This was my first time getting to my job at 6. To do this, I had to wake up at 5. Good thing is; I did it! I made it on time, too! Since my butt hurt so much, I decided not to ride my bike. Hopefully I will ride it tomorrow.
Surprisingly, I did not feel very tired. Maybe because of the brisk morning walk. Whatever the case, I was stripping clarinets by the time the clock hit 6:05. From 5:50 to 6:04 I was napping on a shelf underneath the desk. A common occurrence; Experienced Tech and another guy both take naps on the desk during lunch.
Aywho. I stripped two clarinets and then was given the most gorgeous bass clarinet I have ever held in my hands. It was a Selmer, wood, and though it was in bad shape I could see the glimmers of amazing quality and that good old Selmer Shine that would make my day had I still been playing bass clarinet.
The only problem was that it had an unconventional build and the screw board that I used to hold all the screws was confusing as all heck.
About screw boards. There are three types of screws that instruments use. Four if you're being technical. There are the roller screws, as shown here:
There are the pivot screws, as shown here:
And there are the spring screws, which I will show later once I get some pics of my workplace. Trust me, there will be a lot forthcoming. If I can manage to sneak them in past the old geezers who don't even know the difference between Android and IOS.
Here's one for reference. The acetylene torch that, still, scares the crap out of me every time I try to move it while it's on.
Anyways. (Again, lots more pics incoming.)
Back to "screw boards". They're little pieces of wood that have holes drilled in them where the screws go. The screws, like I said, can be anywhere from a centimeter long to a foot long in the case of a barry sax. They stick up from the boards, and since the boards are everywhere, the reeds shop has a distinct "metal forest" feel. (More pics coming soon!)
They are marked cryptically to save space, and the holes generally line up with the build of the instrument.
After fixing the marvelously beautiful (and complicated) bass clarinet, I moved onto flutes.
Let me tell you a bit about the relationship between me and my immediate instructor. I'm pretty sure he's annoyed at me because of how much I ask for his help. I ask, like, every ten minutes. Sometimes it's a stuck screw, sometimes it's a broken spring, sometimes it's a spring that won't come out. Because of his farmhouse background, he has good grip strength, which helps a lot when you're gripping two pairs of pliers and an uneven instrument while handling what is basically a wire that is flush to the surface of that instrument (and, devilishly, actually embedded in trenches at points).
But still, he is remarkably patient with me considering how much I screw up. I have to worry about what he will report back to the owner, though, because if I get a bad rap I may flunk out of the probationary period if I'm deemed "mechanically incompetent." Let's hope that that doesn't happen.
Springs broken: 5.
Lacerations: 4
Burns: 3
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