Low Brass Repair.
Our workshop in Melbourne is fully equipped to perform all repairs to euphoniums, tubas, sousaphones and the low-brass family. Tuba repairs are a speciality of ours and we have invested in significant equipment to properly handle and cater for these brass instrument. The Melbourne workshop is equipped with a 450L cleaning tank, a fully tooled Ferree’s Z60 Dent Machine, a Böhm Guard Roller for de-denting bottom bow guards (only one in Australia), tuba bell mandrels, large dent balls and associated rods.
We offer: servicing, minor to major dent removal, soft and hard soldering, patch and metal repair, seized slides removal, custom and replacement parts, mouthpiece alteration, bow repair and minor case repair.
Our full sized ultrasonic tank comfortably handles 6/4 tubas and sousaphones. Seen below is a 6/4 Hirsbrunner Tuba in our 450L ultrasonic tank. These instruments are some of the largest tubas around. When the instrument is filled with tank solution, it becomes incredibly difficult to handle as it probably brings the weight up to 40kg.
Strangely there are workshops who offer low-brass servicing and do not have the facility to chemically clean a tuba, but instead wash them out in a bathtub with soap. This can be easily done at home and does not constitute as a service. Infact, our workshop recommends our clients to regularly wash their instruments at home if they are able to. We suggest you ask a technician to see their cleaning tank to make sure they are properly cleaning the instrument otherwise you might as well do it yourself.
The concept of servicing a brass instrument is to remove the accumulated mineral deposits and corrosion that cannot be easily removed without the use of mild acid/ultrasonic cleaning, and return the instrument to the original bore dimensions free of tough scale. This helps it play more open and deters issues such as red-rot.
We welcome you to view some of our previous repair work. Instruments from all around Melbourne and Australia come through our workshop to receive our attention. We stock parts for and regularly repair Yamaha, Conn, Besson, Boosey & Hawkes, Miraphone, B&S, Meinl Weston, Hirsbrunner and many more. Please give us a call or send us an email to discuss your project.