Anyone who has been playing the french horn for a long time knows how hard it is to find a good repair shop. When shopping for a french horn repair shop, especially for repair or restoration work on German and European horns. Here are some things to ask about when you’re looking. You’ll want to know if they service professional players or mostly just high school instruments. High schools are not likely to be using European horns while professionals are. Next, are they familiar with your model of horn. Alexanders for example are very common, but horns by Engelbert Schmid are less so. Finally, you’ll want to know what level of service they can provide. If they are located in your local mall, chances are they can only do minor repairs such as remove dents from the tail and flare, change rotor strings, or things like that. Anything that require dis-assembly of the valve cluster would be better left to a more experienced shop.
And for the very last, check the BBB for complaints and see how the repair shop handled it. I personally have been burned by repair shops in American and no I send my horns back to their makers in Germany.
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