So you want to learn how to repair instruments...
What to expect and where to start
Usually about 6-8 times a year I get someone asking me about how they can learn more about instrument repair. I am happy to share what I know, but you have to meet people where they are and determining where that is can be a challenge. People’s reasons for asking can range from simple curiosity into knowing how things work, to wanting to be able to do their own small repairs for themselves, to seeking a career path. Considering what a person’s objective or motivation is plays a big role in applying the most constructive way for them to learn, and it can be a very detailed topic to get into.
In hopes of offering a first step in gathering information on this topic I will outline some of the various options and requirements for learning more about instrument repair and readers can apply what they need for their ambitions and circumstances.
Does your Ambition match your Ability?
I am not the type of person to say or suggest a person cannot do something. All a person can do when trying something new is to see how it goes and make periodic assessments of if their progress meets their expectations. If you have an interest, give it a shot. I guarantee you will learn something.
Speaking for myself, I come from a family with a strong background in tinkering, fabrication, and making things work. My paternal grandfather was a 4th generation dairy farmer on New York’s Tug Hill Plateau. As farmers have to be fairly self-sufficient, he did the expected maintenance and repair of his farm equipment himself, but he (and his father before him) went well beyond that in devising all sorts of necessary machines for the farm, including a hoist system to lift and transport bales of hay into the barn, a workshop and forge with machines driven by a homemade line shaft, and a sawmill powered by an old 1920’s Ford pickup truck engine and transmission. The log splitter used on the farm was clearly homemade out of a piece of structural steel I-beam and a hydraulic piston from a decommissioned tractor.
Spending time on the farm as a child instilled strong appreciation for the skills necessary for understanding mechanical devices and related problem solving. More can be read about where that led me in this article: (Please click on it if you have not read it yet)
Woodwindfixer's Origin Story
Once upon a time, there was a boy of about 10 or 11 years old who was learning to play the saxophone. His dad was a high school band director in a suburb of Buffalo, NY, and a low brass player of some renown. The boy had tried playing baritone and trombone, but it just did not feel right for him. Saxophone, on the other hand, felt like something fami…
It is important to acknowledge that everyone has their own learning style complete with strengths and weaknesses. Some people seemingly have more aptitude or talent in a certain discipline where others have to work and study diligently to achieve the same results. Everyone has their own path and I believe that everyone has the ability to learn new things in their own way and in their own time.
The Skills Needed
To learn about instrument repair a base set of skills should be present or able to be developed. A major part of understanding many instrument repair processes, especially diagnosis, comes from having a strong logic based reasoning process and understanding cause and effect conditions. Knowledge of, or the ability to learn basic mechanical principles involving geometry and physics is part and parcel to understanding how musical instruments work. Acoustics knowledge can be beneficial, but it can also be a rabbit hole that one falls into only to be confronted by hookah smoking caterpillars, mad hatters, and homicidal playing cards screaming about cut-off frequency.
A “book knowledge” base can take a person far in the understanding of how instruments work, discerning what features of different makes or models may be beneficial and why, and will only accentuate any practical skills to be developed in hands-on study or repair of instruments. The more a person knows on the theoretical side, the more that can be potentially applied to the practical side.
If one’s goal is to repair instruments, then there are physical parameters that can make the tasks easier and more likely to succeed. One of the most important physical traits is good manual dexterity and strength. For some operations very finite motor control of the hands and fingers is required. For others, a fair amount of grip strength is required. Upper body strength is a good thing to have if one needs to engage in heavier dent removal.
The sense of touch is often under appreciated, but can make the difference between a repair being good and meh. Good vision is important, but the use of magnifiers and even microscopes is not uncommon. I am colorblind, but I have trained myself how to see what matters. For things I simply can’t see (mostly related to lacquer work) I have set firm boundaries which I do not cross. Your sense of hearing should be guarded at all costs. Too many years of playing in closed pits sitting in front of brass players has left me with hearing damage. It is important to be able to hear the clicks, buzzes, and unusual difference tones that may drive a customer nuts, so in order to hear at least part of what my customers hear I have had to rely on the boon of German audiological technology for about 10 years. It is much better to protect what you have when you can than have to use hearing aids simply to do your job.
