Tales of a Woodwind Repairman #1:
In these āTales of a Woodwind Repairmanā I will talk ab out many thingsā¦ 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 problemsā¦. Several times I have done overhauls for players and when they came into pick them up they asked me if they could only pay halfā¦. And they would bring the rest of the money the next week because they had a gig over the weekendā¦ well, I believe they really intended to do what they saidā¦ 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 meā¦. Again, after a couple weeks the saxophone needed a little adjustment ā¦. but again, they could not come back to me because they owed me $400.00ā¦ So, they went to another repairman that charged them $40 to adjust a few thingsā¦. Now and here is the rub! they do not come back and start using the new repairman because they still owe me the $400.00ā¦ Two things happen: 1. They do not tell other players that they cannot come to me because they owe me money ā¦. they say I screwed up their saxā¦. 2. Now when they recommend a repairman it is not meā¦ 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) ā¦ It cost me $20,000.00 plus in work for helping them outā¦
Never pays to be a good guyā¦ā¦
