Estimates take a long time. Today i spent about 5.5 hours doing estimates on 130 instruments for a non-profit in Philadelphia. Doing them carefully to make sure I didn't miss anything - and thus didn't have to eat any extra cost later - was mentally exhausting. Stooping over to open cases and then carry them all out the van was physically exhausting.
All things considered, a productive day, and always a rewarding experience to feel like you're helping more kids get exposure to instrumental music. Plus I met a really nice guy who helped me carry the instruments out to the car. He stood to gain nothing from helping me except a little bit of exercise and conversation. I think that must be definition of a kindness.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Lesson Learned - 6/12/12
You can determine whether a leadpipe on a Bach Stradivarius trumpet is lightweight or not simply by measuring the outside diameter of the leadpipe. If it's the same as a standard Strad, it's normal weight. Narrower, and it's lightweight. That makes perfect sense, since the diameter of the tube wall has to be thinner, but the diameter of the bore has to be the same as a standard mouthpipe. Well, unless it's reversed or "O" style or a different number pipe or has slightly thicker plating or the moon is waxing.
Well, anyway, it helped me today, but only after I'd ordered the wrong part. Another indicator is that lightweight mouthpipes rot much sooner than standard weight.
Lesson Learned - 6/11/12
In the past I've used something of a cheat to regulate rental alto saxophones. Not THE Cheat mind you.
Now that I've spent the last 5 minutes checking on HomestarRunner and reading about it's decline, I'm back. Seems that site hasn't been updated since December 22, 2010. Makes me feel not so bad about not updating this for a week.
My cheat was to weaken the spring tension on the G# pad so that it wouldn't have so much lifting power when the bell keys are pressed. That made it easier to regulate F# to G#, especially if the F# wasn't perfectly level, because the regulation screw didn't need to be set as low. The trick was especially effective on Yamaha student instruments, where the F#-G# articulation arm is actually ON the F# pad cup, often causing the side of the F# pad to lift up when the G# key is activated and is trying to open.
That cheat worked pretty well (as I said, I only did it only rental instruments, and then only as a last resort when I needed to finish one quickly). Today, though, I found a problem with it. Weakening the spring tension does indeed make the G# less likely to lift up the F#, but if they are slightly under-regulated (as is often the case when using that cheat), there's nothing the stop air pressure from lifting the key. Unfortunately for me, playing a saxophone creates a lot of air pressure. While test playing an instrument today I did indeed blow open the G# key when pressing the bell keys. My cheat was exposed for the fraud that it was!
That's just a lesson that there are no shortcuts for a job well done. Looks like I'm back to carefully leveling F# pads.
Now that I've spent the last 5 minutes checking on HomestarRunner and reading about it's decline, I'm back. Seems that site hasn't been updated since December 22, 2010. Makes me feel not so bad about not updating this for a week.
My cheat was to weaken the spring tension on the G# pad so that it wouldn't have so much lifting power when the bell keys are pressed. That made it easier to regulate F# to G#, especially if the F# wasn't perfectly level, because the regulation screw didn't need to be set as low. The trick was especially effective on Yamaha student instruments, where the F#-G# articulation arm is actually ON the F# pad cup, often causing the side of the F# pad to lift up when the G# key is activated and is trying to open.
That cheat worked pretty well (as I said, I only did it only rental instruments, and then only as a last resort when I needed to finish one quickly). Today, though, I found a problem with it. Weakening the spring tension does indeed make the G# less likely to lift up the F#, but if they are slightly under-regulated (as is often the case when using that cheat), there's nothing the stop air pressure from lifting the key. Unfortunately for me, playing a saxophone creates a lot of air pressure. While test playing an instrument today I did indeed blow open the G# key when pressing the bell keys. My cheat was exposed for the fraud that it was!
That's just a lesson that there are no shortcuts for a job well done. Looks like I'm back to carefully leveling F# pads.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Lesson Learned - 6/1/12
Hooray for June! Today, while trying to solder a new slide lug onto a Silvertone trombone - which the internet says is a Sears instrument - I was having a lot of trouble getting solder to flow into the joint. Because the lug had no lacquer on it and was made of brass, every time I touched the solder wire to it, solder would just flow onto the surface of the lug itself. My coworker, M, reminded me of a trick I'd long forgotten - to tin the part before soldering it. That just means that before placing the lug on the instrument, I should have heated it and put a little bit of solder on the bottom surface that was going to contact the trombone. Then I could have either stuck it on and just heated it until the solder flowed and adhered to the handslide, or at the very least if I still needed to add more solder, it would have been easier to get it to flow into the joint if there was already solder there. It's frustrating sometimes how easy it is to forget a technique like that when you don't use it for a while. I need to keep exercising my vocabulary of skills.
Lesson Learned - 5/31/12
While finishing up that Laskey-Pinc trumpet from yesterday, I had all the tubes on the 3rd valve slide parallel and aligned with each other, but just couldn't get the slide to move smoothly. On a professional trumpet, that slide should move effortlessly with the slightest push or pull, and this is only achieved through perfect alignment of the slide tubes. I was stumped as to why it wouldn't behave, and I kept measuring spans and checking alignment, but everything I saw indicated that the tubes were parallel. Finally, in a bit of frustration, I moved one of the tubes slightly out of parallel. I pushed the upper tube on the instrument up a little bit, slightly increasing the span between it and the lower tube.
Eureka! The slide moved like butter. Better than butter, really, because butter isn't a really great trumpet lubricant. With a few more tweaks I had it moving beautifully. I don't fully understand why that solved it, and I believe my measurements were accurate in showing that the tubes were parallel when things just weren't working, but it's a tidbit I'll keep in mind the next time I'm aligning slides.
Eureka! The slide moved like butter. Better than butter, really, because butter isn't a really great trumpet lubricant. With a few more tweaks I had it moving beautifully. I don't fully understand why that solved it, and I believe my measurements were accurate in showing that the tubes were parallel when things just weren't working, but it's a tidbit I'll keep in mind the next time I'm aligning slides.
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