The Saxophone Smackdown was great! Clinicians came from as far away as Chile to be part of what may be the biggest, and certainly the best, saxophone repair clinic of all time!

I'm completely amazed at how wonderful everyone was! If you're not a NAPBIRT member already you should consider joining. NAPBIRT is a one of a kind organization consisting of a bunch of friendly and knowledgeable technicians anxious to share their ideas.

I've been a NAPBIRT member for years and given clinics for them many times, so I knew that having a bunch of NAPBIRT techs here would be cool. But, none of us knew just know how much NAPBIRT fun we would have!

NAPBIRT rocks and technicians involved are outstanding! Here are some highlights from the MusicMedic.com Saxophone Smackdown....

Enjoy!

-Curt

Here is a letter I received from my Friend Sid this morning:

Wow!

I rolled in about 11pm last night. My wife and kids greeted me gleefully and then wife and 16 yr old daughter were off to bed. However my 20 yr old son hung out and asked a bout the clinic. When I finally shut up, he said... " Wow Dad, I don't think I've ever seen you this excited about what you do."

Thanks Curt. To You, the clinicians and your staff for an outstanding day.

I have no doubt that the investment in this trip will pay dividends in spades.

Very Best Regards,

Sid Marlin

Curt Altarac explaining the unique layout of the new MusicMedic.com sax-facility.


Jeff Peterson (Yamaha) and Steve Goodson (Saxgourmet) got into some great debates about saxophone design and manufacture.


That's Matt Scott (MusicMedic.com) mobbed by technicians wanting to learn about leveling tone holes.


Rich Zimmerman (of MusicMedic) shows Don Millhouser(San Francisco CA) and Ray Petro(Greensboro NC) how the new Vortex Air Torch works.

Curt Altarac (of MusicMedic) explains his octave pip experiment to a full house.

The Benny Hill Trio wowed the group with some outstanding playing. Benny is a RooPads endorser right here from Wilmington North Carolina.


Our friends Nicolas and Frances came all the way from Chile to share their ideas and learn from others!


From Left to Right, Fred Melk (Milwaukee WI) Mark Farmer (Olathe KS), Bob Frushour (Fredrick MD) and Jon Mills (Charlotte NC) enjoying some Flaming Amy's Burritos at the Key Work Bench.


Steve Goodson (New Orleans LA) Jeff Peterson (Buena Park CA) Curt Altarac (Wilmington NC) and Matt Stohrer(NYC) share their knowledge with the group durring an open Q&A session.


Dinner was a time to relax reflect and drink just a bit more....


Brandon Johnson, Melvin Benjamin, Pablo Lugones (Pacifica CA)


Matt Stohrer sharing ideas with Don LePage(Shelby MI), Jon VanBuren(Winston Salem) and Jeff Reitz(Eau Claire WI) over an excellent dinner.


Curt Altarac in a heated discussion with Lee Kramka(San Francisco CA) and Steve Collins (Birmingham AL)

Even Matt's Baby Claire has a tall drink.

Here we are, the day before the big NAPBIRT regional clinic at MusicMedic.com and the weather is getting bad:

The band is ready to play, the girls at Flaming Amy's are ready with 50 Burritos, a case of wine is here waiting, some of the clinicians are already in town and the MusicMedic.com regional clinic is about to be underway.

That said, there are some folks that are asking if we will reschedule this event due to bad weather. If this were a normal NAPBIRT regional clinic, I would say it should be rescheduled. But, this is the SAXOPHONE SMACKDOWN! People are already here and coming to the shop. There are two techs from Chile who will be here in a couple of minutes, two techs from California are in town and one clinician from CA is in town. People are coming in from WI, OR, OH, VA, TN, NY, ABC, PDQ, you name it.

So, we're going to go on with the clinic.

That said, if you're planning on driving in from PA or VA leave early. We have a pot of coffee on and will be here in the shop to greet you when you arrive.

Get over to MusicMedic.com now, -the weather here is chilly but quite nice.

We're here, set up and ready to rock. The NAMM show looks like it will be great! Thanks to all of you that helped get us here and a special thanks to the guys (and gal) at MusicMedic.com who are holding down the fort. You guys are the best!

We arrived early and got set up in good time. I haven't had a lot of time yet to look around and find friends, but I did see a few. Roger from P Mauriat stopped by to say hello. Steve Goodson and Ruben Allen are across the aisle from us and their booth looks great.

A lot of folks walking by on their way to set up their booths stopped to ask what the cool looking new tool is. I've already demonstrated it several times and the show hasn't ever started! We didn't bring any to sell but I've sold already started taking orders for them. It really adds excitement to the show when we so many new things. Oh, I didn't tell you about the new tool.... well you have to come to the NAMM show to find out how MusicMedic.com is revolutionizing woodwind padding! -or check out site next week!