Where to Get Started
First and foremost, find a way to get questions answered as you come across things you do not know. This could be your personal technician, a colleague or friend who happens to be a technician, or some sort of internet group that seems helpful rather than harmful to your ambitions. You will come across many new concepts and processes that you may not fully understand and it is a good idea to have someone in the trade who you can ask to explain things to you.
From the stance of gaining knowledge, read. Read lots. I recommend reading catalogs that manufacturers put out where you can familiarize yourself with products and features in those products. What is monel? What is a polycylindrical bore? What is cold forging and why is it a sales point in certain instruments? What features (or adjectives) appear on upper level instruments?
It is safe to assume that if something is printed in the sales literature that it is something you should know about. People can hold a popular misconception that the tactics of slick snake oil and used car salesmen using double speak and obfuscation are widely used everywhere. But this is generally not the case beyond the world of television drama. Companies have a responsibility to be truthful, but they also need make their products stand out from competitors. Sure, there may be features listed in instrument sales literature that generate a collective shrug, but they are features nonetheless and by learning about them a person can make more informed decisions on proper repair and maintenance.
I know the idea of a printed catalog may seem quaint, like cameras with film to be developed, but there is a mountain of just plain information in them. You may not get the same experience or content with online listings. Visit your local mom & pop music store that may have been around forever and ask if they have old sales literature kicking around you can have.
Look at old tool catalogs from the instrument repair industry. This can give you an idea of what certain specialized tools are used for and give you some introductory knowledge into some repair processes. It can also give you some insight into how expensive specialty tools can be and why some repairs are so pricey.
Of course there are many books out there dedicated to the topic of instrument repair or instrument design. Depending on your level of experience and which book you choose to start with, this type of reading may be daunting and confusing. An author can jump right into a process or technique that seems basic, but they may keep referencing things you have no idea about. Being able to explain such things is where a good relationship with your trusted repair professional can be the most valuable.
Practice Practice Practice
Beyond the theoretical book knowledge, it is important for anyone interested in how an instrument works to have practical hands-on experience. (I will be writing from the perspective of a woodwind technician. If you are interested in learning more about a different type of instrument, please double check with a professional in that arena.). I frequently recommend to people that a good way to start learning is to pick up a junque instrument and practice taking apart and putting it back together, like, a dozen, or a million times.
DO NOT TRY THIS ON AN INSTRUMENT THAT YOU NEED TO WORK.
In learning to disassemble and reassemble an instrument you will almost assuredly knock off adjustment and bumper corks, bend or break springs, stress or damage pads, and possibly bend keys. You do not want to do this to the instrument you have to rely on. Getting thrown in the pond to learn how to swim may sometimes be effective, but it may also be hazardous and, even if successful, create a lifelong distaste for swimming.
Disassembling and reassembling a woodwind instrument will teach you about how things fit together, the order in which things have to be mounted, how keys interact with each other, how they are supposed to move, and how they may or may not move. This process can also allow you to think about things you notice and generate theories or questions to pose to your trusted repair professional: Should this move better? Why is this designed like it is? I have problems with this part—am I doing something wrong?
There may be differences between different models of the same instrument related to key layout and how the keys are mounted. It is helpful to keep an open mind to what you are seeing and experiencing on your one or two practice instruments and understand that it may not be exactly that way in every case.
Tools & Tricks for Basic Disassembly
In order to successfully disassemble and reassemble instruments, you will need some tools. Fortunately, not many are needed for this operation, but having the right tools is still important. You may seek out the tools on your own, or you may contact me through the woodwindfixer.com website and I can work with you to obtain the proper assortment of professional grade tools for your needs.
Screwdrivers
Screwdrivers can be pretty basic, but you want to make sure they are right. A screwdriver that fits flute or clarinet screws may not fit saxophone screws. Indeed, you may have to use 2 or 3 different sized screwdrivers on the same instrument.
