Tales of a Woodwind Repairman #1:
In these “Tales of a Woodwind Repairman” I will talk ab out many things… some good and some not so good but true stories that I have had in the music business over the past 50 years. I hope you find some of them interesting.
I am going to tell you why it is not good to help players out with money problems…. Several times I have done overhauls for players and when they came into pick them up they asked me if they could only pay half…. And they would bring the rest of the money the next week because they had a gig over the weekend… well, I believe they really intended to do what they said… but, and there is always a but, things did not go well they need the money for something else and could not pay the money they owed me…. Again, after a couple weeks the saxophone needed a little adjustment …. but again, they could not come back to me because they owed me $400.00… So, they went to another repairman that charged them $40 to adjust a few things…. Now and here is the rub! they do not come back and start using the new repairman because they still owe me the $400.00… Two things happen: 1. They do not tell other players that they cannot come to me because they owe me money …. they say I screwed up their sax…. 2. Now when they recommend a repairman it is not me… so, for over the next 20 years if they send 1 person a year to the new repairman for an overhaul (not to count the adjustments) … It cost me $20,000.00 plus in work for helping them out…
Never pays to be a good guy……
