MASSACHUSETTS: New England Overhaul Shop?

I have purchased a compensating 3+1 valve euphonium needing an overhaul. I live in eastern CT near the RI border. Does anyone have experience with an overhaul shop in New England that might do a good job?

Or, if not, I was considering going through Hickey's Music...meaning that the work would be done at Cayuga Music Shop in Ithaca, NY. Has anyone had work done there and comment on the work done?

I'm hoping to get a complete overhaul done (dents, valves, repolish, lacquer) by a place that does really good work. It seems difficult to find comments anywhere on the work done in overhauls.

Of course I'm willing to have the work done anywhere in the US.

ross

[davewerden]

When I was in the Coast Guard Band, a lot of our folks had really good experiences with Osmun Music, just outside Boston (Arlington). Here is there repair page.

Osmun Repair

It talks about tuba there, but I believe they also do work on euphoniums. You might call them and check it out.

Thanks for the suggestion, Dave.

I've emailed Osmun to get a ballpark quote for an overhaul.
I really appreciate your advice!

ross

[carbogast]

I've had work done by Osmun that I was very happy with.

You might also consider Pope Instrument Repair in Jamaica PLain (Boston).
His link is http://www.poperepair.com/

Ken Pope performed a tricky repair for me very recently on a Boosey & Co Solbron euphonium (a story for another time!) and I was happy with the result. He also has an ultrasonic cleaner.

Good Luck!
Carroll

[ralfsmith]

Oh its very interesting. Could you provide me more information ?

Abbeville@digitalhardcore.us

[daruby]

I have been very happy with the work that Jim Becker did for me at Osmun. I had Osmun overhaul my old 1980 Besson Sovereign a number of years ago. About a year ago, I had Jim repair a dent in the bottom bow of my new Prestige.

However, my best Jim Becker story is the work he did on my Holton Superbone. The valve mechanism of the superbone is a, shall we say, a Mickey Mouse mechanical contraption. The entire trombone slide attaches directly to the third valve knuckle and this one knuckle has only one small piuece of brass to brace it to the body of the valve. When my trombone fell over on its old (now trashed) stand, it broke the solder on the brace and crimped the knuckle. Also, the tuning slide got a nice dent in it. (This is the 4th time it has fallen...these don't balance well on a trombone stand).

I gave the horn to Jim and asked him to fix it. On a Wednesday, about 1.5 weeks later I got a call from him on my voicemail saying it was all done and "played like a million dollars". I was glad to know that my horn was fixed but I thought it odd that he said it played so well since usually technicians of Jim's caliber don't have time to play the horns for long enough to really know them very well.

I went to the shop on Saturday morning to pick up the horn and Jim was not there, but the horn was ready for me. I checked out the horn and the dent in the tuning slide was invisible, the crimp in the knuckle was gone, the brace was resoldered, and the trombone slide had been straightened and worked better than ever. After paying the bill, the person said, "We are so glad you came to pick up the Superbone. We got really tired of hearing Maynard Trombone all day long for the last three days!' It turns out Jim had been spending most of his free time playing my horn.

While I doubt that my horn really plays like a million dollars, the story was priceless.

Doug