Thursday, June 7, 2012

I Walk the Line

Antiphonal Brass Music - Boston Brass Section

So lets start off with me apologizing for not posting a lot this week. I am getting married this Saturday and you know, writing this stuff for you people isn't very high on my priority list at the moment. I mean the world doesn't revolve around you, so stop texting me begging for my next post; I will put a post up when I feel in the mood.

All joking aside, I am getting married so this will probably be my last post for a week or so since we leave for Seattle on Tuesday! I'm super excited about this weekend and spending the rest of my life with the girl of my dreams.

Side note you all should check out my buddy's tumblr: http://adamkoble.tumblr.com/ Great friend that is starting out in repair and doing some awesome custom work for tuba players around the Metroplex. Looking forward to some of the crazy stuff he is doing, like venting rotors!

So on to the post:
There is an indescribably feeling when you completely destroy something on accident. It happens to everyone, that terrible moment when you realize that whatever design or plan you had going in your head will no longer be attainable. The moment you begin to think of how long until you might be able to get your original design back. That my friends happened yesterday at 4:30pm. I have been lucky enough to have some friends in 'high' places and managed to land a school account of my own.

As I was plugging through the marching brass I ran into a very stubborn Mellophone tuning slide (And Thomas if you are reading don't worry). So I did what I have done hundred of times before except this one time while trying to pull it out the entire lead pipe got ripped off of the horn and crushed in a terrible way. Commence the moment I described in the above paragraph.

Being my first school account I have fielded a lot of questions to my boss and he has been super helpful. So I ran to him asking what would be better: to replace the part or fix the existing part. This is the line we as repairmen are constantly straddling. I like to think of it as a proverbial tight rope walk that happens daily. As repairmen we are constantly struggling with thoughts of: "Is that good enough?" "Will anyone see that little dent I didn't get out?" "Is this flute actually sealing? Or am I mashing the keys down too hard to get a seal?" These little moments happen to even the best repairmen. It's not like these moments are a bad thing, self-questioning can only lead to improvement. But I think that the longer you are in the field the quicker you are at coming to the realization of what should be done.

My boss is like this: Upon seeing the tubing and hearing my question he called into the Yamaha ordering center and got a price for a replacement, then went out and did a very quick glance at 'how much' it would be to fix the existing part. (Side note replacing that specific lead pipe costs $110 before shipping.) He is a firm believer in the best of people, he came out looked at the rest of the horn smiled and said, "Fix it." He then schooled me on how 'long' it should take by removing the worst part of the crushed section in a way I never would have thought.

It was that little 5 minutes that really got me thinking about the struggle up and coming repairmen face when it comes to ability vs. practicality. We all like to believe we can fix something, but how practical would it be to just replace that thing? I guess if I were to sum up this post it would be that the line we as repairmen walk sort of a fickle thing that only exists in our head, but walking that line is where you can gain a lot of wisdom and insight when it comes to practicality v. ability.