigh and Leslie, who appear on the show as antique furniture experts. Some of the most valuable items to appear on the program have been 18th or 19th century furniture pieces in original condition. They had the original paint, the original stain, there were no repairs done, etc. etc. They (and others on the show) drummed into us every week that original was good, and refinished would take a zero off the end of the value — sometimes even cleaning was bad.

This mindset is not necessarily germane to your objective.

What is your objective?
You have to know why you are seeking an instrument in original condition, otherwise you may leave yourself open to shifty sales tactics. Aside from the examples mentioned above related to a buyer trying to have some control over or insight into the instrument’s life and care, there are 3 other reasons to actively seek out an original condition instrument.

1. You are a professional musician who has deep experience with an original condition instrument, you need to get another, and nothing modern or modified does what you need it to do (as determined by your own experience, not hearsay)

I know people who have gone through this process. One person who had an instrument stolen went through an arduous ordeal that took well over a year. They tried every modern instrument comparable and quickly rejected them, modified and customized instruments were out, and they even rejected more than one original condition instrument that were very close in serial number to their own before finding one that met what they were looking for.

While musicians of solid foundation and proficiency can make any instrument sound good, when a player finds an instrument that really aligns with them completely it is a special bond that should not be underestimated for the comfort and security it provides to the artist displaying their craft.

2. You want the cachet of playing on an original condition instrument.

This is probably the most common reason people seek out an instrument in original condition. For whatever reason or influences, people like what they like and they can choose to spend their money how they like. Where it goes wrong is when people tailor their preferences to the hype, to the FOMO, to the “influencers” and let that drive their spending.

Someone may want to sound like Michael Brecker, Stanley Drucker, or have that classic sound of the George Szell Cleveland Orchestra. That means they need to find the same vintage instrument and that’s the ballgame, right?

Absolutely not!

Everyone’s physiology is different. Everyone’s input into the instrument is a little different so their output will be a little different. So often people forget that you are always going to sound like you, and the instrument you choose only makes that end product more easy or more difficult. If you are working hard to make the instrument produce the sound you require then you are sacrificing some attention, some focus, some brain power away from the point of making music. An original condition [whatever] may or may not (usually not) give you exactly what you need.

What makes the blinkered buying decision worse is when there is someone in a position of direct authority, such as a teacher, advising to not buy anything else, that this is what you need to get, and don’t waste your time unless it is in original condition.

I will admit I fell into this trap while pursuing my music degrees in college. The purchase of my alto saxophone was a long process that took several months and more than 2 dozen instruments tried. It was a model that the marketplace had largely rejected, but it fit me like a glove. My soprano saxophone was just dumb luck. I got it on trial and the moment I played it the heavens opened, the sun smiled upon me, and mice in feety pajamas danced on toadstools. It was also a model outside the mainstream. My tenor saxophone was a different story. An original condition Selmer Mark VI came up for sale at a local shop and my teacher said, “Get it. You’d better go buy it or I will. You can’t go wrong with that.” So I did… and then spent the next decade fighting and wrestling and compromising with it to make it do what I needed. It never did.

If you are seeking an instrument for your profession, for your education, or simply for maximum playing enjoyment, never buy an instrument blind.

3. You are a collector.

While there is a distinction between collector, enthusiast, and hoarder, we’ll consider them all in the same broad category. In general, collectors do not play on the instruments they amass. Well, they may play them in the sense of knowing how they feel, sound, and respond, but they don’t play them and practice on them regularly. This means the prized state of original condition remains mostly unchanged from the time they acquired it. (This is an important distinction.)

The collector class of buyers are really the only ones where it may be ok if the instrument doesn’t function at time of purchase.

Reasons Against Original Condition

Premium Price
With many instruments there are certain makes, models, or serial number ranges that seem to be where the original condition traffic coalesces. When compared to similar instruments either made by a contemporary company or an earlier or later instrument, sometimes these niche instruments can almost seem unreasonably priced. It can be a cyclical chicken and the egg situation where nobody knows where it originated but now the hype fuels the sale which fuels the price which fuels more hype, etc. etc.

Sometimes the price being demanded of a niche original condition instrument is just silly expensive compared to even comparable new products, which can be a really good reason to eschew such instruments and broaden the search parameters.

Repair Cost
For a variety of reasons, more original condition instruments are now showing up on the market in as-is condition than they used to. Strangely, it seems this does not adversely impact the price being asked. One would think that if an instrument will need a full overhaul to just get in reliable playing shape, the price would be reduced some, but it seems to add to the mystique. It doesn’t make sense and I can’t explain it.

When an instrument is not in solid playable condition, there is no way to ascertain the qualities of how it plays for a given person. If you are looking for an instrument to use, it is kind of important to determine if is the right one for you, especially if the seller is charging top dollar for original condition and then you’ll have to sink $1500-2000 (or more) into it to get it playing as it should. In my book, this is a major red flag and people not looking for a collector’s item are best to walk on by.

One thing to consider is the use history of the instrument. Was it an instrument that was purchased new in 1968, played until 1972, and has not been touched since? Or was it an instrument that was played by a working musician who took good care of it (at least in the area of cosmetics and keeping the finish intact)? This is much like the old used car cliche about it being owned by a little old lady from Pasadena who only drove it to church on Sundays. Is the sales description an accurate portrayal or a pitch?

Players often stick with a particular instrument for the sound, and over the long term they learn to deal with the mechanical foibles and flaws that slowly creep in as things get worn. Many of the musicians from a generation or more back had to deal with a shortage of techs or a shortage of time to do thorough repairs regularly. One of the unifying traits of musicians of past eras is the ability to make do. They were masters of keeping things going with minimal service. It made them absolutely monstrous performers who could seemingly make anything work on demand, but their instruments were often a wreck by today’s standards. And now you want to buy an instrument from that era—which may have been played hard for a career with scant service—and place 21st century expectations on it.

That’s going to be expensive. Make sure you plan that into your budget.
Above all, make sure you give the horn a sniff test. Read this to understand why:

Wood Instruments
I’ll keep this short. Wood instruments of a certain vintages may be desirable (Selmer Center Tone clarinets, Buffet clarinets or Loree oboes of certain serial number ranges, etc) but you have to be really careful in such purchases. First, there is the overall health of the wood. Imagine you have an instrument that has spent its entire life (70 years) in Orlando and it gets bought by someone in Omaha. The wood looks superb, but I would bet all the money in my pocket right now (um… that’s $2.73 and a losing lottery ticket) that it will crack in the first Nebraska winter it experiences. I have seen this sort of thing happen too many times to not be a pretty safe bet.

Second, you have to be really careful about the repair provenance of the instrument. In general, a wood instrument that has never really been repaired is safer than one that has. Technicians have used a variety of techniques over the years, and one of them, even still used today, is re-reaming the bore to clear out “distortions”. Reaming does have its place in specific cases, but some techs (and even makers) can be pretty heavy handed about it and it takes the instrument closer and closer to an acoustic tipping point where the bore and the tonehole lattice are no longer speaking the same language. It is my educated opinion that this practice is far more responsible for the phenomenon known as “playing out” or “blowing out” than the combination of use and time.

Use Cases—are you a player or a preservationist?
Collectors of instruments seek out items with historical provenance, ones that are exemplars of a developmental or design touchstone, or, in the case of instruments where there may be thousands or tens of thousands produced, ones that are pretty and bordering on pristine.

If you are a collector and spot an instrument of a certain era with all the bells and whistles that has sat in a closet for 65 years as proof by its immaculate cosmetic appearance, go for it. It will look very nice on display for people to admire.

However, if you are a player and this will be a regular use instrument, unless it is "“the one” that calls forth the mice in feety pajamas when you play it, consider the premium original condition price as a negative. If it just plays ok for you, why pay the premium price for shiny? Sometimes the stars align and that god-awful expensive pristine original condition instrument with detailed provenance to a famous owner is indeed the one. If that is the case, then it is money well spent and use it well to ply your craft for the benefit and enjoyment of others. If it is not, maybe leave it to the collectors to pay through the nose for. Pay for the steak, not the sizzle.

Musical instruments are meant to be played and used. Regular use will take the instrument away from the original condition state. As one of my repair colleagues was fond of saying, it’s only new once. Musical instruments that are properly cared for can certainly last a lifetime, but when the instrument is used there will inevitably be wear on components and surfaces. Parts may need to be replaced or reconstructed. In a pure sense, this takes it farther away from its original condition status, but if repairs are done conscientiously and to a high standard, many instruments can continue to be used as intended for the careers of several players.

The Grand Compromise

A dog was walking along with a nice juicy bone in his mouth and came across the edge of a pond. Looking over the surface of the pond he saw another dog with a bone. This was obviously the dog’s reflection, but he was a dog and not schooled in the reflective indices of light in different media to know it was his own reflection. He thought that dog’s bone looked better than his own and thought the other dog looked like a wimp, so he lunged to take the other bone from the reflection dog. In the process he let go of the real bone and it disappeared into the pond.

The challenge we have is in deciding which camp we wish to be in. Do we want to be in the camp of preserving the originality at all costs for the benefit of future generations to study and appreciate the instrument as it was made? Or do we want to be in the camp where the instrument is a tool to use to accomplish our musical goals? I find many people who dip their toes in the pool of original condition vintage instruments try to walk the line in between both camps. They try to do this with the best of intentions, but almost inevitably fail at both.

If truly you want to keep the instrument in original condition, that is a laudable goal but one that requires commitment and discipline. No extended handling of the instrument and only minimal playing of the instrument, all while keeping it stored in an environment the help preserve the condition of the finish, the steel components, and the organic materials. No gigging on it!

If in the other camp it is easy to think you are being a good conservator of an original condition instrument. But there is a difference between being a good conservator and a conscientious player. There are boundaries to consider, both logical and practical.

Where does one draw the line on what aspects of original condition must be maintained? If you have a 3 digit serial number Powell flute with the original pads (90+ year old pads?!), do you intend to consider those pads sacrosanct? Pads are expendable components with a shelf life. Will they help you win the competition or make you work harder? What about flattening and resurfacing the toneholes? Using modern pads, even felt pads, will be more difficult and less consistent on toneholes that are not flat. If this flute is your main axe do you want it to be solid and reliable or finicky and temperamental? How does refitting the keywork and possibly replacing worn out screws grab you? We know what specs the original Powell screws were so for the sake of your job and/or playing satisfaction do you insist they be kept original or is it ok to replace them with similar parts of the intended dimensions made of modern steel alloys?

When the decision is between remaining faithful to the original condition and being able to do your job well, which wins out? Will the audition panel care if you are playing on an original condition whatever? Will the orchestra conductor? Will the promoter attending your quintet gig? It is easy to see where the desire to maintain both can easily leave one like a dog looking at his dumbfounded expression reflected in the pond.

So Mr. Woodwindfixer guy, what do you recommend?

Recommendations

Obviously I recommend you subscribe and tell your friends—

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Even though a reader only half paying attention may be able to tell what direction I lean, I’m not going to tell people how they should spend their money. I hope my lists of pros and cons will help people to consider aspects they may not have been thinking of before.

Always determine why you are in the market for an original condition instrument. Any reason is good enough if it makes sense to you and your bank account, but make sure you have consciously thought it through beyond the starry-eyed impulse buying decision.

If you are seeking an instrument to use for your job or your education, how it plays for you is the most important thing with every other evaluation criteria being a long ways away. Remember to never buy any instrument blind or on someone else’s recommendation without putting it through the paces yourself.

Repair costs can be considerable on second hand instruments, not to mention vintage and antique instruments. Make sure you have a good relationship with a tech and lean on them for advice before the sale if possible.

If you end up with an original condition instrument, for whatever reason and in whatever circumstances, congratulations! I hope you will take care of it well so that it either maintains its original features and qualities or that it serves you well in achieving your musical ambitions.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop. JWS is a repair shop serving professional woodwind players in the National Capital Region. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com for more info or to schedule an appointment.

I will have the comments option open for everyone on this article. If there is a topic or question your would like me to write about, feel free to leave a comment about it.

Musicianship

It doesn’t matter what you play on, you are always going to sound like you.

Mistakes? Big deal. Everyone makes mistakes. What people will remember is your tone quality.

Even if the music in front of you is the equivalent of stereo instructions, don’t let it sound like stereo instructions.

Aggression and ego can be infused into what comes out of your instrument, and that’s not a good thing.

Music is a collaborative endeavor, even when you are by yourself.

Some people say vibrato is like ketchup, but for that analogy to work you have to accept that you are always eating a hot dog and sometimes you are in Chicago.

Instruments

General
You’re working too hard. No, you’re not crazy. If your instrument is not sealing correctly, you will be working too hard and it will make you think you are crazy.

NEVER trust a new instrument “right out of the box”. If it plays fine, consider yourself lucky. Most do not. (see previous point). Always favor a retailer who has a repair shop that can go over instruments that don’t seem right.

Two different players will interpret and define a change on an instrument differently. Stick by what you feel and think and don’t be swayed by peer pressure and gaslighting.

Regular repair service serves 2 important functions: (1) it prevents precise elements of the instrument from becoming damaged or suffering premature failure, (2) some problems slowly creep in and you make changes to your playing style (grip) or your embouchure subtly little by little over time to make things work. These are bad habits you do not want ingrained. Regular service helps prevent that.

Never underestimate the damage that can and does happen to the instrument in the case.

Flute
The way in which the head joint fits will make a difference in how the flute plays.

The way in which a head cork fits will make a difference in how the flute plays.

Unless you *absolutely LOOOVE it and (OMG) it’s the best thing EVAH*, tape on your head joint to make it fit better is a compromise to a solid metal-metal fitting.

Playing with a plug or two or 5 in the keys is fine. If someone says anything about it, remind them that we don’t need that kind of negativity.

The difference between a “split E” mechanism and a high E facilitator insert (or neither) is a matter of personal preference.

Clarinet
Robert Marcellus would say the best ligature is simply the pressure of a human thumb, so make friends with a lab technician down at the county morgue…

Undercutting is common on most clarinet toneholes to adjust pitch and voicing. Undercutting also accumulates a lot of gunk and debris. (hint: regular service is a good idea)

If you need to use cork grease every time you put the instrument together, the corks are too thick.

If your joints wobble, it is not the fault of the corks, but the tenon/socket relationship itself.

Loose tenon rings can pose a structural danger to the instrument. Shimming them with paper or tape is an ok temporary fix, but having the metal rings shrunk to fit is the best solution.

A crack in a wood instrument may seem traumatic and scary, but it is not the end of the world and the instrument is not “ruined”. Ask your oboe playing friends.

An instrument getting “played out” or “blown out” is largely an over-exaggeration bordering on urban legend or myth. Yes, wood instruments change over time, but how much they change is down to the proper care and expectations. Whether you prefer the character of a new instrument to your old tried and true is completely up to you.

Ring key heights and angles should be customized to the needs of a player’s fingers. In young players, the thumb ring key is often the most troublesome.

Oboe
Yes, oboe players are the most adept at tinkering on their own instruments, but for the love of all things good and decent, at least consider getting your instrument in for regular, more thorough service rather than waiting for catastrophic failure you can’t handle.

Cork pads are nice (and arguably the best for oboes) but they are not eternal nor infallible.

Finding a tech who can both replicate playing quirks and malfunctions you may experience and know how to fix them is the ultimate goal in a tech. In lieu of having a proficient player/tech, find a tech who can speak your language, listen to you, and is willing to spend the time making things right.