If the blade is too small or otherwise does not fit, it runs the risk of damaging the screw, damaging the instrument, or damaging you. Among the most common and most painful injuries in the band repair shop is getting jabbed by a screwdriver. While some accidents are mild pokes or scratches, every professional tech has a story of someone in their shop (or themself) experiencing a serious puncture or gash from a screwdriver that slipped. An ill-fitting screwdriver elevates this risk.
Always support the tip of your screwdriver when it is engaged in a screw slot. The more resistant a screw is to turning, the more securely the instrument must be braced. The point comes very quickly where holding the instrument on your lap or on a table is insufficient. If you do not have access to some sort of mounting/holding apparatus, this is where calling on your trusted repair professional to ask about what they think is making it challenging and how to best make things move better is invaluable. Screws should unthread easily. If they do not, there are many possible reasons that need to be considered.
Pliers
Quite often extracting hinge rods from keys can be difficult. There is frequently either too much friction, not enough sticking out to grab with fingers, or a combination of the two and a tool is needed to grab on better. Pliers used for musical instrument repair should not have teeth or ridges. The jaws should be smooth to prevent leaving damaging marks on the steel. Ideally, the jaws should also have a gap somewhat parallel at their closed position. Smooth jaws that touch each other fully when closed can work but run the chance of the object being held “squirting” out of the grip and flying across the room or being damaged.
As far as general tools, like pliers, I will rarely make specific recommendations because there are so many options and so many different preferences. However, if you want one all purpose pair of pliers that can handle an incredibly diverse range of tasks in instrument repair, the duckbill parallel pliers made by Musicmedic.com cannot be recommended highly enough. They are pricey, so not for every person’s budget, but if I had to choose one pair of pliers from my assortment of dozens to take on the road or use if nothing else was available, these Musicmedic-customized Knipex pliers would be the choice without contest.
Springhook
A spring hook is just what it sounds like—a hook to reposition springs. This is a very basic tool, but is it necessary to have one. These can be purchased from repair tool suppliers, or, if you have the the tooling and desire they are easily made from a small crochet hook (size US 5 to 7 works well). If making your own, it is important to make both pull and push profiles on the tool.
Screwblock
A screw block is also important to have, and, just as it sounds, it is a block to keep screws in. This is typically a wood block with holes to hold the various screws you remove from the instrument. Some prefer to have key names next to the holes, some have numbers. What is important is that the screw goes back in to the place it came from. Small pivot screws may look identical and fit in multiple places, but they can have unique bends or wear patterns that make them function perfectly in one position but cause problems in another.
If you do not have a screw block yet, when you remove a key, reinstall the screw where it came from. If making your own screw block, be cautious not to make holes too deep for pivot screws or you may have a hard time retrieving them from the block.
Work Organization
Lastly, it is a good idea to have a dedicated work area where all of the pieces parts can remain while you are working or in between tinkering sessions. While everyone wants a dedicated workbench (right?), if you are working at the kitchen table, I recommend picking up a couple of plastic cafeteria trays or even metal sheet pans with a lip to keep what you are working on contained. Plastic baskets or kitchen organizer trays can work well. The objective is to keep small parts from getting lost, so choose what works for your workflow and space. If you are ambitious and have more than one instrument on the go at once, make sure you label which is which. Even among the same make and model, parts may not be perfectly interchangeable. Remember that screws are not interchangeable and should not be left to roll around in your tray or basket.
Learning Beyond the Basics
At some point, after you have disassembled your practice instruments eleventy-seven times, you will be sufficiently comfortable with it, and perhaps a bit bored. You have identified some problem areas in your practice instrument but are unsure how to proceed. You have read what you have to read, but some concepts don’t quite make sense or you aren’t sure how to properly apply them. To put it simply, you need professional guidance and you just plain need to see more specimens to apply what knowledge you have gained, hopefully to learn more beyond that as a result. This extended learning can come in a few ways.
You can search for one day or weekend repair classes to take. If you can find these, they are often run for music educators and are more quick-fix- based. You may learn some things, but such classes may not provide the depth you seek. At minimum, it gets you in contact with a professional tech who may be able to offer further steps.
