Repairs and Restoration
Tom Fisher offers a full repair and restoration service, helping both professional and amateur players keep their instruments in the best playing condition - and fixing the occasional accident.
He quite often gets enthusiastic messages from players when they get their instrument back. As Phil Stoker of the BBC Philharmonic put it on receiving his horn after a service:
"I'm delighted with the feel and response of the valves on my Rauch, a huge improvement. My horn felt great to come back to. Many thanks for your care and attention."
Another player had this to say (the service was rather overdue...):
"You're a miracle worker! The Alex has been so utterly transformed it could be a totally different horn. I've just played it and although I've obviously not played at all for three weeks I noticed from the very first note. It plays so much more freely now and I can't remember when the valves were this quick and quiet, probably when it was new forty five years ago! So thank you once again and I certainly won't leave it another thirty years before the next service!"
Servicing starts at £120 for a full double horn, with other models and instruments costed individually. Servicing includes cleaning valves (using non corrosive and non-abrasive methods) lubricating and re-assembling, replacing stops and strings where necessary, cleaning valve slides, full lubrication and re-assembly.
Valve restoration is costed by the hour. Tom uses plating or sleeving, as appropriate, to bring valve rotors and pistons up to size. Hand lapping brings the clearances back to new specification and can transform an instrument.
Corpus restoration is costed by the hour. Tom has completed several complete restorations, disassembling to remove dents and distortions and re-making components where necessary. The images below show a 1940s Conn 6D before and after restoration:
He quite often gets enthusiastic messages from players when they get their instrument back. As Phil Stoker of the BBC Philharmonic put it on receiving his horn after a service:
"I'm delighted with the feel and response of the valves on my Rauch, a huge improvement. My horn felt great to come back to. Many thanks for your care and attention."
Another player had this to say (the service was rather overdue...):
"You're a miracle worker! The Alex has been so utterly transformed it could be a totally different horn. I've just played it and although I've obviously not played at all for three weeks I noticed from the very first note. It plays so much more freely now and I can't remember when the valves were this quick and quiet, probably when it was new forty five years ago! So thank you once again and I certainly won't leave it another thirty years before the next service!"
Servicing starts at £120 for a full double horn, with other models and instruments costed individually. Servicing includes cleaning valves (using non corrosive and non-abrasive methods) lubricating and re-assembling, replacing stops and strings where necessary, cleaning valve slides, full lubrication and re-assembly.
Valve restoration is costed by the hour. Tom uses plating or sleeving, as appropriate, to bring valve rotors and pistons up to size. Hand lapping brings the clearances back to new specification and can transform an instrument.
Corpus restoration is costed by the hour. Tom has completed several complete restorations, disassembling to remove dents and distortions and re-making components where necessary. The images below show a 1940s Conn 6D before and after restoration:
Dent Work - here are before and after pictures of a bell spout repair - the owner was so pleased, he changed his shorts.
Ergonomic Modifications
Tom has developed solutions to the ergonomic problems that affect some designs of horn - particularly American Kruspe wrap doubles. His designs for a thumb-lever make it possible to stand the instrument in F or Bb and can offer adjustments that allow the hand to adopt a more natural position. The pictures below show two designs for a reversible thumb lever fitted to a Reynolds double. These modifications are designed to allow the instrument to be returned to standard in the future.