Do not underestimate the amount of gunk that can accumulate in key apertures.

Saxophone
In regards to mechanical fit and finish, pad installation, and adjustment/regulation, most new saxophones get a maximum grade of B+ in my shop. (Yanagisawa gets an A-)

The most common repair I see is damage that happens in the case (bell misalignment). Make sure your instrument fits well in the case.

The end plug is crucial to protecting the octave mechanism and helping the instrument to fit well in the case (see previous).

Saxophone is a very forgiving instrument, but that ease of playing past subtle flaws can create all sorts of bad habits.

Whether for enjoyment or your job, you owe it to yourself to know what your instrument plays like at 100% (remember, new instruments are often in the 85-90% range)

Does your mouthpiece wobble? It is causing problems.

Does your neck seal properly at the body? Most are causing problems*.
(*I have customers who prefer a set amount of leakage at the neck. This is not the norm, but you like what you like)

Saxophone players are in the unique position that instruments for professional use are comparatively inexpensive. This means extra money is on the table for fixing it up properly.

Before you go mouthpiece shopping, get the horn fixed.

Technical Tidbits

Before you try to think outside the box, be damned good inside the box.

Good tools make you money.

Maintain a healthy respect for the limitations presented by the instrument in front of you, your own limitations, and the time/cost to make them meet.

Being able to cultivate the ability to work all day every day on student and school band instruments is just as much a defined skill set as working on instruments for professional musicians.

Being an instrument repair technician requires skills of a musician, a mechanic, and a machinist. In order to stay at the top of your game make sure you nurture all of those aspects.

Taking classes in machine tool operation is a valuable thing, but the accompanying course work in measuring & gauging and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) can be game changing to how you approach repairs.

Try to limit the number of “improvements” you do to an instrument to 3 per visit or the customer can quickly shift from “wow! that’s how I like my instrument” to “hey, that’s not my instrument anymore.” (This came from a brass tech and is extraordinarily difficult to do on woodwinds if you itemize all of the potential fixes, but err on the side of less is more.)

If your customer says there is something not right with their instrument, believe them. If it is beyond your skill to diagnose or fix, that’s a you problem— don’t make it about the customer “imagining things”.

There are more instruments to fix than technicians or hours in the day to fix them. Get to know the other techs in your area or specialty so you can seek advice or spread the load.

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At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop serving the needs of professional musicians in the National Capital Region and beyond. Jeff’s 2026 Overhaul Schedule is now full, but COA and other general repair appointments are available in abundance. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com to schedule or get in touch.

There is a expression in French, “je ne sais quoi”, which translates to “I don’t know what”. It can be used to refer to something that cannot be adequately or efficiently described or defined in words. Whether the French actually use this phrase, or if it is an indicator of a French poseur is something I do not know for certain. To minimize the need to repeatedly use this phrase and risk being haughtily sneered upon by fancy French fellows, I will refer to the instrument traits and conditions discussed in this article as Jenny factors.

Jenny Factors

Jenny factors can be found everywhere in musical instruments. They are differences between two instruments that cause a player to like the way one plays more or less than the other. While the science and technology exists to do nanosurgery on cells or launch automated octocopters to do aerial surveys of Titan (Saturn’s moon over a billion km away), musical instruments and all of their variables have barely been researched. There are mountains of anecdotal impressions and assumptions, with an equally mountainous heap of junk science and misinformation claiming to know cause and effect, but hard science is lacking both on the instrument side of the equation and the human physiology side. So all we are left with is je ne sais quoi: the Jenny factors.

I have written at length on topics related to this which you can go back and read for greater context at your leisure. Articles on acoustics can be found here and here. The topic of player perception can be found here.

What is important is whether someone can or cannot discern the effect of a Jenny factor is immaterial. If you can feel a difference, great. You have physical sensitivity and biofeedback sensations that may be useful to you. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s in your head. If you cannot feel the effects of a Jenny factor, no problem. Don’t let anyone tell you it limits you in your ability or potential to enjoy music.

Jenny factors are actual physical aspects of the instrument. That they exist cannot be denied. The cause and effect of such physical variables has not been established, and the definition of such effects will almost certainly vary by the physiology and perception of the player. Nonetheless, they play a role in how a particular instrument plays.

The most fundamental baseline for any woodwind before going to scrutinizing details for Jenny factors is that it is leak free with stable mechanisms and pads. So often people go on a quest to “improve” the instrument by putting inserts in toneholes, changing resonator or pad washer materials, or considering irreversible undercutting on toneholes or embouchure holes with an instrument full of old leaky pads and in questionable mechanical condition. If you don’t have a good foundation, such considerations are a waste of time.

The Excitation Device

The most common Jenny factor, familiar to most woodwind players, is how the reed functions. If a player has a bad reed, they either deal with it, change it, or modify it. They know what they need out of a reed to do their job. Some players can seemingly “play on anything” while others will spend hours, days, and weeks meticulously breaking in, shaping, and conditioning reeds to work exactly the way they require. Jenny factor.

Likewise, the mouthpiece on clarinets and saxophones is a major Jenny factor. Sure, as beginners we all start on the same sort of mouthpiece, but as the musculature develops and the concept of tone production strengthens, we often go our own ways. As a classically saxophonist, I can certainly make my instrument work with the most popular Vandoren or Selmer mouthpieces, but I would not enjoy using them. I would not like the response I got and how hard I had to work to make it sound like me. That’s a Jenny factor. In a more finite way, I have 2 mouthpieces that are “the same” but there is one I prefer over the other. There is some finite difference someplace in the geometry that I am picking up on. Jenny factor.

For flute players with glazed over eyes at the mention of reeds and mouthpieces, think of the embouchure hole on the head joint. Think of the differences you experience between an oval hole and a more square hole; a low riser and a high wall riser; the material of the riser (yes it matters). All Jenny factors. What works for you may or may not work as well for someone else.

These are all highly tangible and observable variables. What about things less obvious or even invisible?

The Bore

The bore of a wind instrument is an extremely important component of how the instrument plays. Obviously, the length and diameter are crucial for the pitch and scale of the instrument, but the details of the internal surface contain many Jenny factors.

Bore Features
Every place a section of a segmented instrument joins with another creates a small gap, step, or imperfection in the continuity of the bore. For example, where a flute head slides in to the body, there’s a step at the end of the head. Where the upper and lower clarinet or oboe joints meet, there is a gap between the end of the top joint and the bottom of the socket it slides into. In saxophones the neck joint can have both a step and a gap, not to mention the unseen joints farther down the horn where the bow connects to the body tube and the bell.

These are all Jenny factors. Not so much in that they exist, but that these gaps and steps can be infinitesimally different between instruments that are otherwise “the same”, and it can make all the difference.

As can be seen in the perfectly drawn example above, there are many edges, steps, and other features in a standard instrument bore that provide profiles and corners for sound waves to bounce off of. If instrument-A has a perfectly square corner and instrument-B has a wee bit of solder emerge from the joint, this is a Jenny factor. That tiny, tiny difference in the contour of that step could affect how a player perceives how instrument-A and instrument-B play. Among brass instrument specialists there are often purpose built tooling to go into slides and remove ridges or blobs of solder and make the tiny corners of the joint all uniform.

Such profiles in an instrument can and will change over time as the instrument is played due to an accumulation of “stuff”. This could be debris blown in by the player or it could be dissolved minerals in the player’s breath that gradually accumulate and solidify in the corners and crevices. This is a slowly evolving Jenny factor that can be reversed with regular service. As an example, some saxophone makes have internal grooves in the neck tenon. These grooves provide a certain Jenny factor of their own, but when the grooves begin to be filled with “stuff”, the instrument often plays differently. There are no leaks or mechanical malfunctions, but the instrument does not play the way the player likes it to. Clean the “stuff” out of the grooves and it returns to playing the way the player wants.

A quick note on cleaning:
It is always advisable to have your instrument professionally cleaned on a regular basis. Cleaning doesn’t necessarily mean making it all nice and shiny as much as an internal cleaning to get rid of an accumulation of “stuff”. When you chose the instrument, there was no “stuff” (hopefully). The regular cleaning by your technician will return it to that condition.

If you are the type of player that admires the way your instrument plays when not cleaned, then you should look for a new instrument that provides that playing quality when clean. Technicians cannot and will not manufacture the equivalent of 9-14 months worth of beer and nachos blown into the instrument, and no technician who considers themself a professional will work around a fetid coating of “stuff” and then stand behind the quality of the repair.

Maintaining a clean bore in the instrument is an important way of maintaining the most basic Jenny factor.

Gaps and Edges
As pictured earlier, when there is a slight discrepancy between the length of a tenon and the depth of a socket (whether manufactured or introduced for tuning) a Jenny factor exists that will potentially create playing differences between similar instruments. On flutes and saxophones the metal walls provide for a gap that is relatively shallow. On wood instruments where the body walls are much thicker, that gap at the ends of a tenon joint can be substantial and create significant effect.

Sometimes deep gaps of this nature can create acoustic anomalies that really mess with how well specific notes work on an instrument—wonky pitch, warbles, weakness, etc. Fortunately, the makers of modern instruments have designed their instruments in such a way that these gaps usually play no negative role.

There is a school of thought among clarinet players who tend to pull the middle joint for tuning in a consistent manner to have bore spacers or tenon washers made. These are thin discs of a material (usually plastic) that are installed in the tenon socket to assemble the instrument to a positive stop every time. These washers also fill up the gap. The use of these washers can be its own Jenny factor in eliminating or reducing the gap. It could do something to the way the instrument responds or feels that is different from other instruments. Remember, whether it is a positive or negative difference is up to the player to decide.

The picture above shows a 100 yr old tenon from a bari saxophone (right) and the replacement tenon I made on the left. The length difference is not small and that translates into a gap between the end of the tenon and the top of the body tube. When replacing the tenon I measured carefully to use the maximum length that would fit in the neck receiver, mostly for the purpose of structural stability. The player appreciated how the instrument played afterwards. Whether that was due to the extra length and removing the gap when assembled or the fact that the old tenon was quite leaky is a Jenny factor that we cannot define.

Another Jenny factor that can pop up as 2 similar instruments playing differently is in the treatment of the ends of tubes. As mentioned before, square corners at the places where tubes join is a good baseline to have, but sometimes the end of a head tenon or a saxophone neck can change through wear or be changed by a tech. Likewise, the ends of wood tenons are highly susceptible to wear.

I often see saxophone necks that have had the end where the mouthpiece connects flared or chamfered to have a bit of internal cone shape, like the tapered tube ends example above but more severe. This was commonly done in the time period around the turn of the 21st century when some influential saxophone repairers on the early internet were encouraging this to “improve air flow”. Since you have read my previous articles on acoustics, you know that air does not flow through wind instruments and recognize this claim as inaccurate. What this operation did was change what was formerly a nice square profile on the end of the neck. Of the multiple players who i have talked to who had this done, all said it initially made response easier. Unfortunately, most also said that pitch control in the upper range and altissimo response went out the window. They had to relearn how to play their instruments.

Surface Finish

The surface finish of the bore is an important variable that can make a difference. As an instrument gets older and is used more and more the internal surface finish becomes more difficult to keep in its pristine condition, particularly with wood instruments. Maintaining a mirror finish is nigh on impossible and a futile endeavor in the long term. What impacts surface finish the most is a build up of debris and dissolved minerals and sugars. You can’t really see it as a problem, and the build up is so slow that you don’t really notice it in the instrument’s performance. But when you go in for an annual cleaning and the bore surface is all cleaned up, the difference can be a stark and surprising change for the better.

Material

Yes, I am going there. Material is a factor that can play a role in how an instrument plays/feels/responds. How it makes a difference is something that has yet to be researched adequately, so please don’t cite me as saying “gold flutes do X” or “sterling silver resonators do Y”. The difference that is perceived by the player, if it is perceived by the player, is entirely subjective. Just know that is is a factor to consider.

Flutes made of coin silver, sterling silver, Britannia silver, and fine silver may all play differently for a player. But is it all in the material? If you have read this far you are aware of a bushel and a peck of measurable and observable Jenny factors that can influence how a player perceives an instrument which I chose to mention before even getting into materials.

Plating and Coatings
One important feature of plated surfaces when comparing them to solid metal surfaces is that plating tends to build up thicker at edges and around corners. It is rarely a degree of thicker plating visible with the naked eye, but it does change the profile ever so slightly at the most crucial areas—around the edges of toneholes, embouchure holes, etc.

There is a school of thought kicking around that lacquer coatings on instruments make them play stuffy, that it was preventing the instrument from vibrating. This junk science belief still has a lot of adherents, but there may be something to what some experience. I do not think the idea of inhibiting vibration holds a lot of water, but the quality of the surface finish may. When lacquer is sprayed, given the right (or wrong) conditions, an effect can occur called “orange peel” (because the lacquer dries looking like the texture of orange peel). When instruments like saxophones are sprayed, the lacquer does get in to the bore through the toneholes. This extra spray distance, concentration of lacquer, etc. can certainly cause the orange peel effect inside the bore. An irregular bore texture could certainly be a Jenny factor making some instruments play well, but others not.

I discourage players from having vintage lacquered instruments stripped and left bare to “promote resonance” or whatever. Brass instruments made before the mid 1970’s contained lead in the alloy. Lead can be absorbed through the skin so the use of raw brass instruments of a certain age is most definitely a health hazard.

Pads, etc.
Obviously pads and related parts can be a major Jenny factor in influencing how 2 similar instrument play differently. The type of pads can be a significant enough variable to take its effects into account with far more weight than all the other considerations. Woven felt pads will provide different results than pressed felt, pressed felt different than engineered pads, engineered pads different than synthetic foam, synthetic different than cork. Even pads of similar description made by different companies can provide a difference because they used different felts or skins.

Resonators and pad retainers can add a whole other level of rabbit hole diving (forget Tommy Tutone, cue Jefferson Airplane). Using silver grommets or washers on flutes provides a difference to plastic. Regarding saxophone resonators, I have found the shape and surface contour (smooth vs. rivet) provide more difference than custom metals.

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The Truly Invisible Jenny Factors

While there are multitudes of easily measurable and identifiable factors that make a particular instrument play a certain way, there are also unobservable and unmeasurable factors that can come into play. Many of these come down to processes utilized in manufacturing or in comprehensive repair.

Assembly Tension
While this is far more common in brass instruments, instruments constructed with tension can play/respond/feel different than those without tension. Again, which is “better” for a particular player is subjective. Many high end technicians will seek to relieve tension if they can in an overhaul process because having structural tension in the instrument can promote instability.

Tension can occur commonly when joints are soldered. In a solder joint you have 2 base metal parts connected by a molten metal of a different alloy. As we know from basic physics, applying heat to materials generally makes them expand, and when they cool they contract. The base metal parts are going to heat and cool at different rates than the solder material, which must be completely melted. This will always produce some tension between the joined parts, but manufacturing processes are pretty consistent nowadays so the tension is usually quite minimal.

Wood instruments can have tension in them as well. When cracks appear in wood instruments, this is almost always a form of tension release. Wood that is not conditioned properly can have more internal tension that causes problems later.

Hard and Soft
In regards to metal instruments, the various metals used can exist in the instrument in a variety of hardness conditions. Non-ferrous metals have a property called work hardening. As the material is worked (burnished, hammered, rolled, deformed, etc) it will get more rigid. Apply heat, such as soldering a part on to the body, and that work hardening can go away.

