Clarinet service

Professional service of woodwind and brass instruments by Pete Willis

Over 20 years of experience repairing wind instruments.

Instruments are picked up & dropped off for repair at Traverse City Violin Co (3003 Garfield Road N, Traverse City). Instruments are picked up from TC Violin, examined at my home repair shop, and customers are contacted with assessment of needed repair and estimate of cost.

This site is a work in progress… there will be more added soon - thanks for visiting!

Repair photo galleries

Bass Clarinet spring catch replacement

Replacing broken bass clarinet key spring catch - machine new catch & solder to key

Buffet R13 crack repair

Repairing cracked R13 Bb clarinet upper joint: pins & tonehole replacements

Buffet R13 nickel tenon sleeve replacement

This clarinet had had a nickel sleeve installed on the center tenon, which became damaged and needed to be replaced. I machined and installed a new sleeve.

Yamaha student clarinet socket replacement

Repairing a broken center socket on a student model Yamaha clarinet (an old model from ~1980 made by Vito). The broken socket is cut off the lower joint, and a new socket is machined on the lathe and glued in place, and special tools are used to align the body to cut the top tonehole and the top key post holes in the correct locations on the new socket.

Yamaha Bass Clarinet tenon replacement

Replacing a broken center tenon on a Yamaha plastic bass clarinet

Buffet Prestige bass clarinet crack repair

Repairing a long crack on a Buffet bass clarinet upper joint. The crack started at the very top of the joint, went the length of the neck receiver socket, through the hole for the register vent tube, and kept going several more inches. The crack was filled, and reinforced with 6 carbon fiber pins plus a carbon fiber band reinforcing the neck receiver socket.