Posted by Joe S. on February 07, 2000 at 20:56:31:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Looking for a cheap metronome posted by Another view on February 07, 2000 at 13:02:25:
If YOU are a superb brass or woodwind repairman, are easy to get along with, and would like to come and work in MY store fixing those hundreds and hundreds of instruments (probably ten solicitations per day) that people ask us to repair - which we turn down because they weren't bought at our store - come on.
If you can work totally independently without any assistance and do world-class work, your commission will be very generous. If not, however, you (like all of the others who I have turned down for employment) will simply be a nuisance to me, and my life already has plenty of those. (No e-mails along these lines, please. We are NOT a repair school, but there ARE a couple of good ones out there, which can offer someone an INTRODUCTION to repair skills.)
OK, clearly there ARE not "super-hero" repair employees, nor "cobbler's elves", that will come and "save" us. Since I am already hustling over there at my store about 60 hours per week (plus also teaching at Ole Miss [Don't ask me why - I'm not sure what the answer is, but it IS an escape. - Maybe that IS the answer.] and playing a bunch of gigs) as is my wife, the arbitrary service cutoff (because there HAS to be SOME cutoff) is going to be "Did you buy or rent it here?"
Could I work over there 90 hours per week? Maybe I could. There would still a lot of people with repair work getting turned away. I used to work over there 90 hours a week (We still put in about 75 hours per week between June and October.), but I am 43 years old and "seeing how many horns I can possibly fix" is not particularly amusing, anymore. Moreover, when I have gobs of Bach Strad trombones and Bach Strad trumpets (which I own, as an example of one brand and one type of instruments sitting in storage) waiting on restorations to be sold for a good profit, it is sort of dumb to solicit sousaphone overhauls, "attic treasure" cornet overhauls, etc. from the outlying middle schools and from the general population.
When there is "one" of me and "one" of my wife in a metropolitan area of about a million people, we have to determine ways of limiting people's access to us. Fine repairmen are not "things" that, again, can be "picked up at Walmart", and, as I've said before, more and more people are encouraging their offspring (whether or not suited) to enter non-skilled ("liberal arts", etc.) areas of study each year, rather than encouraging them to develop very high skill levels within disciplines in the three dimensional world.
I am not arguing with you, by the way. Your points are well-made. I am just further clarifying my point of view. After looking up at what I just wrote, I over-clarified...Sorry. BUT IT TOOK TO LONG TO WRITE IT TO DELETE IT!
;^/