Austin TX sax repair experiences?
mwitthoft
to grade them on the "Morgan scale" :
1 = would trust this person to fix a broken spring or put on a neck cork
2 = would trust this person to repad a modern instrument such as a
Yamaha
3 = would trust this person to repad a rare and expensive Selmer Mark VI
4 = would trust this person to overhaul a vintage horn such as a Chu,
and
be able to deal with old mechanics, key heights, swedging, worn
lacquer, etc
As I understand it the two Straits (Round Rock and Intown) have
different reigning saxmeisters so if you have feedback on a Strait,
please clarify which one.
There are some other folks around -- Darren Wicker at Austin Brass;
Bill(?) Ross at Northwest Music, the various Brook Mayses, etc etc --
If you don't feel comfortable naming (local) names in a public forum,
please email me and I will respect your confidentiality.
--
Morgan in Austin
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mrsa...@hot1.net
mwitthoft <mwit...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> Anybody have any experiences with Austin TX sax repair folks? Enough
> to grade them on the "Morgan scale" :
>
> 1 = would trust this person to fix a broken spring or put on a neck
cork
> 2 = would trust this person to repad a modern instrument such as a
> Yamaha
> 3 = would trust this person to repad a rare and expensive Selmer Mark
VI
> 4 = would trust this person to overhaul a vintage horn such as a Chu,
> and
> be able to deal with old mechanics, key heights, swedging,
worn
> lacquer, etc
>
> As I understand it the two Straits (Round Rock and Intown) have
> different reigning saxmeisters so if you have feedback on a Strait,
> please clarify which one.
> There are some other folks around -- Darren Wicker at Austin Brass;
> Bill(?) Ross at Northwest Music, the various Brook Mayses, etc etc --
>
You have a choice of Karen Holrath at Strait downtown or Kent Winking at
the Round Rock store (Strait Central Texas). Some prefer Karen, some
Kent. Tony Campise has Karen work on his horns, and we are talking
vintage Conns in some cases here. Harvey Pittel uses Kent. Traveling
pros use either. I have experience with both of them. I would have to
give a slight edge to Kent so far as identifying and fixing problems you
might not see, but I have had, in recent years, trouble getting hold of
him to have the work done. He seems to have lost some of the
enthusiasum for his work. He is a trombone/bass player. Anymore I use
Karen because I know I can trust her to be there. She does just as good
work, but sometimes you might have to tell her a little more what you
want done. She is a sax player. Either one will do a fine job.
Another possibility is Spencer Eudy. He lives a little south of the
Ben White/Lamar intersection. He doesn't have a shop now, but at one
time he had his own repair shop, SMUD'S (S. M. Eudy; get it?). He went
on to making, first, flute headjoints and later flutes themselves. He is
the original designer/maker of what became Altus flutes, though he is no
longer associated with them. Last time I saw him, he told me to tell the
pros in town he was back and doing some repair work out of his home. He
was making a bass flute for Tony Campise at the time. Might be worth
looking into.
greg wilson
you call ahead of time and make an appointment there are no problems. If you
you have an emergency repair get in to see whoever has time. For me Kent is
the best around. He is meticulous almost to a fault. If it isn't right it
doesn't go out the door. I don't think that Kent has lost enthusiasm, he's
just on the road a lot. He plays trombone with Duck Soup and they travel
frequently.
I also would like to mention Tommy at Brook Mays in Round Rock. Although I
haven't used him in awhile he does excellent work.
GW
----------
Joe Castleman
well as someone at Brook Mays (South) who came over from Reitz Music
(can't remember his name unfortunately). Lately I haven't neded any major
work, but I have taken my old Bundy II to the Brook Mays store for things
like an Eb leak or a pin spring replacement. A while back I took that
same horn to Austin Brass for a minor overhaul (i.e. some pad and cork
replacements after the horn had been dormant for many years).
----
Joe Castleman -- jca...@io.com
Gyrofrog Communications -- http://www.io.com/~jcastle
Austin, Texas U.S.A.
Richard Fenno
trying. Kent is a friend, so don't expect an impartial analysis. He
treats everybody right, but he travels a lot with that band so you have
to work around that. On the other hand Karl is usually there and can
handle so far any emergency I've had when Kent was gone. I've said
enough. Last thing I want to happen is for him to get swamped!
RF
In article <BHEr3.323$r4.1...@typhoon2.austin.rr.com>, greg wilson
mwitthoft
freaked out by some wildly over-priced and under-good used instruments
at Strait and jumped to the conclusion that the whole place was a
small-town ripoff shop.
I guess I was also worried about the Texas thing -- you know, "we don't
do no fancy fix-up jobs like them Yankees do in Noo York. But I took
your horn over to my buddy Jim-Bob's auto body shop where he has a big
powerful mechanical wire brush he uses to take rust off of pickup
trucks. We scraped all the lakker off real good on that sucker. By
the way, did you want rattlesnake-hide pads, or buzzard? "
--
Morgan in Austin
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m7wit...@austin8.rr.com after
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Joe Castleman
>I guess I was also worried about the Texas thing
Well, it doesn't seem like much of a horn town. By that I mean that you
can't walk into a music store and try/buy a used Conn or King or Mark VI.
I'm sure there are some in town, but I sure don't see them in the stores.
To me, that is a litmus test.
Of couse, I'm comparing this to NYC, where I walked into Sam Ash and there
were a dozen Conns on one wall...
mrsa...@hot1.net
mwitthoft <mwit...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> Sounds like the situation is much better than I feared. I got a
little
> freaked out by some wildly over-priced and under-good used instruments
> at Strait and jumped to the conclusion that the whole place was a
> small-town ripoff shop.
> I guess I was also worried about the Texas thing -- you know, "we
don't
> do no fancy fix-up jobs like them Yankees do in Noo York. But I took
> your horn over to my buddy Jim-Bob's auto body shop where he has a big
> powerful mechanical wire brush he uses to take rust off of pickup
> trucks. We scraped all the lakker off real good on that sucker. By
> the way, did you want rattlesnake-hide pads, or buzzard? "
You have to remember, one of the nice things about Austin is that hardly
anyone around there is actually from Texas. Karen and Kent both are from
more northerly states.