There is something that I've encountered once or twice in my repair career that I was warned about from my instructors. Something that apparently all techs will encounter, and how to handle it.
At one point, I got a call from a concerned parent that their child's instrument just wasn't working. It was s clarinet, and one of the upper pads on it was torn through. If the skin of the pad is cracked or torn, it will leak and notes below that pad won't work. I set up an appointment with them, and when they brought it to me, I installed a new pad and the parent went home happy.
About 3 weeks later, the same parent called me to state that there was a problem. The pad was leaking again. I told them to bring it back, as the fault could have been mine. Either the installation didn't work, or the skin of the pad was defective, or or or. It could have been many things, but they brought it back for me to set it right. I opened the case, and found the same pad was leaking, but there was something very odd about the way the skin was torn. I was broken through in the exact same spot as the previous pad. Clarinet pads sit proud of the key they are in, and this one started the tear on the side of the pad, rather than the face. This meant there was nothing about the tone hole that could have damaged the pad. I made a mental note about this peculiarity as I put in the replacement pad and they went home, happy again.
This is where things get even fishier. About a month later, I get a call about the same pad on the clarinet. Leaking once again. I agree to look at it, but I ask the parent to bring the child with them. They are a little confused, but I tell them it's because I want to ask them what's going on with the instrument.
When they come back, clarinet being carried by the player, with severely slumped shoulders and unhappiness. I open the case, and notice the tear is, once again, in the same exact spot. I look at it for maybe a moment, then turn to talk to the kid. I ask them one very simple question. "You don't like playing the clarinet at all, do you?" The parent is shocked and starts to get their hackles up with the kid, wide eyed and awestruck I could understand them so fast, blurts out "I hate playing the clarinet. I wanted to play the trombone, but they told me I had to play this one!!!!!"
The jaw of the parent drops, as I look at the shocked parent and calmly tell them that the pad kept tearing because the kid hates playing it, and they knew they couldn't play it if it didn't work. I also explained that, by damaging the pad, they were being careful to not do permanent damage to the clarinet and end up making their family spend a lot of money on a more serious repair.
The kid broke down into tears, relieved I wasn't going to scold them and happy someone understood them, but still scared their parent was going to be upset. Far from it, once the shock wore off. The parent, after apologizing the the kid for quite a while, is near to tears themselves.
Six months later, they come to me because it's time to do a deep clean on the kids new trombone. As I do it, he's asking me questions about how to do some of it myself, and different things he should learn to do for and with the trombone to get better at it. He was now a sponge for anything trombone, and the parent couldn't believe how fast their little trombonist was improving.
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