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Just got about 30 instruments, including trumpets, baritones, a trombone and three tubas to straighten out over the next couple weeks. Wish me luck…!

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MiBrassFS wrote: Tue Jul 01, 2025 10:07 am No problem, you got this!

It's mostly stuck slides, stuck valves, water keys missing, and some dents, although I did see one pretty crumpled trumpet bell that is not looking too hot. I am relatively cheap, I am local, and I guess my work is decent enough that this school district asked me to fix some of their stuff for a second summer in a row, so I can't complain!

You can't possibly do any worse than the job that Music and Arts does on the school instruments here. It takes them forever and it looks like a landlord plumbing special...

glad to see that's not a Subaru.

bloke wrote: Tue Jul 01, 2025 6:30 pm glad to see that's not a Subaru.

2001 extra long bed Silverado with the camper top, 187k miles, bought as third owner in 2021.

I recently drove to Boston and back with it… that was fun navigating.

So. Many. Stuck. Trumpet second valve slides.

Penetrant, heat, yoink, repeat. Made a sizeable dent (ha!) but still quite a ways to go.

I elected to just remove the receiver of a DEG "Caravelle" trumpet with a hopelessly, hopelessly stuck mouthpiece (my pulling tool was chipping off pieces of the receiver) and replace it with one from my junk drawer. I'll do surgery to remove the mouthpiece later.

arpthark wrote: Sun Jul 13, 2025 4:03 pm trumpet with a hopelessly, hopelessly stuck mouthpiece

They do make a neat sound when you slap the mouthpiece with your palm...

Down to the last three -- a Yamaha trumpet with a stuck main tuning slide (why are the ferrules press-fit and not soldered?!?), a Getzen trumpet with a stuck second valve slide, and a Jupiter trumpet with a hopelessly stuck everything. Just kind of letting them stew in PB Blaster for a while as I've been working through other tuba things in my shop.

This was my first summer doing anything large-scale like this operating as a business, and I learned a lot. I also learned that pretty much any instrument that presents as "stuck slides" is also going to have a ton of other issues, especially these somewhat-abused Chinese-made Giardinelli, Bundy and "Etude" instruments being played by this middle school band.

I've made the case for school-supplied (if they must be school-supplied) beginner instruments to be Walmart grade/cost, as so many of them end up being trashed.
Buy a few extras for parts, and then - after three or four years - call the metal scrap guy to pick them up, and buy some more.

They DO play (before they are dropped or thrown), and their acoustic designs are similar to those of expensive models.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ktaxon-Bb-St ... /165751144

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Eastar-Trump ... /801545509

or sure: Band directors can "demand" that parents rent-to-purchase these made-in-China instruments which are 10% better-made and cost 6X as much:

https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-YTR-2330- ... B007G3T3TS

...but - more often - local music stores (invited into schools by band directors) price these at $1000 more than this.

...but the Precious Children of America deserve the best !!!

...the best Chinese stuff...??

When I was in school, we had some (either) old brown (or) nickel-plated school-owned instruments to use for the first year, giving parents time to DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH, EDUCATE THEMSELVES, and SHOP WITH SHREWDNESS AND SCRUTINY for instruments for their children. (My Dad would have had me buy my OWN trumpet (to use in 2nd-year band). I didn't care to spend my earnings/savings on a trumpet, which is why I volunteered to switch to sousaphone.

Most everything procedure-wise - which worked in the past - has been tossed in the trash and replaced with crazy-expensive chaotic nonsense.

gocsick wrote: Tue Jul 01, 2025 12:54 pm You can't possibly do any worse than the job that Music and Arts does on the school instruments here. It takes them forever and it looks like a landlord plumbing special...

I loathe the monopoly of Music and Arts. The Walmart of musical instruments. They kill off all the competition and peddle their swill. They won't rehair any bow that isn't a Glasser, and to do that, they just ship them back to the maker and double the cost.

No me gusto.