There are short duration formal courses in instrument repair that exist—some are online— that can develop specific repair task learning over the span of a week or a month. One place to find online repair courses is the Colorado Institute of Musical Instrument Technology. While they do offer detailed and comprehensive on-campus repair courses similar to the other repair schools, CIOMIT does offer some online learning options in the form of intro courses. Other short duration in person classes can be found in a variety of specialized disciplines, such as those offered by Landell Flutes or Musicmedic.com.
(Jeff’s Woodwind Shop has designed classes and curricula for basic instrument repair in the past, but the difficulty in securing a location to hold the classes has sidelined those plans)
If your goal is to be able to work on your own instruments on your own time (back-up instruments first, please), such pick-up courses and classes may be sufficient for your needs. However, if your goal is to be able to work on instruments to make money, then you need to take an even more deep dive into the pool and make a larger commitment. If the goal is to be paid by others for your repair services, then you should have someone who can directly teach you or mentor you, help you navigate any uncharted waters, and help you recover when mistakes happen and things go wrong, because something always can go wrong.
One option is to seek employment with a repair shop, music store, or even an instrument maker, expressing interest in learning more about repair. There will be more experienced and knowledgable craftspeople who can teach you, train you, and guide you. It is important to understand that with no real proven record in repair, if you have nothing to offer the business such as sales or administrative skills the only repair adjacent position you may be offered is that of shop gopher with some repair prep duties for the other techs. You may learn the trade as you go, but it will be a long process.
Another career-oriented path to consider is to enroll in a formal repair school. There are only a few of these programs around the US. In addition to the previously mentioned Colorado Institute, there are schools in Washington, Minnesota, and Iowa. These programs are a full time commitment where you have to move to the area and got to school for a year or more. Once completed with the course work, graduates will generally have enough general knowledge and applied skills to be employed as entry level technicians at a repair shop.
A good resource to have if you get to this point is the National Association of Professional Band Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT). There is a wealth of information on the NAPBIRT website and communicating with NAPBIRT members can provide valuable insight on next steps that best apply to you. In order to be a member, you must derive at least 50% of your income from instrument repair, or be registered in a repair school program, but many resources are public.
Adjacent Skills
There are many other skills that one can study and practice that can lend very well to musical instrument repair. If you have a hard time finding specific instrument repair classes to increase your knowledge, consider looking for some of these:
Jewelry-making or Metalsmithing classes
A lot of tasks that thwart many instrument techs are found in the jewelry making world. Learning to manipulate, join, and polish metal is a very valuable set of skills to have and can apply directly to fabrication of parts or instrument making. Search for a lapidary or silversmithing guild in your area. Blacksmithing may be a valuable skill for understanding metallurgy in tool making, but working with iron and steel is an adjacent skill to the metalsmithing performed on musical instruments.
Horology
Clock and watch repair often uses the same processes and tools the great instrument makers of the 19th century used. The demands of a mechanical clock for precision is in the same ballpark as what fine musical instrument require. Much can be learned about how parts connect and interact with each other from the study of mechanical clock movements.
Machining—practical knowledge
Many community and technical colleges will have classes in machine operation. The skill and knowledge to use machine tools such as lathes and mills is of great value in instrument repair. It is difficult to overestimate how well such training can support the needs of a band repair shop.
Machining—theoretical knowledge
The classroom side of machining can also be of tremendous value to someone involved in instrument repair. Classes in measurement and gauging, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) can be eyeopening to requirements and improvements in mechanisms and tooling. GD&T is a fairly advanced heavy subject so it is important to have some background under your belt before jumping in to that.
More practice, More practice, More practice
No matter what your learning path is or your motivation, always remember that the journey is never over. There is always something new to learn— a new variation on a familiar problem, a new solution to each new variation. Repairing instruments is a practiced skill, just like “practicing medicine”, “practicing law”, or (obviously) “practicing music”. There is always refinement to be done on old things and implementation of or adaptation to new things. The only constants are the continued need for learning and the continued need for technicians to fix instruments..
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Links:
Jeff’s Woodwind Shop — www.woodwindfixer.com
NAPBIRT — www.napbirt.org
Repair Schools:
Minnesota State College Southeast
Western Iowa Tech
Renton Technical College
Colorado Institute or Musical Instrument Technology