There are no instruments that are assembled with all of the posts and ribs mounted and then treated to increase rigidity of softened areas to establish uniform hardness throughout the instrument. It simply is not possible. The result is an instrument with some areas reasonably hard and some areas somewhat less hard. This can affect how an instrument plays/responds/feels.

When an instrument gets a dent, the area around the dent is now harder. When that dent gets removed the area may become harder still, or the hardened area may spread wider. There is no way to tell how the instrument may be different. To keep people from going down the rabbit hole of analysis paralysis regarding having dents removed, any dent that distorts the bore will have more of a Jenny factor from distorting the bore than any potential hardening of the material around the dent.

Cryogenics
Cryogenic treatment of metal instruments had a bit of a fad moment a few decades ago. It is a process where instruments or instrument parts are subjected to extremely cold temperatures, usually in a chamber cooled by liquid nitrogen. The drop in temperature and return to ambient temperature is done in a controlled fashion over a set period of time (several hours or days). The process has been proven to do something on the molecular level to the metal, sometimes described as realignment.

The cryogenic process has been reported to make the metal slightly more malleable, the opposite effect of work hardening. Manufacturers who utilize this process usually do so to reduce the Jenny factor differences in the metal structure of their instruments and create a more consistent product.

The old world manner of making flute heads and saxophone necks involved a seamed tube construction finished with hand hammering and/or burnishing on a mandrel. This naturally created a wide range of metal hardness throughout the piece and some makers looked to cryogenic treatment to help balance out the potential internal stress in the metal and make the pieces for the brand or model more uniform. Those still using these techniques are considered bespoke makers and the differing qualities imparted in the making process lend to the individuality of the piece: a true one-of-a-kind item.

The Quest for Individuality

Please remember that all things listed in this article are not a check list. It is not a fix-it list. The Jenny factors listed here are some of many many possible factors than make two instruments that are “the same” play/respond/feel different from each other.

When one determines a brand preference in an instrument it is often down to the je ne sais quoi, the I don’t know what, the Jenny factors. For me, Yamaha alto saxophones are not my favorite horn. I like them fine, but I like Yanagisawa altos better. Why? Maybe the Yamaha is too bright for me. Why are they too bright? What makes them bright?

<shrug> The Jenny factors.

No matter what you play on, you will always sound like you. However, how easy it is to sound like you largely comes down to your choice of equipment. How you choose your equipment will often come down to the Jenny factors that make you like one particular specimen better than the others.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a woodwind pro shop servicing musicians in the National Capital Region and beyond. Limited overhaul times remain in Jeff’s 2026 overhaul schedule. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com to get in touch.

Three Types of Joints

Ok, get your Cheech and Chong jokes out of the way.

Done? Ok.

The 3 types of joints I will cover will be the mouthpiece joint, the typical corked tenon joint, and the metal-on-metal joint. These joints all have some loose commonalities and also differences in the expectations and function. The traits all of them share is the joint should be air tight* and structurally/dimensionally stable. I’ll talk more about that as we go.

Some nomenclature for starters…
The part of the instrument that goes into another to make 2 joints or sections connect together is called a tenon (mind the spell check for tendon). I presume this comes from the woodworking joinery term mortise and tenon.
The part of the instrument joint that the tenon goes into is called the tenon receiver, tenon socket, or the box joint (on fancy flute foot joints).

*I have had clients who learned to control their instrument with a specific degree of leakage at certain joints. My “fixing” that leak created problems with how they could play their instruments. Pedagogues can discuss this amongst themselves as to whether that is “proper” or not. My job is to make the instrument play the way the client requires. If that means installing or maintaining certain imperfections, then that’s what I do.

The Mouthpiece Joint

I want to start with the mouthpiece joint because it is simple, but has some failure points, or at least places where people get things wrong, that can apply to the other types of joints.

This sort of joint is almost universally found on saxophones, although it could be argued that the joint made on bassoon bocals where they connect to the wing joint is similar, but in reverse. To keep things simple, I’ll just speak about saxophones.

The purpose of the joint at the end of the saxophone neck is to hold the mouthpiece in a stable position but be flexible enough to allow that position to change for pitch conditions if needed. The material that has won out through nearly 2 centuries of testing is natural cork. Various synthetics and composites have been courted over the years, but nothing has endured as the crowd favorite with so overwhelming a vote tally as natural cork (phone lines are open so cast your vote now!).

Cork is a fascinating natural material in that it naturally does what so many synthetic materials try to do almost as well. It has a closed cell structure, meaning that with the exception of pores and knots in the cork it has the properties of being air tight, water tight, and is compressible. The compression quality of cork is quite remarkable. Under moderate load it can be compressed to a comparatively large percentage of its thickness and when the load is removed, spring back almost all the way to its original dimension. I have seen numbers suggesting instant decompression returning to around 95% of original dimension with the remaining returning over the next several hours.

Over time and with use the elastic properties of the cork can break down, causing the mouthpiece to fit less securely. Even if the grip on the cork is enough to hold the mouthpiece in position, there can be leaks that develop. The tell tale sign of such leaks are moisture bubbles at the end of the mouthpiece or a wet cork when the mouthpiece is removed. The best temporary fix for this problem is a simple wrap of paper around the cork. I encourage saxophonists to keep a pad of post-it notes in their case for such eventualities.

It is important for the shape of the mouthpiece bore to match the shape of the cork on the neck. Most mouthpieces have cylindrical bores, but the neck is a cone. When the cork is applied to that cone it becomes a wider cone which must be sanded down to match the internal shape of the mouthpiece. There are mouthpieces out there that have a tapered bore in the shank and these are challenging to fit well to the neck. Tapered bore mouthpieces tend to need the corks replaced more frequently to continue doing their job well.

One feature found on many saxophone necks is what many call the “tone ring”. There is much disagreement over the purpose of this ring at the end of the neck. One universal truth is the tone ring makes replacing the cork more difficult. This has led to technicians removing the ring or just running the cork over it. The problem with this sort of change is it will change the way the instrument plays.

The ring is smaller than the bore of most mouthpieces, so that means there will be a gap between the ring and the mouthpiece. This creates an acoustic feature—it creates a varied topography with different angles and corners for the sound waves to bounce off of (*Foreshadowing for next week). Corking over or removing the ring will remove that acoustic feature. It may be a good change, or it may be a bad change. Only the player who knows how the instrument plays for them can define that.

Controlling the leaks and acoustic features at this joint is crucial because literally every other aspect of the instrument is downstream from this point. Everything can and will be affected.

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The Corked Tenon Joint

The tenon joints on clarinets, oboes, bassoons, and some flutes and piccolos are commonly seen with a band of cork around the circumference. Some of these joints, particularly in bassoons and antique flutes, are wrapped with thread. More on that later.

The compression/decompression quality of cork does its job well in this application. It provides enough grip to hold, and that’s all it needs, right? In a word, no.

While the grip is important, it is really only half of the job the cork performs; and the cork should not provide as much grip as many people think.

The primary function of the cork is to act as a gasket and create an airtight seal at the joint. The cork does provide a small amount of grip, but a well-made instrument should have the parts sized so that they can almost stay together with no cork.

Unfortunately the majority of instruments are not fit this well. Often wood instruments have a slightly larger size differential to allow for the natural movement of the wood. Student and intermediate instrument can be expected to have a sizable size difference due to the nature of mass produced instruments. Obviously, wear and damage can certainly create suboptimal fit between dimensions.

When such gaps exist between the tenon and the tenon receiver, a thicker cork is required. The thicker cork still creates an airtight seal but also does more of the work in establishing grip between the joints. If the size difference between the two parts gets too large the cork band can act like a fulcrum on a teeter-totter and the joint can wobble. This can be a problem for establishing consistent mechanism function (bridge keys) and can even compromise the airtight seal at the joint.

It is a common repair on nicer clarinets and oboes that have loose dimensions at the tenon joint to either replace the tenon or machine a sleeve to establish the proper fit. Note in the picture above showing a sleeve destined for a clarinet tenon how narrow the shoulder is on the end of the wood tenon below the cork groove (right). This narrow shoulder is highly susceptible to wear and wobble. It is often good practice for a sleeve replacement on such tenons (black polycarbonate in this case—left) to have a wider shoulder at the end to provide more contact area and better longevity against wear in the future.

Fine wood flutes often have metal inserts or rings on the tenons. The metal parts promote dimensional stability and reduce wear. A band of cork is installed in the groove to help hold the much heavier wood foot joint in position.

The use of string wrapping on tenons instead of cork finds limited use on modern instruments aside from bassoons, where structural stability is provided to very thin wood tenons that support a lot of weight. Some bassoon tenons and receivers are tapered so the string must be carefully wound so the joint locks in place at the perfect goldilocks position. Matching tapers to the proper depth is not an overly difficult task for a machinist, but on bassoons we are often dealing with maple that is very thin and sometimes a century or more old. This adds a fair degree of complexity and nuance to the task.

Metal on Metal Joints

The joints on metal flutes as well as saxophone neck/body joints are a metal to metal connection. These are perhaps the most misunderstood of the 3 types of joints as far as how they need to be to perform their job well.

As with the corked tenon joint, the fact that the joint fits together is not enough. There must be an airtight seal established, but there is no cork gasket to help with the seal. How does it work?

Flute Joints
Let us consider a flute head tenon and its matching receiver. Both are cylinders. To keep things simple we will call the outer diameter of the head tenon (OD) 3/4” or 0.750”. So this means the receiver on the body (barrel) should have an inner diameter (ID) of 3/4”, right?

Not really. Think back to basic physics and chemistry. Two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. So if the tenon OD is 0.750” and the receiver ID is 0.750”, they are going to collide and not fit together. In machining terms, this is often called an interference fit and it is used to assemble parts that you don’t want to move or come apart. Often they are made to fit by making one part very cold to make it shrink a little, and to heat up the other part to make it a bit larger. Then the parts are pressed together and when the temperatures return to ambient range they are stuck together.

This is not the sort of fit that works well on flute or saxophone parts.

Ok, so we make the head tenon 0.749”. That will work, right?

Well, they will slide together fine, but will they stay in position? Will they seal? The answer is no. In our utopian scenario here we have perfect cylinders and there is nothing to prevent them from sliding in and out or rotating freely against each other. On brass instruments, a heavy grease is used to prevent slides from, well, sliding when they aren’t supposed to. We don’t use such grease on woodwind joints. Because the joints are disassembled fully, the chance of the grease picking up debris and then damaging the fit on the next assembly is quite high.

The way such joints are fit together on woodwinds is to intentionally introduce some sort of geometric imperfection. The tenon OD does certainly have to be smaller than the receiver ID, but it is not a perfect cylinder. I should say it is not perfectly circular.

To illustrate, let us imagine the receiver is a perfectly circular shape with an ID of 0.750”. The tenon which fits inside is not circular. Let’s make it an ellipse. The narrow side of the ellipse is 0.748” so that will fit in the the receiver with no problem. The wide side of the ellipse is 0.751”.

When we insert the elliptical part into the round part the more bulky and hefty receiver will hold its shape and force the more delicate head tenon to conform. The hypothetical .751 dimension will be squished (technical term) and the .748 dimension will flex outward slightly. This is what creates the sensation of grip between a flute head and the receiver. If done right it also creates an effective airtight seal.

But that’s the trick isn’t it? It has to be done right. While an ellipse is probably the best shape for fitting this joint, it is very difficult to establish. Quite often the head tenon is less of an ellipse than a square peg going into a round hole—or the “peg” could be a triangle, a hexagon, or a dodecagon, any of which have the same concept of the “corners” being flexed inward ever so slightly while the “flats” flex outward. If the metal does not flex enough or the sizing is not quite right, the air can have an easy escape route.

Leaking head joint fit is probably one of the most under-diagnosed issues flutes have. When the head does not leak the instrument is more resonant, responds more easily, and is more easy to control. When the head is leaking the entire instrument is less. It could still be good, but not as good as it could or should be. With bad enough leaks in the head fit (doesn’t take much), the lower range can be quite difficult to like.

When players obtain a new head that is a bit too loose, they often reach for some sort of tape to take up the gap. People are often most concerned about the head fitting and staying in place, but the application of tape can create defined channels for the air to leak out. Even if the right tape is applied in the right way, in my professional opinion gleaned from over 30 years of refitting flute heads, the flute/head combination will never reach its full potential without a metal to metal connection.

Indeed, on fine flutes, even when the fit is leak-free, a difference can be had in the response and timbre based on how tightly the head fits in the receiver. Many flute/head combinations have a sweet spot. When overhauling flutes I will often spend hours (yes, multiple) obsessing over how the joints fit and how the instrument plays because of that fit.

Flute foot tenon joints follow many of the same rules and expectations of head joints. The joint is 2 nesting cylinders that have to grip each other just right. Foot tenons are more prone to damage than head tenons and their shorter length can make them more cantankerous to deal with.

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Saxophone Joints
The same concepts can apply to the tenons on saxophone necks as on flute heads. The differences come in where the metal on saxophone necks is far thicker and far more robust. In addition, saxophones have a neck screw that tightens down to assist with the grip.

The neck screw means we could have a 0.950” receiver and a 0.949” tenon with no problems because the screw will make it tight so it can’t move or slide.

The challenge for saxophones is in that makers often allow the neck screw to take up far more than the 0.001” size difference in the hypothetical example. Most necks on pro saxophones are sized pretty well—two I have in the shop now are within 0.001” between the OD and ID of the parts. However, wear on neck tenons can happen pretty aggressively and once dimensions get a bit astray from nominal, things can go down hill quickly. The neck screw can often conceivably shrink the top of the neck socket by 1/16” or more (0.0625”). This is a tad bit more than the necessary 1 or 2 thousandths.

So what? Don’t I just turn it until it stops and is nice and tight?

Screws, like neck screws, are literally machines. They are force amplifiers. Much could be written about the physics principles behind this (which I won’t do). In short, the amount of effort put into turning the screw is amplified in the closing of the top of the neck socket. As commonly happens, a little bit of wear happens to the joint and the neck doesn’t stay in place. The player then turns the screw tighter, often con forza, to make the neck stop rotating, the result being the neck tenon getting increasingly compressed and/or the receiver getting stretched out.

Different designs of neck receivers have different benefits and shortcomings compared to others. Some wear out faster than others. If the neck screw has to be turned a full turn or more to go from loose to secure, there is likely a fit issue that needs to be addressed.

Fitting the tenon on the neck is not big deal and a rather routine operation. However, if a poorly fitting tenon is left to go too long and the receiver gets worn in weird places or stretched out, this can turn into a big money repair.

Joint Red Flags

The following is a short list of the conditions players should watch out for and get fixed sooner rather than later:

• The joint doesn’t stay together

• The joint wobbles more than is acceptable (tech’s determination, not the player’s)

• The joint feels rough or makes grinding noise when assembling (address ASAP!)

• Cork grease is needed almost every time it is put together

• The joint has loose parts or damaged edges

A reminder for metal-on-metal joints, never use a lubricant. Lubricants on these connections will attract and trap debris that will damage the surfaces. If gunk builds up on dry joints and it gets a little grabby, rub some paraffin wax on on part, work the joint together, and wipe out the wax residue thoroughly (from both parts). The wax will pick up the majority of the gunk and grime that has built up on the surfaces.

