David A Bierman Band instrument repair

06/23/2025

Incoming summer repairs...

Ironically enough the last couple of days of school in the Northeast in June always seem to be the hottest.

And since school business offices close out the purchase orders on July 1st all this has to be invoiced before then or the existing purchase orders are closed out by then
The problem is School business offices work on a different schedule than the music departments which require using the instruments for graduation right up to the last day of school. Making this an extremely busy week for band instrument repair shops at this time of year.

Then the schedule levels off a bit during the summer but the high school stuff must be back by the middle of August in most cases, next the middle school stuff has to be ready for the first day of school just after Labor Day and Elementary School bands usually don't start till the end of September.

I equate the band instrument repair shop at this time of year with working in a toy store the week before Christmas... it's our super busiest time of year.

I always chuckle when people comment that I can relax throughout the summer...🤣🤣🤣
It couldn't be further from the truth.

06/06/2025

The effort that goes into making just one part of an instrument in this case a bass clarinet Bell

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DjEti5Yo5/

06/03/2025

This video on the history of harvesting cork used on different spots on band instruments especially for neck corks on saxophones and clarinet tenon joints looked especially interesting. Much of the Court comes from Portugal and it can take about 9 years for the first good growth of cork bark to be useful.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19bKYLzjBy/

05/17/2025

The new teacher in this school inherited a whole bunch of instruments form the previous band director who never sent anything out to repair . They were all mixed and matched from different brands of instruments within both woodwind and brass instruments.
This means instead of doing a straightforward repair one has to play detective and spend extra time to figure out what part goes with what before the actual repair work can be done. This just makes repairing the instrument take longer.

05/17/2025

Teacher said it fell off a grandstand it probably fell off the grandstand, jam the mouthpiece, somebody tried to remove it without using the proper mouthpiece puller tool and then pulled apart the instrument. The only Advantage is it made it a little easier to set up the mouthpiece pulling tool.😉🤣🤣

05/09/2025

How not to do quickie repairs...
Crazy Glue and epoxy does not stick well to shiny brass instruments. In fact it only makes a dangerous fumes mess for the repair technician to deal with if it doesn't get chipped off before attempting to solder the part properly in place.

03/09/2025

02/16/2025

This is something to take into consideration when you're only buying an instrument based on price. Especially when you order it through the mail and have never actually looked at it till you get it.

It's an excellent case for buying a good used name brand instrument from a reputable place or repair shop. Then you can get parts which were made in the USA and for the most part there was some sense of quality control in the materials used a few years back.

02/07/2025

Clarinet students please don't nervously bang your thumb rest against your chair or it will end up looking like the first picture.
And when you assemble the instrument in the middle section please don't twirl the instrument around or the Center keys will end up looking like the second picture and then they will Jam when you're playing.

01/30/2025

First time in 25 years that January has suddenly gotten very busy. It seems that students are starting to sign up again for band After all the students weren't able to participate during covid. This next generation of students 4th graders seems to be signing up in droves. Which makes the shop suddenly very busy in January. Normally this is shop maintenance time catching up on inventory instruments and Shop maintenance. I'm not complaining mind you just an observation and I better keep the coffee pot going there's going to be some long evenings in the days ahead ☕😁

01/02/2025

Happy New Year and the shop is basically closed for accepting new work until next week. Which allows me to catch up with family and some of the work that came in before the holiday. Again wishing everybody a Happy New Year.

12/24/2024

To our customer's, friends and colleagues.
Merry Christmas , happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year