Well wow! I popped into Dawkes music, as I mentioned yesterday, to sort out a new mouthpiece for my Tenor Sax. I also had my Alto with me which, incidentally, I bought from Dawkes Music in March 2005. It’s 14 years old.

It’s not an instrument which needs major repairs. In fact it’s been about two years since a major overall and I’ve been using it extensively. But recently I’ve been having a couple of niggles with my it. The occasional unpredicatable squeek when I play which is just a little off putting. I thought it was my technique and made adjustments but that didn’t work; I suspected my set up, made adjustments but that was not the problem either. May be a teenage strop? 🙂 Through a process of deduction I recalled this had happened before many moons ago but I could not put my finger on the problem, but definitely a mechnical problem.

After buying my new mouthpiece I visited the workshop for them to check out my Alto, and lo and behold! I was expecting to see male repairers but no! there were not one but two young female repairers – Abi and Ana. I was surprised and mentioned it. We had a great chat. It’s so pleasing to see women in this role giving the feminine touch to things. The third member of the team is Ivan who is male.

I passed my Alto to Abi who is the Workshop Manager (another surpise – a woman in leadership in this field – well done Abi!) she carefully and expertly looked over my Sax and said their were 4 areas that needed a little tweek which could be done on the spot. She applied the feminine touch, and job done! In 15 minutes and she got it sounding bright and solid. Fantastic!

I can go with confidence to Leatherhead Carnival next Monday (Bank Holiday Monday 27th May) with a spring in my step and in my fingers. I might even take my Tenor along to road test my new mouthpiece, who knows. Wait to see 🙂

Thanks Abi for allowing me to take a pic for my post!

p.s. I should point out I have no problem with male repairers. From my observations it is a male dominated profession so it’s good to see women coming in to this field bringing the feminine touch. Also while Abi was able to repair my instrument on the spot this may not be the case for you when you visit. It will depend on the nature of the your repair and the workload of the workshop so ring ahead to make arrangements if you’re wanting a quick turn around!

Speak soon.

Bye for now.