If using grease on a corked connection, make sure it is a non-petroleum grease that is less likely to attack the adhesive. Treat cork grease like you would hand lotion: only use it if you need it, and if you need it only use as much as you need. If you need to apply grease every time, the cork is the wrong size or the joint itself has a serious size mismatch or damage.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a woodwind specialty repair shop in the National Capital Region. Limited overhaul times are available in 2026. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com to contact Jeff.

Springs get a bad rap. If a key doesn’t move as it should, the knee jerk response is “it’s the spring”. Keys not moving properly is actually rarely the fault of the spring. As we can understand from the many mechanical requirements specific to the mechanisms, there are many more likely failure points and places where motion of the key can be negatively impacted.

Types of Springs

Woodwind instruments will generally have 2 types of springs: Round springs and flat springs. There are details of physics related to springs—force vectors, reciprocal angles, radii of rotation, etc—that could provide hours of rapt engrossment for at least a couple of people, but we’ll keep it simple here.

Flat Springs
Flat springs, also called leaf springs, are the oldest type of springs to be found on woodwind instruments. They work on a simple lever/fulcrum principle and are found most often on mechanisms that are a simple lever construction with a perpendicular pivot point some place along the legth of the key. Good examples are clarinet trill keys or saxophone palm keys; pretty much any key you would categorize as a teeter-totter action rather than rotational around the bore of the instrument could be a good candidate for a flat spring.

The flat spring of the proper length and material is given the proper amount of curvature and then is installed in a captive position between the key and the body of the instrument. A lot of the time flat springs are not obvious to spot unless you know what you are looking for. On some wood instruments there are channels cut out of the wood that the spring sits in so it may not be visible at all.

Flat springs on modern instruments are held in place by tiny screws. Most of the time the spring is screwed to the key, but there are instances where the spring is attached to the body of the instrument. In ye olden times, the springs were riveted in place.

Round Springs
Round springs, which include or can be referred to as “needle springs”, have some different physics involved (but we’re keeping it simple). Think of round springs as the ones that provide rotational force perpendicular to the bore of the instrument (not always, but most of the time).

Round springs are basically pieces of rigid wire installed though posts on the instrument. The length of the wire is set to contact a point on a key and the direction of curvature of the wire determines whether the spring pushes the key open or pulls it closed.

The way round springs are intended to be installed is a hole is drilled through the post that the spring fits snugly in. The butt end of the spring is then deformed slightly—think square peg in round hole—and then pressed into place. If sized and shaped properly, the spring will remain secure in the post until intentionally removed.

There have been instances where the hole through the post is made larger and threaded. The spring is then installed in a bushing with a matching thread and the bushing screwed in place. These are most commonly found on saxophones where the posts are larger and can accommodate the extra space needed for the thread forms and bushing. These threaded bushings with springs installed are most widely known as Norton Springs and were utilized by the Buescher Band Instrument Co., but some parts suppliers for repair techs have supplied the blank bushings, making it a valid repair option for other brands where appropriate.

Other Springs
Coil springs are often the image people get in their head when someone says “spring”, but they have rarely been used on musical instrument. Most commonly coil springs are found on a certain vintage of Vito clarinets and only used on a couple of keys. While this use of coil springs provided a good feel and smooth action, they were infuriating to technicians who would remove a key with a coiled spring under tension hiding beneath and watch the spring launch itself across the shop, rarely to be found again.

Torsion Springs/Clock Springs
Clock springs are generally a coiled leaf spring confined in a cartridge or housing of some sort that provide a very even and consistent amount of tension. These are quite uncommon in any musical instrument, but are usually only found in certain rotary valve designs in brass instruments. I seem to remember seeing an old saxophone owned by a Soviet era refugee that had clock spring modules attached to keys, but I do not know if it was a detail of some forgotten eastern European maker or if it was a frankenstein feature some highly skilled technician added.

External torsion springs, on the other hand, do have great utility in woodwinds, particularly for emergency repairs. A torsion spring is one that derives its force from a twisting action.

I always take my small assortment of trumpet and trombone water key springs with me when I have an emergency repair bench at a conference. Sometimes when springs break it is not a simple task to extract the broken piece (specialized tools needed) and then have the right size replacement on hand to fit the hole. I have fixed more than a couple of instruments for headliners with a spring failure shortly before a performance with this non-traditional spring. All of them have looked at me sideways, but when they play it all have said some version of “holy crap, that works!”.

Magnets
While not springs, the idea of opposing pole magnets being used to provide “spring” action to keys has been bandied about for years with some inventive mad scientists actually putting it into practice here and there. This has never worked well for a couple of reasons. First, the magnets are routinely covered with a metal surface (usually nickel) that is very difficult to apply to the instrument in a permanent way. If a magnet falls off, it is a tall order to put it back, if the loose part has been retained. Second, the repelling force of the magnet is not a constant force. The closer the two magnets are to each other the stronger the repelling force. This can create a very inconsistent feel under the fingers.

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History of Springs

The flat spring was not invented for musical instruments. There are examples of them appearing in mechanical devices and systems going back hundreds, if not thousands of years. The flat spring fit the need of pre-industrial instrument design quite well, though.

Flat springs are found on instruments old and new made of non-ferrous metals (brass, bronze, nickel-silver), steel (blued steel or stainless alloys), or precious metals. The tension and force of the flat spring is often governed by the material, the thickness of the material, and the geometry (curvature & length) of the spring.

Round springs (needle springs) have an interesting history. In their original form, they were actually needles. Metalworkers who made sewing needles would collect worn, bent, dull, or broken needles from the garment and textile districts to melt down and reuse. The woodwind makers around Paris were the first to repurpose the discarded needles as springs. While the size was often suitable, the temper of the metal was often too rigid and hard, so they would anneal the needles, re-harden them and then draw a temper to deep blue for the best springiness and good rust prevention from the heavy blue oxide layer.

Round springs now cover a wide range of materials. Blued steel is still in use, mostly due to tradition. Unfortunately, some instrument makers have gone to a chemical bluing process rather than the more durable heat bluing. This usually means that within one or two cleaning at the shop, the protective oxide layer is gone and the steel become susceptible to rust. As far as I know, the top makers of instruments who use blued steel are still using heat blued springs, but the mid-range and wannabe pro instruments are awash with cost cutting measures.

Stainless steel alloys are now the common choice to replace blued steel. Over the years with blued steel, not only has the traditional oxide color been retained, but so has the literal needle sharp point. This “feature” has generated much consternation, much pain, and not a small amount of blood being shed by technicians. Fortunately, most stainless round springs do not come with points. In many cases the sharp tapered point is superfluous to the function. Some sort of point is necessary if the catch area for the spring is narrower than the spring diameter.

Hand made flutes often have precious metal springs. This most likely originated from the common trait of many late 19th and early 20th century flute makers being trained as goldsmiths and being comfortable in working with the metals, as well as having them on hand. White gold is most common (usually 10K) but some Japanese makers have been using platinum alloy springs.

Many people roll their eyes at precious metal springs. While there may be materials that do indeed work better than hardened gold or platinum as a spring, switching to such materials would provide a different feel under the fingers than what those in the marketplace are accustomed. Further, the ability to adjust and fine tune a non-gold spring is quite different. It would be a high risk decision to move away from gold springs in that market. Also, there is the concern of wear. A gold spring installed in a gold or silver post is not likely to wear the hole in the post larger over time, nor will it wear against the silver or gold mechanisms as much. A steel spring, even a very light one will be of a much harder material and be prone to wear the precious metal components of the instrument.

Many instruments in the 1970’s through the 1990’s, particularly those in the school band market, made use of phosphor bronze as a spring material, both in flat and round springs. This material should be filed under “seemed like a good idea at the time”. Phosphor bronze, at least in the manner used in instrument springs, did not hold its rigidity very well and was prone to cracking and breaking quite readily if springs were re-tensioned too many times.

Spring Failures

Springs do fail from time to time. Murphy’s Law is always in effect and springs take advantage of that as much as any other thing that can go wrong.

Flat Spring Failures

Obviously breakage of the spring material can happen. It is rare, but it can happen. Every time the key is used the spring bends. Bending creates stress forces on the metal and if those forces are working on an area where there may be a flaw or thin spot in the metal’s internal structure, a fracture can occur. Usually such fracture points can be tracked back to a kink or sharp bend being put in the spring.

Flat springs are usually held in place by tiny screws with a very fine thread. These screws can occasionally come loose. Sometimes this can be detected by a slight spongy feeling or sometimes a mysterious sympathetic buzz can be heard while playing. Unfortunately, since flat springs and their screws are very difficult to see, catching a loose screw before it falls out completely is often luck and happenstance.

Friction is by far the most common malady for flat springs. The end that touches the body will slide a little bit when the key is moved. In most situations (flute thumb keys being the obvious exception) the spring has a little guide to slide in. In wood instruments it is often a channel cut into the wood, sometimes with a small metal piece for the spring to slide on. These spring tracks will accumulate dust and gunk over time. A build up of debris can affect how the end of the spring slides. This is yet another reason for regular professional service on your instrument.

Sometimes, particularly after an impact of some sort, a flat spring can jump the track and end up outside of its guide. This can create all sorts of bad feeling key action.

Round Spring Failures
The most common round spring failure is the spring becoming dislodged from its catch. This usually happens after an impact or bump (most of the time in the case). Popping a spring back on the catch may be easily done with just your finger, or it may require tools. Sometimes a spring popped off requires some disassembly of the instrument to get back on. Regardless of how easy a spring may be to rehook, its unhooking is not something that just happens. Something caused that spring to pop loose and it is a red flag waving at you to have it checked out. An impact or shock sufficient to make a spring pop off its catch can certainly be enough to bend keys or misalign posts.

One of the more annoying round spring failures is the spring that comes loose in the post and starts to rotate. Springs are generally installed with a directional arc in them so they can push or pull the key in the required direction. If the spring’s hold on the post is not secure and the spring rotates in the hole by 90 or 180 degrees, it is not going to push or pull the key in the way that it should. This is most often seen with steel springs that have been flared on the butt end the wrong way. Steel is a much more robust material than whatever the posts are and if the butt end is the wrong shape when pressed into the post it can enlarge one end of the hole through the post but have none of the staying power, slipping out later. This most often happens when people try to install a spring that is too small for the hole. They flare out the end of the spring more to “fit” and all it does is damage the post.

The obvious extension of this problem is the spring comes loose and falls out altogether.

Round spring breakage is much more common than flat springs breaking, but still only an occasional repair I see. Just as with flat springs the repeated flexing and bending of the round spring can take advantage of a weakened area of the metal. Sometimes this happens in the middle of the spring, but most often this happens right next to the post. Extracting the broken stub from the post is almost guaranteed to get a grumble for your tech. Sometimes the broken stub can be extracted easily, often with specialized tools. Other times extracting a broken spring can be a lot more challenging and take up the tech’s afternoon.

One thing to watch out for is a sudden whimpiness of a key’s motion. It kind of moves ok but feels whimpy. If a key just won’t behave and the spring will not hold tension for very long, it is usually a sign of a fracture in the spring. Gradual fractures like this that don’t just snap off are often fractures below the surface of the post. If the spring can be preserved unbroken until the technician can get a crack at it, they may be able to use the fractured but still attached spring to push the part inside the post out. If the spring breaks off below the surface of the post, it can be among the most difficult ones to extract cleanly.

Remember, for all of these potential spring failures listed, problems with key action are more often a failing in the mechanism itself, not the spring.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a pro woodwind repair shop in Baltimore, MD. Jeff’s 2026 overhaul schedule is open with limited times. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com to inquire.

If you have not read last week’s article, here is a link:

The most basic of these linked mechanisms were the tab-style linkages, as pictured below. If the keys in the picture were numbered from right to left, key 1 (the one with no screw visible) moves independently. Pressing key 2 will press on the tab attached to key 1 and depress both. Key 3 will lean on the tab on key 2, which leverages the tab on key 1 and all 3 of the keys move together. We can only guess what happens when key 4 is pressed.

This design is all fine and good, and has worked well for literally centuries. But to work well this mechanism linkage requires keys to essentially be next to each other in close proximity, have similar orientations, and similar movements. The years of the first half of the 19th century saw enormous strides made in woodwind innovation, invention, and design. These improvements required new engineering applications.

When someone uses the phrase “antique instrument”, it is common for people’s minds to conjure the image of crudely made, imprecise instruments that only approximate what today’s instruments can do. This is a serious misunderstanding and underestimation of the knowledge, skill, and craftsmanship brought to bear by woodwind makers of prior centuries. In particular, by the mid-19th century, instrument makers who had formerly been known for their wood working skills now had to learn the skills of or employ goldsmiths, machinists, and work with the precision of jewelers and watch makers.

A New Mechanism

In the 19th century, there are 2 names that stand out in the development of new mechanical solutions for woodwind: Boehm and Sax. Europe was a bubbling cauldron of ideas and innovations once the industrial revolution got rolling and there were certainly other musical instrument makers with stand-out ideas, or concepts that influenced Boehm or Sax, but these two figures laid the foundation with novel ideas and designs that endure through to this day.

In 1832, Theobald Boehm, a flute virtuoso and maker from Munich, developed a new flute design. While on a concert tour in England, Boehm was impressed by the playing of the local flute virtuoso, Charles Nicholson. But when he became disappointed in the apparent inability of the available flute designs to be able to provide that sound for anyone but Nicholson, Boehm went to work problem solving.

What he came up with was a new design based around all the holes standing open until closure was needed. This required different spacing of the toneholes than flutes had been made with for literally hundreds of years. This new spacing, in turn, required a new fingering system and a mechanism to enable that fingering system to be practical and useful.

Pictured below is the right hand mechanism of a flute made by Clair Godfroy (#1005) (more pictures of this flute can be found here). This is a close approximation of Boehm’s 1832 design and the primary problem in need of a solution can be seen in the picture. This problem is keys mounted on 2 parallel hinges with different axes of rotation that must, nonetheless, work together. There are reasons for this design that will probably require its own article. Suffice it to say, this was the design and this was the problem needing fixing which ultimately led to more improvements.

In the picture above, the 3 rings can be identified as the D, E, and F, and the strange looking pad cup on the right is the F#. The F# is affixed to the same hinge as the E and D rings, and thusly closes when either of those rings are depressed. But the key must also close when the F ring is pressed. The solution is the arm that reaches over the top of the F# pad cup. The late flute historian, David Shorey, dubbed these arms “vaulted clutches”. Technically, they are not clutches, as will be seen shortly, but the name has been established and most in that field of study know what is meant by the term.

Improvements on a Theme

The Boehm 1832 flute design was reconstructed faithfully by many of the major makers in Europe. The Godfroy (and Louis Lot) shop was one shop that largely duplicated Boehm’s model and mechanism. Rudall & Rose in London was another. But some makers took it on themselves to improvise and improve upon things that the flute making powerhouses were not. As shown above, the shop of Martin Freres went over the top with precision in the linkages, but various members of the Buffet family went well beyond that.

The Buffet family was a large family with many siblings, uncles, and cousins who were all in the instrument making business, but their businesses were all separate. It is with the instruments of the various branches of the Buffet family that we see the development of the clutch mechanism.

To understand the clutch mechanism in woodwind keys, we must return to last week’s article in the section on Linked or Timed mechanisms. In those mechanisms we have linked keys and operator keys. In a clutch mechanism, the linked key is secured to the hinge steel and the operator keys are floating freely on the hinge. This means if that hinge steel rotates, the linked key rotates. In order to make that hinge (and by extension the linked key) rotate, the operator keys need something to push against. These points where the operator keys push to rotate the hinge are called clutches, and the clutches are also secured to the hinge.

