Dear listers - some idle thoughts on the recent repair thread: throughout my years as a horn player I have sought to learn more about how my horn works [call me an equipment/techie nerd if you want] and always do as much as I can as regards maintaining and repairing my instruments. I fortunately never took the next step, e.g. valve acid cleaning, until I had researched and/or been taught how to do so. This probably resulted from lack of financing and simply an innate curiosity on my part. When I have the need I will take it to a repair shop, but only one I trust. Despite my own adventuresomeness I would hesitate to tell most high school kids to go and take apart their valves through the list, unless I could determine that someone would them while they do it. I feel we should encourage every horn player to learn all that they can about maintaining and basic repair, but that we should also encourage them to have a trained, respected tech do most things that honestly they have just the right equipment to do. der Perfesser and I once had a most lively online discussion about building a horn from Home Depot resources, and once we were able to clarify our perspectives on what the end result would be quality-wise, we parted on very congenial terms. [He even signed my copy of his Mozart concertos when I was able to meet him in person this year.] Personally I would love to be know and do everything that Mr. DeHaro and Ken Pope do about horns. But until I do, I will take any serious repairs issues to them, and know that I will get the best treatment. I know from personal experience that a binding valve can often be misplaced string tension, and it follows that a mechanically awkward linkage would probably cause even more of a p roblem. I think that Mr. DeHaros method, while not the easiest for him to perform, does solve the problem, not just postpone its recurrence. Which would you rather have - a permanent solution or a temporary cessation of the problem? On a personal note, I have had the pleasure of having discussions with Ken Pope, Dave Weiner, and Chris Huning from Paxman - all of whom are indeed honorable, congenial, upstanding people, and of course excellent horn technicians. One can sense from them a true love of the horn and the desire to make life as easy as possible for those who play it. Paxmaha
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