Recommended Clarinet Tech Services
Here are some people we recommended for Clarinet Reconditioning:
Revised 7Dec2020
Hobbyist category:
David Watson (Dave Leblanc on the clarinetpages.info forum!)
(858)-254-4255
http://watsonmusical.wixsite.com/watsonmusical
David has owned and operated Watson Musical since 2012. He specializes in cosmetic and playing restorations of clarinets of all sizes. David's work entails a full, ground-up restoration service. He can deal with most things wood except strings, but finds metal instruments to be the bane of his existence.
He currently resides in San Diego, California.
Cost: $150 plus all shipping for Bb soprano clarinets. Please contact for prices on other instruments.
Turn around time is 4-5 days, or shorter if the customer desires.
Windy Dankoff (windydankoff on the clarinetpages.info forum) offers special services as a hobbyist woodwind technician. His specialties are
In-tune C clarinets. These are heavily modified Chinese C clarinets.
Large bore, free blowing Bb clarinets. These are heavily optimized classic Pruefer Silver Throat clarinets from 1940-55.
Making custom modifications to clarinets, including ergonomic improvements to keys, the thumb rest, modifying barrels and mouthpieces, etc.
Supplying free-blowing, low-resistance clarinets to players with physical limitations.
Intersted? I recommend that you read Windy's detailed description.
windydankoff@mac.com Santa Fe, New Mexico (505)-490-0313
http://www.windydankoff.com/black-hole-clarinets.html
Phil Fields (philpedler):
I've slowed down quite a lot and I am out of the USA 3 1/2 months per year, but I still do some reconditioning. Feel free to use the Ask a Question form on the landing page of this site to ask me about your clarinet.
Professional Clarinet Tech Services:
Jordan E. Kinsey, Owner/Technician of Kinsey Clarinets
302-932-7984
You can also find Jordan offering $99 clarinet reconditioning on eBay. She writes: My husband also uses it frequently. He is the professor of clarinet at the University of Delaware and play tests every horn I work on.
Jeremy Soule is the Vintage Clarinet Doctor. He gave me the following information:
The way I'm handling pricing now is just to start with a baseline of $385 for the full overhaul of a vintage clarinet (Albert system or Boehm, it makes little difference) and then going up at an hourly rate, based on condition issues such as cracks, chips, rusted rods, broken springs, etc. I do a bench exam before quoting a firm price! 15 years of working on vintage clarinets has taught me that there's just no way to know whether it's going to be a 5-hour job or a 10-hour job, so I protect myself from an expensive mistake.
I also do sop/alto/tenor saxes, (overhaul includes straightening rods, aligning posts, leveling toneholes, cleaning body, new pads and cork). Overhauls start at $395 plus the cost of the pad set (some people want fancy pads) and then go up likewise based on condition issues. A 1920s Conn soprano sax will generate a lot more trouble than a 1980s Bundy alto!
Since I mostly work on old stuff, these are baselines, which ascend with condition issues, complexity of mechanism, etc. my hourly rate is a bit lower as I work from a home shop and have minimal overhead.
See the Contact page at his site linked above.
Please notify Phil (philpedler at the clarinetpages.info forum) if you would like to add someone to this list.