Now, if you have been paying attention to previous articles and trying to get your head around this one, there may be some confusion. Previously I have mentioned that mechanisms were either solid and supported at the ends by pivot screws, or they were hollow and supported internally by a hinge rod. Clutch mechanisms are both. The keys are hollow on a hinge rod, but the hinge rod plays at being the solid hinge supported on the ends by pivot screws. Clear as mud?

Back to the Buffet family.

Remember, the issue with Boehm’s mechanical design was the supposed need for hinges running on both sides of the toneholes, which created this complication of the vaulted clutch. Around about the same time (1836-1840ish) instruments came out of the shops of Auguste Buffet and Jean-Louis Buffet that addressed this problem but in slightly different ways.

Auguste Buffet worked with the flutist Victor Coche to create one design where the hinge line was more or less unified from one end of the instrument to the other, but it was positioned on what we would call the front side of the instrument. This mechanism featured clutch mechanisms with the linked keys secured to the hinge with tapered pins

Auguste’s nephew, Jean-Louis also was producing flutes at the time. His flutes also had clutch mechanisms which were beautifully precise in their design and execution (arguably, overly-precise design at the expense of simplicity). The linked keys on the examples I have studied were secured to the hinge by a screw that passed through the hinge rod. Jean-Louis, who married Zoe Crampon in 1836 (creating the firm Buffet-Crampon between 1839 and 1844), mounted his hinge array on the back side of the flute, similar to what we see today.

Somehow, like a Reese’s peanut butter cup, the best ideas from these two designs came together into the application of the clutch mechanism we can see on flutes today. The back side mounting of the mechanisms of Buffet-Crampon won out, but the less elaborate clutch mechanism and pinned assembly of Uncle Auguste established a firm hold as well. (Tapered pins are superior to “pinning screws” where precision is required) In 19th century France, patents (brevets d’invention) were granted for periods of 5, 10, or 15 years. Patent protection could explain major makers like Godfroy and Lot sticking with the old Boehm design through the 1840’s even though something better was out there; plus there was a virtual explosion of clutch mechanisms applied to many woodwinds starting in the 1850’s.

One last note on Clutch Mechanisms

With any clutch mechanism there needs to be a way to make fine adjustments, The 2 keys linked together must close together precisely or the instrument will not function as it should. One of these ways is the use of adjustment screws. The other is often called a “hard adjustment” where some sort of material is installed in the critical contact point and sanded to precise thickness.

There is some flawed conventional wisdom today that the presence of adjustment screws is an indicator of reduced quality. While many student instruments do make use of adjustment screws in their clutch mechanisms, many of the top makers a century ago did too, as do many of the Japanese makers today.

Notes on the Buffet Family
The use of Jean-Louis’s wife’s name in the company did not mean there was a husband/wife partnership. This was a common naming convention in France at the time. Husbands would often attach their wife’s family name to theirs so that they were better differentiated from relatives. For example, Jean-Louis’s father Denis identified himself as Buffet-Auger. Jean-Louis Buffet-Crampon and his Uncle Auguste may have been family, but they were also rivals in business. This was probably the primary reason for adopting the name Crampon.

By the 1840’s Auguste Buffet had turned his attention toward clarinets, having done some reworking of bass clarinets in the 1830’s. Around 1847 he worked with Hyacinthe Klose to reconfigure the clarinet based around his experience with Boehm’s flute design. They called it the the “Boehm System” clarinet, even though Boehm was not consulted and had little interest in clarinets.

Adolphe Sax’s Contribution

Also from a family of instrument makers, Antoine (later adopting Adolphe) Sax came from Dinant, Belgium. Sax is known for improvements for many instruments in his early career, including reshaping the bass clarinet (he devised the curved neck and bell we know today) and improvements in rotary valves in brass instruments. Perhaps of the most value to Sax’s development into the instrument maker he would become was his work on making ophicleids, a keyed brass instrument, in different pitches. While his father Joseph was a flutemaker of some reknown, Adolphe tended to lean towards instruments of a larger scale and made of metal.

His namesake instrument was developed for exhibition by 1840 and patented in 1844. Remember this is the time when Boehm’s 1832 model flute was gaining attention and the members of the Buffet family (and others) were making improvements on the mechanisms. Sax’s work on ophicleids had given him great experience with keyed instruments and the combination of this with Boehm’s flute concepts contributed heavily to the development of the saxophone and its mechanism.

Since the size of Sax’s instrument was larger and more robust dimensions of materials were being used for keys, he was able to employ design principles the makers of smaller instruments could not.

Sax’s multi-key mechanism was largely constructed on hollow hinges where everything could move freely on the hinge, in contrast to the clutch mechanism where certain parts were fixed to the steel hinge. Operator keys have contact points that either lift of depress a bridge bar connected to the linked key. If the contact is on the opposite side of the hinge from the pad/touch, the operator key lifts the bridge par. If the contact is on the same side of the hinge, it depresses the bridge bar.

Sax’s rugged and simple design was a winner and endures to this day. The current challenge as I see it with the application of Sax’s mechanism is for makers who use it on saxophones and similar sized instruments to fully realize the potential the design has to offer. Improved precision, better balance and weight distribution, and more consistent fabrication standards are all places makers using this design can improve.

There are pros and cons to everything and over many years in the late 19th century, more than a few flute makers tried to apply Sax’s mechanism to flutes in hopes of finding something better that would set them apart from the crowded marketplace. The problem was that the smaller you make a mechanism, the more precise things have to be for it to function well. Sax’s mechanism as applied to flutes was either a dismal failure or far too labor intensive to be sustainable. In anything less than the most extremely precise crafting of it, it came out far worse than the precision offered by the pinned clutch mechanism.

With the advent of new fabrication processes and techniques in the 21st century, the reduced scale Sax mechanism became possible on flute-sized instruments.

Johan Brögger
Professional flute players or fixers are likely familiar with the Brögger Mechanik or the Brögger System flutes offered by some makers. Johan Brögger of Copenhagen devised a way to incorporate a new type of hinge into flute mechanisms.

As mentioned in prior articles, the king post on flutes is the central point that keeps the mechanisms stable in relation to the toneholes and between the left and right hand mechanisms. The king post almost invariable acted as one end of pair of pivot screws supporting the steel hinge within the pinned clutch mechanism. Brögger’s design got rid of the pinned clutch for a Sax-style bridge bar mechanism, used all hollow hinge keys, and the highly precise steel hinge was incorporated into the king post function.

I am out of memory space for this article to include more pictures, but perhaps I will be able to revisit this topic more in the future. What matters the most is the degree of precision required for such mechanisms to work reliably on a flute-sized instrument is simply off the hook. Since Brögger’s patents have expired, everybody and their brother seems to be getting in on the “pinless” mechanism design on flutes. Not all of them are doing it well. In fact, some I have seen have been done quite poorly.

As with adjustment screws being a misattributed portent of low quality, do not assume a “pinless” mechanism necessarily means it is high quality.

Pinless vs. Pinless
In recent years, the flutes made by Pearl have been advertised as “pinless”. Technically this is true. There are no tapered pins holding the clutches to the hinge rod. Instead they use tiny set screws that clamp on to the hinge rod. But this is still a clutch mechanism.

The difference is in the Brögger/Sax mechanism, there are no clutches forcing the hinge to rotate. The hinge is screwed into one of the terminal posts and does not rotate. Instead, all of the keys involved are intended to move freely on that stationary hinge.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a professional woodwind repair shop in Baltimore, MD. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com for more information or to schedule your repair.

Basic Mechanism Operation

Almost all mechanisms function in one of 2 ways: you press the key and something opens, or you press the key and something closes. This goes for single key mechanisms all the way up to the complicated goldberg-esque contrivances of the early 20th century.

So let’s look at the most basic sort of mechanism, which is a single key. Every woodwind has these. In both variations (push to open or push to close) the key has a bit of bumper material under the point where the key will contact the body, a post, or another key. This bumper material serves 2 purposes. It stops the clickies, and it controls how much the key vents.

A key venting insufficiently, or too much, can cause response, voicing, and tuning issues. Venting can be changed by using a thinner or thicker bumper material, modifying the bumper material that is there, or changing the geometry of the key. Changing the geometry of the key (read: bending) is a valid technique in the right situations when performed by an experienced technician. Some technicians choose “never bend a key” as the hill they will die on. My hill is “the only absolute condition is there are no absolutes”.

For more on the ins and outs of key corks, read my previous article on the topic here:

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Dependent Leverage Mechanisms

I don’t know if this term has been used before or if it is even the best term to describe this sort of mechanism, but it is what I came up with for right now so we’ll take it for a spin and see how it handles the corners.

A dependent leverage mechanism in this context is basically a lever that engages a single key. For example, such mechanisms appear on flute Briccialdi Bb thumb keys (your typical thumb key—you’re welcome for the trivia), clarinet left hand F/C keys, oboe left hand F keys (technically a 3 part example), most saxophone side C keys, and bassoons (which can get quite complicated) have a good example in the low Bb key if taken in isolation.

These keys are in 2 parts where the part that is touched has no direct contact with a tonehole, but moves to act on a second key that does. The configuration and geometry of different parts of this type of mechanism have a major effect on transmission of power (mechanical advantage) as well as translating a small finger movement on one end into a large key movement on the other, or v.vs.

There could be bumper material on one of the keys or both of the keys. There could be a need for critical dimensions of material to be maintained in the contact point or linkage between the 2 pieces. Every situation is different for every type of instrument, and sometimes there are differences in needs between makes of the same instrument, or even between eras of production of the same make.

Timed or Linked Mechanisms

This sort of mechanism is similar to the dependent leverage set up in there there are multiple parts that work together. Where it differs and gets more complex is that more than one moving part has to cover its own tonehole.

The clip above shows this type of mechanism where the left most key (F#) is able to move independently but is controlled by its neighbors and must close in precise timing with them. We will call a key normally pressed by the finger the operator key and the one no finger touches the linked key.

These sorts of mechanisms can look simple, but are often fraught with land mines, snake-filled pit traps, and other similar obstacles that can make things not work quite right. So much of making these mechanisms work well and feel good comes down to the prep work before the pads went in (tonehole prep, key fitting) and the fundamental build quality of the instrument. This particular saxophone in the clip has JS Black Gold pads installed, which are among the most finicky and unforgiving pads out there (but worth it). In order for these pads to work reliably in this instrument I had to go far far beyond the factory specs in every regard.

These mechanisms can be configured in a few different ways. The operator key could have a touch piece that overlaps the linked key or has some sort of tab connection which pushes the linked key. I’ll call these Top-side connections. There could be a bridge bar (not to be confused with bridge keys) or connector bar built into the linked key that the operator key or keys push against. Lastly, there could be some sort of clutch mechanism where the linked key is attached to the hinge along with clutches or cams which the operator key(s) push against.

At this point in the article, unless you are a technician and familiar with all of these mechanisms I am describing, I invite you to pull out your instrument to see if you can identify certain features.

Direct Top-side Connections
These can be easy to spot. Generally any place you see one key overlapping another with a chunk of felt or cork in between would fit this description. Flute and piccolo thumb mechanisms, clarinet pinky F#/C# or E/B connected to the F/C key, saxophone A to bis key linkage, or bassoon left hand thumb cluster. Oboes are a bit thin on this sort of mechanism in isolation but we could look at the low Bb lever also pushing on the low B, but this can get really complex and contradictory in a hurry so just nod.

Bridge/Connection Bar Mechanisms

The clip above shows an example of the bridge bar or connector bar mechanism. Most commonly the bridge bar is on the opposite side of the hinge form the pad cups, but on smaller instruments it can appear in between the pad cups and the hinge. Each of the right hand keys lift the connector bar to close the key covering the tonehole at the top of the frame. All of these keys share the same hinge steel and the key with the connector bar makes it possible for multiple operator keys to move the same linked key. This was a design of Adolphe Sax in the 1840’s and endures to this day despite the number of ways makers and technicians try to mess it up.

Key fit on such mechanisms is of the highest importance for reliable operation. Typically such keys with bridge bars meet the hinge at more than one point. The bridge bar is getting force applied to it from more than one point. If the key is not fit very precisely, the pressure from one operator key will close the linked key differently than from a second or third operator key. An additional wrinkle, especially with older saxophones or large clarinets, is the metal in the linked key could have lost its rigidity with age so the whole key is flexing, giving different results based on leverage specifics.

Clutch Mechanisms
Most commonly seen today on flutes and piccolos (and some oboe applications), clutch mechanisms originated in the 1830’s. The original multi-key clutch mechanisms were connections between 2 independent keys on separate hinges—press key 1 over here to cover a tonehole and some linkage makes key 2 do the same thing over there. The development of the pinned clutch allowed the mechanisms to be consolidated on to the same hinge. My research suggests members of the Buffet family were the first to use a pinned clutch mechanism in flutes in the mid-late 1830’s.
Flute players will be familiar with pins as annoying little nubs that stick out that may occasionally snag your sweater or polishing cloth. But these annoyances have a crucial purpose. The pins are used to secure multiple parts of the mechanism to the steel hinge so they can all move together (these are the linked keys) while the operator keys float freely on the hinge. It is important that the pins protrude a little bit because the mechanism must be disasembled for maintenance. If the pins are ground flat you will likely feel a great disturbance in The Force when your tech tries to get everything apart.

In the pinned clutch mechanisms, the pins are tapered and precisely fit to a matching continuous tapered hole though the key, then the steel, and the opposite side of the key. If the tapers do not match, the fit of the pin will not be secure and the connection will wobble, resulting in adjustments failing to hold.

Some oboe mechanisms use a clutch design, but traditionally many makers use tiny screws rather than pins. Screws are imprecise since there will always be a slight tolerance gap between the internal and external threads. Fortunately, the places where this feature appears on oboes is on the ancillary lever mechanisms and does not directly effect how a pad may cover a tonehole.

If there is an adjustment screw on a flute mechanism, this is typically to engage with a pinned clutch. Players should not mess with adjustment screws unless they know what they are doing. In lieu of adjustment screws, “hard” adjustments are done often with tiny pieces of paper, cork, leather, or other materials in small hard-to-reach places under the pad cup arms.

Bridge Keys (not bridge bar keys)

Players of instruments that come apart in the middle will be familiar with bridge keys. Primarily, clarinets, oboes, and bassoons will have these as a prominent feature. In most instruments today there are mechanisms that have an action initiated at one end of the instrument that does something far at the other end. I have already described several potential ways of making this work, but what about if the instrument has to be taken apart in the middle? This is where the bridge keys come in.

The bridge keys will bridge the gap between the joints or sections of the instrument. This allows the right hand to do something that actuates something on the left hand’s area of control. Bridge keys should always be aligned the same way each time (only if you want the same results, of course) and care should be made to prevent the top and bottom parts of the bridge from colliding upon assembly or disassembly of the instrument.

Flutes and saxophones can also be considered to have bridge keys even though they don’t come apart in the middle. Typically these are the mechanisms needed to play 1/1 Bb. Something pressed on the right hand actuates something in the left hand’s area of control. If the instruments came apart in the middle they would need an actual bridge key too.

I feel there is a need to expand more on the evolution of mechanisms, particularly in flutes. It will make this edition excessively long, so I will likely do a flute-centric supplemental on this topic next week.