Around the corner from us is a new booth for Drake Ceramic Mouthpieces. I'm excited to check them out.

The show gets hectic so be patient with me if you're sending an Email. I'll try and take more pictures and give more updates.

no promises...


On the way out, I snapped a few pics with my phone. Here's what the show looks like before all the people get there.









All the best!

-Curt

Come see us at the NAMM show!
MusicMedic.com
Booth # D3012

Today is the day. Rich and I are headed out West to the NAMM show in Anaheim California! Every year that we prepare for the NAMM show, we reflect on the previous year(s) and consider what the following year(s) will be like.

What an amazing year it has been. Last year we came to The NAMM Show as excited as instrument repair techs are legally allowed to be. We had just bought a new building and really enjoyed the conversations with techs, store and shop owners. Many of you shared your experiences with us and helped to shape our idea of what the New MusicMedic.com would be in it's new home.

Our goal was to find out how our customers and friends would like to see us grow. We all know that we are working for you, our customer, and that without you we would not be here. That said, this new facility is all yours. You outlined, designed and supported this new venture and you should be proud of it!

Just like you, we like to push. As a company we strive to offer the best service lowest prices and finest tools, supplies and repairs available. So, it's no surprise that MusicMedic.com managed to fix-up the new place, continue offering outstanding service and improve our line of tools and supplies at the same time.

Now it's your job to come to the NAMM show and help us celebrate!

What to look for when you come to the booth.

-Before you ask, "what's new?" let us tell you what's not new! Our pad prices are not new. Every other supplier of pads has raised their prices while Precision Pads from MusicMedic.com have not changed price. Shops that buy pads from MusicMedic.com have saved thousands of dollars over the past 10 years because we know what not to change! It's never to late to improve your work and save money.

-Free shipping and low-low prices on tools and supplies have not changed.
Look around our site and you'll see that our high standard of quality and low prices remain the same year after year. For example, 8 years ago we offered duckbilled pliers for only $20.00. Here are those same pliers 8 years later:
http://www.musicmedic.com/catalog/produ ... pl201.html

-RooPads for Clarinet! Yep, they're in stock and they Rock. Everyone loves the RooPads for Clarinet. They are easy to install, seal up great, sound clear and crisp, never tear, don't stick... They're that good so hurry up and try them!

-Thin Pressed Clarinet Pads. You asked for them and you got them. Apparently you like them! A lot. These pads are quickly becoming a favorite among techs. This thinner (2.5mm) clarinet pad is made with out proprietary.  installs easily

-Mouthpiece refacing tools. -If refacing mouthpieces has ever crossed your mind, check out our new tools. We have been testing these tools for over a year and they are excellent. MusicMedic.com now offers mouthpiece tools individually. So, you only need to purchase the tools you need!


-Make sure you check out our new never-burn padding system. Say goodbye to burnt felt, cork and pads forever. -Yeah really.

-Get a good look at our swedging tools. Save time during key fitting with our very popular new swedging pliers.

-Parallel pliers of all shapes and sizes. We now have the largest selection of parallel pliers on the repair-planet. Come to the booth and discuss the next parallel tool...



I'll try and post some pics or video from inside the convention hall for those of you that can't make it.


I look forward to seeing you at the show!


-Curt

Although the old shop was ridiculously small it did have one great benefit; It could be made dark from the bench while working. Man, that was cool. You could drop a light into an instrument then dim the lights just as much as needed. The downside was that others working the shop had to cope with the dark.

The new shop has wonderful day lighting and plenty of open space but no dark areas. Hoping for the best of both worlds, we're building this pad room, or "pad oasis" as Matt likes to call it.

We started this project on Thursday and today is Monday. We still have some work to do on it but it will have to wait until after the NAMM show in CA.

The Pad Oasis is a 10 x 8 room with a 10 foot long bench. The room can be made completely dark from the bench. Here is a shot of the pad oasis which now sits in the corner of the shop.



The Pad Oasis has 4 recessed can lights that dim independently and a ceiling fan to pull out the heat of the torches and air guns that we use when padding.

Worried that legs on bench might limit us as we set up the pad room and work in there, we built our own bench with some rectangle channel that we had in the shop. Welding up the new bench and bolting it to the wall turned out to be pretty sturdy. There was some discussion that one could park a car on that bench.

Certainly strong enough to hold even the heaviest saxophones!

Here are some shots of the bench. With the door opening so close to the bench, it was difficult to get a shot of the entire bench so here are three pics from left to right.



Now we have to add some switches to the room for the lights, a little trim, a door, and some paint then we're off to a great start!

More on the pad room later!

-Curt