General services offered are types of work that may be added on to a clean and service ticket or that are perormed when only minor maintenance is necessary/wanted. This includes dent work, soldering, brazing, patching cracks, or generally just doing the minimum work necessary to get an instrument in play condition.

Dent work is performed using a combination or mandrels, rods, and dent balls. All dents can be removed with the proper equipment and patience. As Britwell Brass is still a new shop, there may on rare occassion be dents that would require new equipment to be reached. If a customer cannot wait for me to obtain the proper equipment, I will always try my best to remove whatever dents I can with the tools on hand.

Soft soldering is a common repair requiring the removal of the old, broken solder and cleaning the surfaces to be joined before resoldering the two parts. It’s not uncommon for dent work to also be required if a solder joint was broken due to impact.

Brazing, sometimes confused with soft soldering or welding, is performed when a single component of the instrument has broken, rather than two separate parts needing to be joined. This is done with silver solder and higher heat to for a stronger bond, and typically requires more time than soft soldering because the component needs to be completely removed from the instrument to be repaired.

Patching may be done when a dent or mild red rot creates a crack or hole in the instrument, causing an air leak of buzz to occur while playing. Severe cracks or extensive red rot damage may require replacement of the affected part, but when possible, a custom patch of brass, nickel, or sterling silver may be cut and soldered over the affected area to cover the crack or hole.

Getting an instrument in minimum play condition may involve any of the tasks described above, or may be as simple as replacement of basic parts like valve felts or waterkey corks. If there is damage that cannot be adressed due to cost or time, doing limited work on only essential issues is sometimes necessary.