One Special Flute Feature

One feature unique to flute and piccolo mechanisms in the use of a King Post. On every other woodwind, the right hand and left hand mechanisms are hinged either on opposite sides of the instrument or are separated by a physical break between the sections and a bridge key. On modern flutes (well, post-1850), the left and right hand mechanisms are all in the same line. Literally, if you sight down the instrument you will see one continuous line of key hinges and posts from one end to the other.

In the middle of the line of mechanisms, at the point where the left hand and right hand mechanisms meet, is the King Post. The king post is the central location where the bottom of the left hand mechanism and the top of the right hand mechanism lock in place and come together.

I will likely talk more about the king post in next week’s article, but for now it is important to know that the health and condition of the king post is crucial to the precision of the mechanisms as a whole. There should be no wiggle of the mechanisms at the king post. If the king post becomes worn, adjustments will not hold well, some things will never be able to be made perfect, and the longevity of the instrument between shop visits will be dramatically impacted. Just today I spent 4-5 hours repairing and fitting the right hand mechanism side of this king post.

Lost motion

This is a funny term, because if anything, it is found motion. Some people refer to this as “play” in mechanisms. By either term it refers to unwanted movement in the connections between keys. This can happen by bumper material compression or falling off. It can happen by something in the mechanism being bent. It can happen from a screw starting to back out. Sometimes (in very extreme rare situations, you hypochondriacs) it can happen from wood instruments changing with temperature or humidity.

Sometimes lost motion is inconsequential—an issue of tactile cosmetics. Other times it can cause the instrument to malfunction. The malfunction could be a key opening too far so the voicing or intonation gets weird, or it could be 2 linked keys not being linked as correctly as they should. Either way, the sudden appearance of lost motion doesn’t feel good under the fingers and can be distracting.

Occasionally, there are places where lost motion is either expected, not viewed as a bad thing, or the design of the instrument prevents it from being remedied without complications. Oboes are a good example of instruments where getting rid of lost motion is way down the list of priorities. In fact, on many oboes if you get rid of all the lost motion, the venting and voicing of the oboe will likely be off.

Most of the time lost motion appears between 2 keys where there is some sort of bumper material. Sometimes it can appear within a mechanism due to wear. A good example of this lost motion internal to a mechanism is in some saxophone octave mechanisms. Wear on the dimensions of some components can result in an octave mechanisms that feels lousy and doesn’t work right. It is not uncommon for technicians to address a symptom of this lost motion problem and not the root cause.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a professional woodwind repair shop in Baltimore, MD. For more information, to contact Jeff, or to schedule a repair, visit www.woodwindfixer.com.

A mechanism in a woodwind instrument is the arrangement of keys and levers that transmits the force from the player’s muscle power to close or open a tonehole. The objective is for this power transmission to happen as efficiently and consistently as possible. A mechanism could be a series of connected keys and levers, it could be a pair of linked keys, or it could be a single key. When I refer to a mechanism, I am referring to any keys, hinge elements, and clutch components involved. (Technically, springs, pads, and even tone holes could be considered part of this system as well, but we will leave those out for now.)

Hinge Elements

In the basic hinge elements we need to consider to understand how your instrument works, there are 3. The first is the basic type of key. Second, the type of support for that key. Third, the body support components.

When speaking of the type of key, I am referring to the piece of cylindrical material to which other parts of the key are attached. Some call it the key axle, some call it the key hinge, some call it the hinge barrel, some just grunt and point. (Grunt and point is always the most concise and creates the least amount of confusion.) Whatever the nomenclature or label, this part of the key is going to be one of 2 types: it is either going to the be solid material or hollow.

The type of support is going to be dependent on what type of key it is. Hollow keys are going to have a hinge rod, sometimes called an arbor, axle, or steel. Hinge rods can be under an inch long to over a foot on certain instruments. Most instruments today use hinge rods that have a thread on one end that engages with a post to screw in place. Straight rods with no threads were common on older instruments and there may be some bassoon makes that still use unthreaded rods, but I am not sure. Solid keys are going to be supported on the ends by pivot screws.

The hinge rods and pivot screws are going to be supported from the body of the instrument by posts, sometimes called pillars. The posts are most commonly located at either end of a mechanism but there can be intermediary posts that support the mechanism in the middle.

All of these elements must fit together properly and appropriately for the mechanism to function as it should. Hollow key hinge components, both the steel inner part and the non-ferrous outer part, need to be uniformly straight and fit to a reasonable tolerance. The higher the level of refinement of the instrument the tighter the tolerance of this fit. Pivot screws often have a specific geometry and that geometry should be duplicated in the ends of solid key hinges. Not all makers provide a matching profile in the ends of the keys, and others choose to use pivot screw shapes of limited utility for precision. Ends of keys should be square, as should faces of posts to provide consistent feel and prevention against wear. Posts should be properly positioned and aligned so that there is no tension imparted on the hinge steel or keys.

The Key Hinge

Based on a simple count in my head, the majority of woodwind keys have hollow tubes. This style key has beneficial features in that the hollow tube reduces weight and it allows multiple keys and components to be strung together in a line on the same hinge rod. The main enemy of this sort of mechanism is dirt, debris, and rust. Over time (sometimes less than a year) the oil in the mechanism can evaporate or run out leaving the steel unprotected, or the oil can oxidize and get gummy and sludgy. If a little bit of rust forms or some gummy oil accumulates some dust, it can abrade away both the steel and the key making for a very expensive repair to restore the proper key fit.

(HINT: regular service)

Another common concern of these mechanisms is alignment and straightness of the tube. As pictured below, some keys are designed with a gap for other keys to fit in. These keys will be discussed in more detail in a future article, but for right now it is important to understand that the two sections of the key must be in perfect alignment for the key to move properly.

One of the most overlooked points of damage on hollow hinge tubes is the slight crimping or collapsing of the tube due to a bend or impact. The difference between the outer diameter (OD) of the steel and the inner diameter (ID) of the hinge tube is usually less than 0.001”. We’ll stick with 0.001” for a moment even though that is extremely loose fitting. This difference means there is a gap of 0.0005” all the way around the steel. A Post-it note is 0.004” thick so you would have to cut that thickness in half, and then in half again, and then in half again to get something thin enough to represent that gap. It doesn’t take much to mess that up and have the tube impinge on the steel.

Such impingement will adversely affect the action of the mechanism. Many people assume it is a spring problem. Issues with springs occur far less often than these simple bends, kinks, and build up of gunk in the mechanisms.

Hinge Rods

As pictured above with the flute key, a hinge rod is generally threaded on one end and has a slot for a screwdriver. They are most often made of some sort of steel alloy (sometimes stainless) although some vintage instruments, particularly some bassoons, would use material for hinges made of nickel for greater lubricity.

Hinge rods should be straight and clean without any scratches, gouges, or rust divots. Imperfections can become safe havens for dirt and debris and cause problems later.

Just as hinge tubes can be bent, so can steel hinge rods. It is common for an instrument to take a bump and the key itself sustains no lasting deformation, but the steel inside does. As your imagination may suggest, if you slide a straight tube onto a bowed or bent internal rod, it probably will not move too well.

Pivot Screws

Every instrument make and sometimes different models in the same brand will have different pivot screws. The picture below shows the first 4 packages of saxophone screws I could select out of my collection. There are many many more.

Notice that the tips of all these screws are quite different. It is a very good bet that the ends of the keys they connect to are all different too. In case you can’t squint well enough, the threads are all different too. This means that pivot screws are not interchangeable. This is most certainly true between instruments, but it can also be true on the same instrument.

All moving parts on instruments are subject to wear. The more space there is in the connection between contact points, the greater the potential for wear. Pivot screws are notorious for being of less than stellar fit so they can wear significantly, especially on instruments that are not maintained regularly. When pivot wear happens, the screw on one end of a key will have a different wear pattern than the screw on the other end. Switching the screws may cause the key to bind up or even cause the pad to not meet the tonehole as it did before.

In addition to wear, pivot screws can be damaged quite easily. Yes, they are steel, but there are small dimensions at play and they can be very delicate.

Posts

The posts on a woodwind instrument are what keep the keys aligned and landing in the same spot every time. The condition of the posts is the most overlooked part of the mechanism and often the element that harbors the most compromises and problems.

The biggest deficiency I see in posts is the size of the hole through them. For precise mechanisms the fit of the rod through the post needs to be at least as fine as the rod through the key. Preferably it should be a tighter fit. The smaller the clearance tolerance between the post and hinge rod, the more challenging precise alignment becomes.

Misaligned posts can cause a whole host of mechanism action and feel issues, not to mention difficulties in properly adjusting the mechanisms. Posts misaligned as in the dramatization pictured above can actually influence bows in the steel in between the posts.

After posts are correctly aligned, they must be faced to be perpendicular to the axis of the hinge. Any time a post is realigned or refit, this must be checked and addressed as needed.

Posts on metal instruments are generally mounted in 2 ways. The posts are either soldered in place individually or in small clusters, or the bulk of the posts are assembled on to a rib plate or strap and then the rib/strap is soldered to the body in precise alignment.

For wood instruments posts are either surface mounted or mounted into the body. Most piccolos have surface mounted posts which are soldered to rib straps and then the straps are screwed down to the body in a precise location. On clarinets and oboes, the posts are often installed into the body material. Precise holes are drilled in the body as the instrument is being made and the holes are either threaded to accept a matching thread on the post, or the post has a smooth pin which fits in a precisely drilled hole and is held in place by a locking screw. Threaded posts have the potential to turn as the wood changes dimensions and the grip of the thread weakens. Older instruments with threaded posts can sometimes be a can o’ worms to repair well.

When these 3 elements of a woodwind mechanism are in good condition and working cooperatively, the action of the keys can be beautifully precise and efficient. If there are deficiencies in any of the elements the instrument may function but it will feel “clunky” and have increased potential for wear.

Next week: More details about mechanisms and how they work.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop for pro woodwind players in Baltimore, MD. Jeff has a reputation of introducing woodwinds and players to a previously unknown level of precision. The JWS 2026 overhaul schedule is open for appointments. Half of the spots have been claimed already. To secure your spot visit www.woodwindfixer.com.

Please read that series for details I may gloss over or omit here.

As touched on in last week’s article (and previous ones), woodwinds have toneholes positioned at specific places on the instrument to allow for the production of different pitches. These positions and size of the holes are determined by mathematical ratios and formulas which rely heavily on the geometry of the instrument’s full tube. Holes are usually not positioned with the shape, size, and flexibility of the player’s fingers in mind.

The design around anatomy used to be the case. Instruments were designed so that fingers could cover the holes. This was fine for smaller instruments, but as the instruments got larger to create lower sounds, holes needed to be spaced farther apart. Instrument makers came up with all sorts of work arounds, such as toneholes made on steep angles to the bore so that the fingers remained close together but the interior place where the toneholes met the bore were spaced farther apart. Such angled toneholes are still commonplace on modern bassoons.

Instrument makers could only push these modifications so far before compromises in response and tone quality became too much to deal with. In order to facilitate longer reaches to cover holes the fingers could not reach, the mechanical devices we know as keys were implemented.

For a more detailed history of the evolution of pads, see my previous articles on the topic.

Suffice it to say, these new mechanical appendages or extensions of the fingers needed some way to cover the toneholes in a similar way to the fingers. Human fingers have a bit of squish to them and for a long time that quality of hole covering, and indeed the amount of material protrusion into the top of the tonehole from the squish, was the goal in pad choice and application. Now, I don’t think that instrument makers had a chart of notable players’ finger tip measurements and notes about if their fingers were firm, supple, or callused. They were simply trying to duplicate the effect. A legato passage played on an instrument with bare fingers on the holes will often be easier to make perfectly seamless and smooth transitions between notes than when played with pad-covered holes. This is one of those if-you-know-you-know sorts of things and clarinet players are likely nodding along right now.

The problem with this traditional standard has 3 parts. First, fingers are imperfect. They literally leak through the fingerprints. Everyone’s fingers are different and even the squishiness of a single person’s fingers can change in a short period of time simply due to hydration and salt intake. There is no uniformity to rely on. Second, due to the variance of people’s anatomy and physiology where a certain amount of squish into the tonehole and leakage through the fingerprint can define how well an instrument plays, designers and engineers are dealing with built in compromises. By applying this standard to tonehole covering, they are limited in the amount of precision they can impart on the design and manufacture of the instrument. Third, while human fingers are imperfect and changeable, the pads with properties intended to replicate them are even more so.

This imperfect model has been the basis for techniques for “how to install a pad” for as long as pads have been around, but very few technicians or instrument makers understand or even ask, “why do we do it this way?” In the 21st century, this moving target of padding standards is changing.

Toneholes

Before we get to how things are changing, we have to discuss the other half of the equation: the toneholes. Having a pad that approximates the seal and feel of a human finger is great, but it has to contact against something. That something is the tonehole rim.

Toneholes come in many shapes and in as many materials as instruments are made of. The one universal feature all toneholes should have is that they are flat. If you have read my previous articles, you may have a sense of my feelings on mechanical precision and accuracy. Based on my standards and what I expect of myself, I have yet to see a woodwind emerge from a production facility that did not need some improvement on the flatness of the toneholes. This includes makers of very expensive hand made flutes. For the most part, the tonehole flatness is not bad, but it has some ways to go in refinement. The instrument makers who use mechanized processes for tonehole facing tend to have toneholes with the most deviation from flat.

Why does flat matter?

When a tonehole is not flat, the burden falls on the pad to fill up that void. If the non-flat area is only a very small amount, perhaps the material of the pad is squishy enough to conform to that dip or compress around the high spots. Perhaps the pad installer can manipulate the support structure of the pad to jack up the pad to confrom to that low spot. There are any number of techniques and dirty tricks pad installers can use to get around this suboptimal condition of the tonehole.

The more a pad is manipulated, the more a pad is shimmed, the more a pad has a “pad seat” imposed on it, the more unstable it is. Plus, as discussed in earlier articles, the pad is the most unstable part of the instrument (after the player). Why add things to introduce even more instability? Flat toneholes are a benefit to the padding process and, in my shop, an absolute necessity.

Tonehole Challenges

I do not necessarily fault the instrument makers for putting out instruments with toneholes that are not to my standards. It comes back to the business adage that the last 10% of need on the way to perfection will take 90% of the time. So they get the toneholes 90% of the way there—some more, some less.

It’s a business decision rooted in the market economy. If a company wants to sell their instrument for $8000, they can’t have their workers (who I hope are getting a living wage for their skills) spend 10-20 hours just obsessing over toneholes. But they can have them spend 1-2 hours and get them pretty good, maintaining their price point to be competitive in the process. I do not fault them for this. It will be addressed when the instrument goes for its first overhaul. Some new instruments require overhauls sooner than others due to the tonehole condition and padding games played to accommodate it.

There are challenges baked into tonehole design and how one goes about dealing with them properly.

Flatness and Flexing Metal

The first has to do with the nature of metal bodies and how they flex and distort under pressure. Don’t worry, your flute or saxophone isn’t going to deform like play dough, but the metal does have the ability to flex. It almost always returns to its original shape (look up modulus of elasticity for some bed time reading) but the fact that it does indeed flex is the point.

This is most profound in operations where the toneholes are faced and flattened by machine. Study the picture above on the Jeff’s Woodwind Shop Board of Explainin’. Toneholes are mounted on or drawn from round surfaces (body tubes). When pressure is applied to the face of the tonehole by a machine (or heavy handed technician) the body tube is going to flex but the rim of the tonehole does not get “pushed down” (for lack of a better description) uniformly because the walls of the tonehole are meeting the body tube at different angles. The body tube flexes in different amounts and often in different directions based on the angle with which the tonehole meets the body. Then when pressure is released, the body unflexes and the tonehole returns to its prior level of elevation, but with more material removed from different parts of the tonehole face than others—cuz uneven flexing.

