I was just wondering if there are more people that have things happen to their instruments when they send them to get fixed. Not that long ago I sent my clarinet to get fixed by a man that works at his house. I took it to him two times before for repairs and he did a nice job. Not great mind you just nice. Well I took it to him again to have a pad put on it and I guess that when he heated the key he did not take it off. My mom picked it up for me while I was at marching band practice and when I got home at nine at night I took a look at the work that he did and saw that he had melted the plastic around two of the tone wholes where two large pads were replaced. I left a message on his machine that night and he wound up calling while I was at the foot ball game the day before state championships. I called him back and he said that he has repaired instruments for 16 years and did not see how he could have melted a clarinet and wanted us to bring it in for him to see. Well we took it in on monday and he tried saying that he did not replace that pad but it was the pad that we needed put on because it fell off earlier. I took it back and said in a rude way that it would be ready the next day. I just got it back and when I looked at it there are new scrates that were not there when we noticed the melted part but what he did was ground and buffed out the areas that he melted. Just wanted to know if you ever had problems when you took your instrument to get repaired.

sorry that this is so long. It was really a long prokcess to get it fixed from the repair mistake.

My wife & I both had out clarinets serviced by someone `recommended`. This was not specific repairs, more of a general overhaul: strip down, clean, check for leaks, replace worn corks & pads kind of thing. He charged a modest sum for each instrument. Mine was ok afterwards, not great but certainly not worse. My wife`s was another matter. She had squeaks from B to E above the break. This happened always when the instrument was cold. With some reeds the squeaks went away as the instrument warmed up, but with other reeds the squeaks were always there. Logically, she put it down to particular reeds. As time went on it got progressively worse, so eventually she took her clarinet to a very good, but expensive repairer, 2-3 times the price for the same basic overhaul. This guy works for a woodwind & brass specialist rather than a town centre music shop that sells mostly electric guitars with the odd beginner`s woodwind. The good repairer found several pads of the wrong size fitted at the bottom of the instrument. Replacing these pads has cured all the problems. Moral: try to find a specialist, preferably someone whoplays as well as services your instrument. You may pay more, but you will get a good job.

I sent my clarinet away once for a few simple repairs. It took weeks to get back to me (eventually I had to call to find out where it was) and when I did get it back, nothing had been fixed, and the mouthpiece was broken!

A friend sent her barrel in to get shortened and the repair guy chopped off the wrong end.

My problem is finding a repair man that WILL ACTUALLY DO WHAT I ASKED AND NOT QUESTION ME!

I use to ship mine back up to wisconsin from florida but the repairman I had recently retired after 60 years in the buisness so I had to find a new one.

I found out that the old school repairmen, those who imigranted here, are the best ones...yes communication is alittle problem but once you get that out of the way they do the best job.

Definitely find a specialist to repair your instruments. I actually know of a really good place in Boston, Ma where I did a lot of business during my undergraduate years.
It is called Rayburn Music. They have a Boston Store and a New York City store.
Right now they are in the process of relocating the boston store to a much larger space across the street from where they are currently located.
If you are not from Boston area or NYC area it is okay because I think you can send your instruments to them and they will send them back. I`m not quite sure about this though because I never had to worry having been a student a few blocks away from the store.
Anyway the website is www.rayburnmusic.com

I personally havent had any repairman troubles but as friend sent her clarinet to be repaired and the screw on the a key was tightened so much that she could barely get the sound out and the tuning was way off. It turns out that the guy who did it really didn`t know anything about clarinets, he just worked for the music store. I personally am scared to send my relativly new clarinet any where except to the person/place who made it (Peter Spriggs at the Clarinet Centre in Penticton B.C., Canada). If your instrument is from a specific place, then I recomend sending it bakc to them forrepairs if they offer it becuase they are most likely to know your clarinet the best.

I bought a Selmer 1400 clarinet last week, in order to learn the instrument. As it was second-hand I decided to go to my local music shop for advice (the owner wknows me quite well, as I often buy my guitar strings and things from him). He said he`d `look over` the instrument for me free of charge and give me an opinion on what if anything I needed.

After waiting two days I received the clarinet back with (he said) a clean bill of health. Trouble was that it played OK before I`d taken it in and now squakwed like a kicked polecat. After a lot of investigation I discovered that three of the pads were broken. Needless to say I wasn`t impressed.

I`m now having to learn how to repad a clarinet before I can learn to play it.

I just bought a second hand Selmer 1400 clarinet for the same purpose as you. I haven`t taken it to be looked at yet, but I will be soon, if I have the money, I think it is having issues that`s why.
Anyway I know a lot of fingerings now, but the pitch doesn`t change. It wasn`t squeaking in the beginning, but now it is.
How do you repad a clarinet yourself?
Please let me know.
By the way do you know about how old your clarinet is?
You can read more about mine in the posting entitled is it me or my clarinet?

I just bought a set of self adhesive pads (just over 10 GB pounds), carefully removed the keys with the old broken pads on, levered out the old pads, cleaned off the gunk and glue, put the new pad in and reassembled everything. Then I used a hairdryer set to `hot` to head the pad up and make it seal properly.

This was all more or less guesswork, and I may have done it completely the wrong way. I`m sure that others will have a better method than that.

Thanks for the info it helps a lot.
Good luck with your clarient

Thank you for all of the feedback guys. I can say that I got a flat finish clarinet with gold keys that plays really well and that I am having a lot more luck with playing my wooden one in tune now that I am used to it. I know that I will never take any of my clarinets to him ever again. Not even the Selmer 1400 which is the one that is the oldest. He knows about the Festival R-13 but only because my mom told him about it before I could tell her not to. He does not know about the DC Pro though which is a good thing. He also does not know about my flute either. Well thank you for all fo the help and sorry for not posting a little sooner.

As there are thousands of car mechanics there are thousands of band repair people. But there are only a hand full of us (BR) who are capable of repairing the 100% needed on a musical instrument. Most are only capable of only 90% of the job, good enough but leaving you with the feeling that somthing isn`t right. Those repairpeople that are certified are still giving you the false hope of quality repair. I have trained over 100 people to repair but have only seen about 2% have the Knack it requires to be a truly good repairman. The rest are hacks that only can do a limited ammount repair.

well i just have this problem with my clarinet...i bought a buffet r-13 not too long ago and i take very good care of it. For a week i haven`t really practiced with it, just on my plastice one at school. I went to practice with it today and i would get a squeeking noise when i tried to play my lowest and lower-upper register notes. My keys didn`t seem to be bent and i also used all four reeds to see if that was the matter. Can anyone gove me a hint or clue of what could possibly be wrong with my clarinet...thanks