Keep in mind, this flexing of the body tube is nothing to worry about. If it could be measured accurately it would be very very small about of movement. However, when you are trying to establish a flat plane, it doesn’t help when the high spots keep ducking.

Technicians preparing toneholes run into this as well. If they are in a hurry, of their abrasive is getting worn out or loaded up, they can press a little harder than they should, flexing the tonehole and the body and making a lot less progress than they had intended.

When I am working on hand made flutes and want to establish a pristine degree of flatness, I try not to apply any more pressure than the weight of my tool, and some tools are forbidden in the final stages because they are too heavy. Beyond that, I have to double check the toneholes near the foot joint when assembled (cuz flexing) and scrutinize all of them approximating playing position. When I am applying similar standards to saxophones, I always do my final super-precise facing with the instrument hanging from the neck strap (cuz flexing).

This degree of obsessiveness is not always warranted nor recommended, but if a technician or maker does seek to establish truly flat toneholes, then this a major variable that is overlooked.

Wood Toneholes

Toneholes on wood instruments provide different challenges. Yes, they still have to be flat, but the big challenge comes from the wood itself and its grain. As we know, the grain of the wood generally runs lengthwise. Wood grain can expand and contract, usually in the presence of moisture, and guess who is really good at putting moisture through a precisely crafted hunk of wood?

Fortunately the tone woods used for most modern instrument are among the most dense woods in the planet and are highly resistant to moisture. Highly resistant is not the same as impervious. If you want impervious, get a plastic instrument. So when the grain inevitably exposes what we call “checks” where the grain is more pronounced, when this happens at or near the rim of a tonehole, it can cause problems.

If the grain check is large enough, or if it borders on being labeled a crack, it doesn’t matter how perfectly flat the tonehole rim is or how well the pad is installed. The air will simply seep out through the void created by the check, bypassing the formerly perfect seal. Sometimes checks can appear on the surface near the tonehole rim, but not cross it and people assume it is ok for now. That check could act as a straw poking through the wood just below the tonehole rim.

If the tonehole is really chewed up, has large unruly hordes of grain checks, or has a crack going through the tonehole, the best durable solution is to bore out the the rim of the tonehole and replace it with a replacement rim. Pictured below is an example of a “replaced” tonehole on a bass clarinet for The United States Army Band I repaired several years ago. I prefer to use black polycarbonate, but technicians use what they are comfortable with, including different types of plastic, ebonite, or a clean piece of wood.

Tonehole shape

When I speak of tonehole shape, I am referring to the rim being either straight or rolled. Rolled toneholes are fairly commonplace on flutes. For over 100 years it is how most drawn toneholes have been finished. Among saxophonists, however, rolled toneholes have developed some sort of cult status where they exude magical powers of some sort.

The straight deal with rolled toneholes are they are a pain in the butt to work with if you are going for any sort of lasting precision. If you want your instrument to be preserved in original 1932 condition and not have the toneholes improved, then abandon all hope of the instrument being up to modern playability standards.

I say this because rolled toneholes are NEVER flat. More on that soon…

The theory of how rolled toneholes are supposed to interact with the pad is worthy of embracing. Remember from high school geometry (or calculus) class that a circle will have tangent points perpendicular to any radius, and that those tangent points are infinitely small. An infinitely small contact point on the the tonehole is the holy grail of woodwind padding. The problem is creating the rolls on the toneholes takes a good deal of mechanical force, and as discussed earlier, such forces on the toneholes will create flex in the body and the finished rolled rims will not be on a flat plane.

The rolled toneholes not being flat was not a huge deal back in the days of mercury treated felt. In fact, if not for these toxic pads, I am convinced there would have been a lot more turn over of instruments and models or brands that were written off as lemons. In order to pad an instrument with rolled toneholes using modern pads, the toneholes have got to be flat, at least a lot flatter than the factory specs. This means to create the flat plane, the infinitely small tangent point of contact will be destroyed. There is no way around this.

Rim width

I will not talk much on this because it can get very technical and detailed in a hurry (yes, even more technical than I have been thus far). As I mentioned just a moment ago, a curved tonehole surface can offer an infinitely small contact point. This is a good thing and it transfers over to non-rolled toneholes as well. On straight toneholes this means physically reducing the rim of the tonehole, often with the help of special tooling.

There is a myth floating around out there that narrow tonehole rims will cut pad skins. Poorly prepared toneholes can cut pad skins. Narrower rims with less contact area can actually allow the player to get a positive seal with less finger pressure. This allows for improved technique, less muscle exertion, and more crisp response. Plus, it is so so SO much easier to install pads on a narrow tonehole rim than a wide one.

On handmade flutes with soldered toneholes my goal is a contact rim approaching 0.003”. Rolled toneholes I aim for the range of 0.010-0.015”. Saxophones I aim for 0.015-0.020” wide. Wood instrument can be a lot more challenging to establish a uniform narrow rim, particularly if the wood is not cooperative. My goal on soprano clarinets, oboes, and piccolos is in the 0.005” range. A standard post-it note is 0.004” thick.

Why does all this matter?

In the last few decades, the precision of making woodwinds has really improved dramatically. What used to be almost exclusively hand work done with extreme precision by career artisans is more frequently mechanized for consistency. In order for the mechanized processes to make sense, the old traditional standard of fingers or pads squishing into toneholes just the right amount is disappearing. Great advances have been made in [ad technology and design, but these pad advancements are limited if improvements are not made in the proper finishing of toneholes.

The proper understanding, treatment, and preparation of toneholes is one of the most overlooked details in instrument repair and set-up. It is a process that, for the most part, only needs to be done once and once it is established as a bench mark can be used as a datum to improve standards in other aspects of woodwind repair and set-up. The proper resurfacing of toneholes can be an art in itself, as can pad installation. For the analytical and mechanically minded people, the way the mechanisms work on woodwinds may be of interest. Watch for next week’s article for that topic.

At the woodwindfixer’s bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a professional woodwind repair shop in Baltimore, MD. Jeff now has his 2026 overhaul schedule mapped out. There are only 10 overhaul spots for all of 2026 and several have been claimed already. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com to get in touch.

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The Fundamental Basis

The basis of all sound, including music sound is the sound wave. Sound waves make up everything we hear from traffic noise to a cat begging to be fed (again) to the sound of someone typing on a keyboard trying to ignore a duplicitous feline. The overwhelming majority of sounds we hear are non-musical. They are a complex array of sounds of different frequencies and wave forms. This combination and confluence of the different variables creates identifiable characteristic we can identify or learn to identify. This is how we can tell if someone dropped a metal spoon in the sink or a plastic spoon.

To back up a little, here are some definitions or explanations. Frequency is measured in hertz (hz) which denotes how many vibrations per second. A typical A tuning note is the sound wave cycling at a rate of 440 times per second. Higher frequency numbers mean a higher sounding pitch. Wave form refers to the shape a sound wave may take when plotted or viewed on an oscilloscope. Different wave forms produce different sound qualities. In general, pure wave forms are most applicable in regards to electronic music and synthesizers. Here is a link to a web page that has the sounds of pure wave forms.

To create musical sounds, often the first concern is pitch. It could be limited to general high-medium-low, or, with more refinement, specific frequencies can be created and duplicated. A longer length of vibration makes a lower pitch and a shorter one makes the pitch higher. In the case of woodwinds, this vibration is contained in the air column inside the bore of the instrument. The length of the entire tube creates the fundamental pitch and the holes covered by fingers and keys can be opened to simulate a shorter tube and create higher pitches.

The wave form is important to how an instrument sounds, but perhaps more important is the harmonic series. Knowledge of the acoustic harmonic series goes back thousands of years to ancient Greece. Plato wrote extensively on music and the harmonic series.

A discussion of the harmonic series in detail is beyond the scope of this article. The short version is that a pitch played on a non-digital musical instrument—let’s assume a low C— will have within its make up but inaudible to the human ear, an array of harmonics or overtones above that fundamental pitch. These overtones are all in ratios of whole numbers to the fundamental frequency. The first overtone is the fundamental’s frequency multiplied by 2, the next by 3, the next by 4, and so on. If these overtones were isolated and heard on their own, they would be a C an octave up, the G above that, and then the C 2 octaves above the fundamental. Remember, when playing the fundamental pitch of low C these overtones are not audible or distinguishable on their own, but they are nonetheless present in the sound; their various strengths make an instrument sound the way it does. Indeed, the strength of various harmonics can be influenced by a player’s physiology and oral cavity. This is why different players sound different or a particular player has “that sound” that is instantly recognizable.

One easy example is an alto saxophone has a very strong 1st, 2nd and 3rd overtone. By comparison, tenor saxophone has a weaker 1st overtone and much stronger 2nd. This is overly simplified and subjective to the player and instrument, but it could be a contributor to why an alto sax sounds different from a tenor sax. Likewise, an oboe sounds like an oboe because of a very strong presence of certain upper overtones. A clarinet, due to its bore configuration is physically missing harmonics. If one were to start numbering the harmonic series with the fundamental being 1, clarinets are missing all of the even numbered overtones. This is a large part of why a clarinet sounds like a clarinet.

I could get into a real rabbit hole here so I will leave the topic of the harmonic series with this scientific and musical truth: The harmonic series is imperfect, especially when overlayed on western musical traditions and western instruments. Since I hear the pedants sharpening their pencils or pitchforks, allow me to explain this statement. Yes, the harmonic series is a perfect mathematical ratio, and in things like electronic transmission this is important, but as applicable to music, it is only selectively perfect. There are natural harmonics that do not map to the western 12-tone scale.

How Woodwinds Work (sound-wise)

With percussion and string instruments the cause and function of the sound is easily visible. Something is struck, plucked, or bowed and the that something then vibrates. The kinetic energy of the players arm, wrist, or finger muscles cause the string, bar, or skin to vibrate, converting the kinetic energy into sound waves sent out into the surrounding atmosphere to be heard and appreciated by all.

Woodwinds are a bit different. In woodwinds and brass instruments instead of a vibrating string (or what have you) we have a vibrating column of air that transmits the sound to the world for accolades and appreciation. All natural sounds originate in some form of kinetic energy. In the case of wind instruments the kinetic energy comes from the air being expelled from the lungs. This air stream does nothing on its own. It must be forced past an excitation device of some sort. On reed instruments the excitation device is the properly crafted reed which may be on the appropriate mouthpiece. On brass instruments it is the buzzing of the player’s lips. On flutes it is the air stream being directed past a properly shaped edge in a head joint or a fipple.

Once the air acts on the excitation device, the kinetic energy of the air stream is transformed into sound energy. The sound energy then resonates in the air within the bore of the instrument and unconditionally delights all around.

How Sound Works

Most people get this wrong, so if you retain one bit of trivia from this article, make it this: Air does not flow through wind instruments. There is no function for flow dynamics or laminar modeling solutions in musical instruments. There may be coincidental similarities in cause/effect relationships between fluid dynamics and acoustic wave dynamics, but correlation is not causation.

One may find many AI answers and papers written on acoustics that reference fluid dynamics principles, but in my experience and understanding these are extremely advanced applications of aerospace engineering looking for a place to make sense in musical acoustics. To me, there is a lot of more basic research that has not been done that has more meaning to instrument makers and players. These hyper-advanced physics topics are like a genealogist talking about human genome sequencing techniques while we are still trying to find great grandma listed in the 1930 census.

To test this lack of air flow, track down a trumpet or trombone player with the biggest ego you can find. Don some ear protection, hold a lit match about 8 inches from the end of their bell, and invite them to blow their biggest fffff tone. The flame will barely flicker. If air flowed through the instrument, there would be no problem snuffing out that flame, but it does not. The kinetic energy of that air input is no longer a factor. It has all* been converted to sound energy and sound waves behave differently.

Here is a short video that shows how sound waves behave in closed systems like wind instruments.

The returning standing wave demonstrated first is what happens in all wind instruments. The sound waves start at the excitation device and travel down the instrument’s bore. When the sound waves reach the effective end of the instrument, they hit a pressure differential between the sound wave-influenced pressure inside the instrument and the open atmosphere. This pressure differential effectively creates the “closed” system, even though the end of the instrument is obviously open. At this point most of the sound waves reflect back into the bore of the instrument, just like the first demonstration in the video. This is why the screech trumpet player can’t blow out the birthday candles.

Now, they may be able to cheat. The point at which the sound waves turn around is not flush with the end of the instrument. It is usually a short distance beyond the end, so if they were to get the flame within those couple of inches of the end of the instrument, there may be enough turbulence to make the flame blow out.

The sound waves that are reflected back into the instrument’s bore will create a standing wave inside the confined air column. This standing wave will create interference patterns as it races back and forth in the bore and form nodes and antinodes. Nodes and anti nodes are relatively inconsequential to players, but are crucial for instrument designers and some technicians to understand. The positions of the nodes/antinodes can be calculated mathematically and have an influence on where to position toneholes for best response and pitch.

From the technical/repair side of the things, if there is a leak or even a structural anomaly or bit of debris at a node or anti node position, it can adversely affect pitch and response, even if the instrument is designed well with all of the toneholes positioned optimally. In general, the smaller the instrument (e.g. oboe, piccolo), the greater the effect such things can have. I have worked on piccolos with slight, seemingly insignificant flaws in the bore that made pitches of specific notes be off by almost a half step while surrounding ones were fine. On oboes, a slight leak in the left hand keys can match up with a nodal position for a note fingered far down in the right hand and pull it out of tune. I have encountered soprano and alto saxophones with chunky pad resonators that protruded too far into the toneholes and played all sorts of nasty games. It is not uncommon for clarinets or other instrument padded with the older squishier versions of synthetic pads to play quite differently when the pads collapsed and got “sucked in” to the toneholes.

A Topic for Reflection

This video (or any of many found if you type in “ripple tank”) shows the effect an obstacle has on wave patterns. Take note of what happens inside the concave obstacle and how busy the wave pattern becomes. This creates all sorts of potential for constructive and destructive interference (an advanced topic I did not cover—sorry), as well as new and more exotic locations of nodes and antinodes.

While it is unlikely to see such an obstruction smack in the middle of an instrument’s bore (ignoring saxophone players who drop their mouthpiece caps down the bell), there are all sorts of edges, contours, and corners throughout the bore of any instrument. The standing wave inside the instrument is not going to ignore the edge of a tube between joints, or a blob of solder, or the edge of a tonehole. Even build up of oxidation and the presence —or not— of scratches or finish pattern can influence how sound waves bounce around in the bore. The sound waves are going to reflect of those surfaces and edges and create an enormous amount of complexity and individuality. This is why every instrument is slightly different. Despite being made under very controlled and regimented processes, there will always be differences within the exacting tolerances.

Players who are very well assimilated to their instruments can tell if something has changed. I have had customers in the past who have instructed me specifically to not remove a dent in their instrument because after the dent went in they preferred how it played.

This is not to say I recommend going around bashing up your instrument to see if it makes it play better. That is silly. Also in the silly column is thinking that hearing about some modification that someone had done to their instrument will provide the same benefit to you and your instrument. Trying to maintain factory specs (dent-free, good condition bore) is always a good base line. Well-experienced technicians may have things in their bags of tricks that they know have proven to be beneficial improvements to the factory settings with predictable and quantifiable results. Such modifications are often highly personalized and can be a long evolution of infinitesimal increments until the player cries “hold! enough!”

Often a simple cleaning of the bore and taking care of small leaks is enough to make a huge amount of improvement in how an instrument plays. This is why regular service on your instrument is important.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop serving the musicians of the National Capital Region and beyond. Jeff’s 2026 overhaul calendar is now being populated with only a few spaces left before 2027. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com to get in touch.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Long ago in the mist shrouded past when heroes walked the land and … oh, stuff that. Back in the 1990’s…

I was apprenticed to a couple of technicians in a music store outside of Cleveland, OH and learning the fine balance of providing good customer service and not costing the company money in the process. One of the technicians was the owner of the store — a multi-generational family business — and had serious people skills. She could make anyone feel at ease and welcome, but kept a close eye on the return on that application of skill in the form of customer satisfaction and sales. Places where this discerning eye often came to rest were related to what type of instrument was accepted for repair.

There were certain brands of instruments we simply did not work on. They were poorly made instruments to start with, they were acoustically questionable, parts were unavailable or hard to come by, and repairing them always required more time than was expected with the result being an instrument that still played quite poorly. Dealing with these instruments was always a losing battle. You would spend all this time and never get an instrument that played well. If the instrument didn’t play well it did not bode well for the potential customer satisfaction. Best not to skip tra-la-la into that minefield in the first place.

The other repair technician who was training me was a subcontractor who did repairs out of the store 2-3 days a week. His main shop was a few towns to the east. He was much more pragmatic minded and often disagreed with the idea of turning away minor repairs. Everyone’s money was the same color. Discussions between the two techs often ended with the owner of the store pulling rank and saying, “but that is not how we do it here.”

One day, while the store owner was away, a customer came in with a flute that would have normally been gently turned away. The branding on the flute was not even in a western alphabet. I knew it was a non-starter and watched the person manning the counter try to diplomatically tell the customer we did not work on such instruments. It is a carefully honed customer service skill to tell someone you’re not going to work on their junk instrument without telling them it is a junk instrument. The subcontractor tech happened to be near the front counter and sauntered over to take a look at it and drop some knowledge. He listened to the description of the concern, spotted the likely cause, and despite the standing orders to not work on things like that, said, “be right back” and departed with the flute to the shop in the back of the store.

I watched over his shoulder as he described something about a misaligned post being the source of the ailment, spoke sagely about how sometimes you have to do little things like this to build more customer loyalty so that the next time they come back you can sell them a “real” flute more easily. It made sense. With the flute mounted on a wood mandrel he positioned a small dowel against the misaligned post and gave it a medium-light tap with a small rawhide mallet.

With that simple tap, which I had seen him do countless times on all sorts of instruments, half of the keys instantly fell off the body. It wasn’t that the keys came loose as they would if you took the screws out. The entire key mounting system of posts and ribs attached to the body detached as if only held on by glazed donut frosting and good intentions.

Both of us were in a bit of shock. The customer was waiting at the counter, the last thing they knew was the repair tech had taken their instrument in to the back to fix it (“be right back”), and now it was in pieces mostly on the floor of the shop.

To repair such a catastrophic failure would have required multiple hours of bench time and ended up costing double or triple the monetary value of the instrument. When he said “be right back”, it was a major faux pas. My friend ended up talking to the customer and replacing the flute that had fallen apart on him with a used name brand flute of known quality from his own inventory. It was not a comfortable conversation with the customer, but it all came out ok in the end. When the boss returned to the store, there was a big “I told you so” accompanied by “that’s why we do it this way in this store” for everyone to hear.

Techs turn down repairs all the time, but it is not limited to cheap junk that falls apart. Have you had a repair turned away? It is a more common occurrence and will likely be more prevalent in the future. Why is that?

Pig Ears and Chicken Soup

Turning away a repair is an increasingly common occurrence, but I refer to it in a broad sense. It is certainly not common for instruments like the one in the story to fall apart, spontaneously combust, or implode under dark forces from a black vortex of evil and hate. What I refer to more broadly is a potential repair that is unlikely to meet the expectations of the technician, the player, or both.

Technicians are faced with this sort of conundrum routinely: should I fix this or turn it away? Can it get it going for the player and if so will it be a waste of time and resources? Ultimately, am I going to lose money on this in the short and long term? Will this job threaten my reputation? Will turning away this repair threaten my reputation?

Most important to understand is that this sort of situation does not have to involve some sort of dubious import instrument of questionable quality. This can happen with top shelf, even hand made instruments that have been damaged or worn out. This can happen with midrange instruments where players expect more from them than they are designed or intended to provide.

A couple of sayings come to mind: You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, and, you shouldn’t make chicken soup from chicken poop.

You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.
In the first saying, essentially, you can’t make something of high quality out of something that is not able to provide that quality. It could be the best sample of a pig’s ear ever seen, it could be made into a very handsome wallet by a skilled tanner or tailor, but it will never be able to be a silk purse. Ever. Now, there’s a lot of daylight between the two and this can be confusing when applied to musical instruments. An intermediate saxophone looks much the same as a professional one. Likewise, a midrange clarinet has a striking resemblance to a professional model. But they are not the same.

Even if one were to compare 2 handmade flutes of the same make and similar vintage, if one were regularly maintained and the other spent its life going for repair only when things broke down, the latter suffering from excessive wear to the mechanical components will have become the sow’s ear in this comparison. It will never be able to regain the intended dimensions and tolerances demonstrated by the properly maintained example. It could maybe be restored to excellent precision at considerable cost, but there are limitations.

Every instrument is an individual case. If I am a specialist in Mollenhauer contrabassoons (I’m not), and an average repair costs $Whatever, it does not mean my default setting is to accept any Mollenhauer contra that comes in with any expectation of that price being representative or binding.

Application of this saying is all about tempering expectations. You have to know what you have in reality and compare it objectively to what you want the result to be. I have many customers who have decent midrange instruments but operate under the cognitive dissonance that they are on equal footing to professional model instruments. Objectively, they are not. These instruments are most certainly very fine instruments for the player’s needs as far as meeting them where they are in their budget and ability. But they are the sow’s ear in this tale and no matter how much they love their sow’s ear, once they start inquiring about qualities only found in a silk purse, there are limited options. If you are unsure of what you have on the scale between silk purse and sow’s ear, ask.

Don’t make chicken soup from chicken poop.
This is an easy concept to grasp. If you don’t have the proper ingredients, or if the ingredients are of questionable quality, the results will not be as you expect.

This is not to say that lesser instruments are “poop”. Well, to be honest, some are; but most, particularly instruments made by an established brand, are well made and reliable for what they are. What matters is that people do not conflate that an instrument being a make with a good reputation means that all offerings of that brand are of the same level of quality, precision. and durability. When people do not fully understand or (worse) choose to openly disregard the difference in levels of instruments, it sets up the playing field full of errant expectations, assumptions, and potential conflict.

The Changing Landscape of Instrument Repair

There are a couple of details everyone who may have need of instrument repair needs to understand clearly:

There are more instruments in need of repair than there are trained technicians or hours in the day to do those repairs.

Regardless of the number of potential repairs, repair technicians cannot continue to pursue their vocation if they cannot make a living doing it.

People may think instrument repairs are expensive, but many technicians run into a hard cap on pricing in the market place. There is a clear tipping point where the decision to repair is less economical than the decision to replace. This is a problem if the technician does not sell instruments. They end up battling to keep the sale in house in the form of a repair, so it is not uncommon that they short themselves on the price they wish to charge.

This tipping point has been exacerbated by business practices utilized by some instrument makers and retailers. With the lower cost instruments many retailers are favoring, it is becoming increasingly prevalent that if there is a problem with an instrument in the warranty period it is replaced rather than repaired. No technician necessary. While this may alleviate some pressure on the need for repairs, it also instills a devaluation of the nature of repairs in general. Why repair when you can replace?

The seemingly market-driven practice of reducing repair pricing to make the sale, which has been going on as long as I have been in the business, ends up forcing technicians to work longer hours for less money. It can lead to illness, injury, and burnout. But I think the tipping point has been reached and we can see this in some of the younger techs entering the field.

In recent years many technicians have found that a way out of this downward spiral is to create efficiencies in their processes and, to be frank about it, turn away repairs that do not fit into that model. They don’t have to be everything to everyone going from clarinet to guitar to tuba to oboe in a day. One example of work efficiencies could be to work mostly on student model clarinets: focus on the tooling, supplies, and workspace design necessary to maximize efficiency and output with student and intermediate model clarinets. If someone comes in with a bari sax in need of repair it could certainly be something the technician is capable of handling, but it requires changing gears both mentally and in the allocation of space, tools, and supplies. More and more technicians faced with such an interruption to their work flow are either charging an unaltered price for their time (perhaps with a premium), or turning the bari sax repair down altogether.

This practice has no bearing on the quality of the instrument, the nature of the repair, and certainly should not be seen as a snub against a potential patron. It is what the technician has to do to stay in business. Your repair is atypical to their process and work flow and can actually pose a threat to their ability to maximize what they can earn from their time.

Yes, it comes down to money. But it is more about earning the money needed to survive in this society than getting “rich”.

All Press is not Good Press

In addition to remaining financially viable as a business, a technician’s reputation is probably the most important aspect of their business. As the saying goes, bad news travels half way around the world while good news is still putting on its shoes. Negative reactions, bad energy, rumors whispered during rehearsals are all things repair techs strive to minimize or eliminate. Positive feedback only tends to come when asked but negative opinions have the pervasive power of gossip.

Consider the opening story. A customer brings a flute to a music store and the repair tech ruins it. That’s the headline that has the potential to catch fire. There is no detail given that is was a Lark flute made in China in the 1980’s. It is not mentioned that the customer took it to 4 other repair shops and was turned away before this one tech tried to help. The fact is not offered that the technician admitted his error, apologized, and reimbursed the customer with a flute of at least triple value that was infinitely more serviceable at no cost.

What every technician dreads is bad press. Everyone in business is aware that they are not going to please everyone, but we try nonetheless. Make things convenient for your customers. Make them feel welcome. Don’t charge too much. Don’t take too long. Do the repair properly. It can be a lot to manage. Repair techs and business owners can constantly be pulled in different directions and sometimes they need to set some boundaries.

If there is a repair out of their normal groove, if a repair has a low chance of success, or if a customer’s expectations outstrip what is reasonably possible within the design of the instrument or their budget, why risk putting something out there that can be a lightning rod for negative commentary?

Likewise, “just make it work” repairs are becoming a less accepted task. When I was starting my career over 3 decades ago, “just make it work” repairs were what kept the doors open. Repair techs garnered illustrious reputations among music teachers at how quickly they were able to save the day. I do not play in that sand lot any more, but I think that has changed as well.

Now more technicians are turning away “just make it work” repairs because they cannot stand behind the continued functioning of the instrument. What can happen is a student takes an instrument in for a “just make it work” repair with details discussed with the technician— the instrument functions, but not well and that is ok for the student per the discussion with the tech. The student’s teacher sees it some time later, determines that it is not working as it should, and only knows that it was “just in the shop”. They are not privy to the details surrounding what the student and tech discussed and agreed on for a course of action. But now the teacher has a bad impression of the tech’s work based on incomplete or incorrect information.

Nobody wants to risk that catastrophic snowball careening down the mountain toward the quaint alpine village. So repairs are instead done on the technician’s terms. If they can’t do a complete enough job to stand behind the work they have done, no amount of money will convince them to endanger their reputation by doing otherwise.

Repair Techs are like Gandalf

If you are familiar with the books of J.R.R. Tolkien (or the movies), the wizard Gandalf is often seen as the problem solver, the answerer of questions, and the person who is relied upon when needed most. He bends over backwards, gives his all (and more), to accomplish what must be done. But noticeably, Gandalf has other things he has to worry about and is not always available for or concerned with every task or trouble. He can’t “fix” everything, and sometimes deliberately steps aside from events where others wish he was present and participating.

Repair techs are loosely similar to wizards in this regard. They can’t be there to fix every problem and answer every question. While they may have knowledge of how to do battle successfully with a hill troll or a shoddily-made instrument, whichever the case may be, they do not actively seek them out. They are wise to avoid them when they have more pressing engagements and do not have time and energy to waste. Repair techs will bend over backwards and give their all (and more) for their customers. Their ways are mysterious and they are wielders of awesome power, but they are just people trying to make their way in the world helping as many as they can along the way.

Reasons an instrument may be turned away

Quality or condition
An instrument of questionable quality or one that has sustained particular damage is the most often turned away. This is most often based on the chance that the repair will fail, the repair will not make the instrument significantly better, or that any repair would need to be so chock full o’ compromises that it would be potentially damaging to the technician’s reputation if seen in the wild.

Time
As mentioned before, there are more instruments to repair than hours in the day to repair them. Even the most flexible yoga practicing tech will have their limits when bending over backwards for customers. If a tech doesn’t have time to fit your repair in, it’s not personal.

Cost-effectiveness
One area where I can be pretty stubborn is when a customer wants me to apply top tier standards to their mid tier instruments. This can be problematic because the mid tier instruments are inherently lacking in key mechanical details that are required to establish those standards. For example, the difference in hand made flutes between a basic overhaul and a conversion to Straubinger or JS pads is about $500. However, if someone had a mid range flute and wanted those pads installed, it would not only cost 2-3x more in labor to establish the necessary standards, the precision needed would be compromised, and the flute would not function appreciably better to justify such expense or investment of time.

I cannot in good faith take someone’s money for what is essentially a waste of time with no real benefit.

In a similar vein, (and this happened earlier this week) when a deficiency in the design or construction of a mid range instrument is identified and the customer wants it corrected, I will almost always decline. Unless it is something quite basic, it is a losing battle. The benefit compared to the cost is incredibly out of balance. If the quality of a better designed and more refined instrument is desired, spend the money on a better designed and more refined instrument.

Out-of-Area-of-Focus
If a tech decides to operate their shop focusing on just fixing student clarinets, or just overhauling high end piccolos, they may not be interested in anything that isn’t in that area of focus.

I am reminded of the old auto mechanic in my home town who would not only fix your transmission, but also help you fix your lawn mower or the hydraulics on your tractor, or go with you to the auto auction to give advice on what was a decent buy. Try pulling up to the service department at your Honda dealership and trying to get help with any of those things today.

Unreasonable Expectations
This can relate to many of the previous points but is worthy of its own note. This often comes up in the area of major projects such as restorations or customizations. The customer may not understand the full scope of the project and have starry eyed ambitions for how it will be when complete. If there is a suitable gulf between what I am able to provide with the palette of the instrument to be repaired and what the customer’s hopes and dreams are, I will decline the repair.

Often I will even refuse to offer an overly inflated price. Many technicians have stories of quoting a “go away” price that they thought was so high that nobody would accept it, only to have the customer say “ok”. Quite often the resulting repair ends up being far more involved and the time spent cruises right by the quote without so much as a tip of the hat.

As always, develop a good relationship with your technician. Use them for their strengths and become aware of what they are likely to not prefer working on. Lean on them for their knowledge so you can be better informed about the care your instruments need to serve you the best.

At the Woodwindfixer’s Bench is a publication of Jeff’s Woodwind Shop, a repair shop for professional musicians in the National Capital Region. Visit www.woodwindfixer.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.