San Antonio ISD's Instrument Repair Shop

The Instrument Repair Shop

In San Antonio ISD, 79 percent of the District's 49,000 students participate in fine arts education. SAISD's very own instrument repair shop inventories all District instruments, from triangles to tubas, keeping them sounding sweet and looking shiny.

When any instrument is purchased by SAISD or an SAISD school, the pieces are delivered directly to the instrument repair shop, located just off of Culebra Road, just north of downtown San Antonio. Here, a team of three employees inventory instruments, engraving identification numbers on every piece that comes through the shop before they are released to campuses.

Frank Abrego, assistant instrument repairman, loads a tuba from the repair shop into the back of a band director's car for transport to an SAISD elementary school.

Hundreds of cases line the south wall of the instrument repair shop. In 2019, the repair shop moved from the Milam Building on Alamo Street to a new location just north of downtown San Antonio on Culebra Ave. The District sold the Milam Building in 2019.

The team at the repair shop uses a variety of techniques and machines to clean and refurbish used instruments. Here, Abrego removes a previously tarnished tuba from the shop's ultrasonic cleaner, a device that uses a combination of temperature, bubbles and water-based detergents to clean brass instruments and woodwinds in only two to four minutes. The ultrasonic musical instrument cleaner is capable of cleaning brass, nickel, silverplate, clarinet keys, and plastic.

The team uses a lathe machine to make instrument parts that have been damaged beyond repair and are no longer made by suppliers. The machine shapes wood, metal, or other material by means of a rotating drive which turns the piece being worked on against changeable cutting tools.

But not every job requires a huge machine. Many repairs can be accomplished with one of a myriad of specialized tools that, in the hands of these craftsmen, can restore an instrument to its former glory.

Top left: A set of dent balls are used to repair the curved crooks of instruments. Top right: Pliers are used in the repair process of many instruments. Bottom: Springs of every shape and size sit in wait to be used in an instrument.

Beto Elorreaga, instrument repair shop chief, has been fixing instruments for the District for the past 21 years.

But Elorreaga doesn't just repair instruments. This outstanding trumpet player performs with the Roger Velasquez & The Latin Legendz, who received a Latin Grammy in 2018 for Best Tejano Album.

Roger Velasquez & The Latin Legendz receiving their Latin Grammy in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2018.

Frank Abrego, assistant band repair technician, has been working at the repair shop for the past 10 years. Abrego works on both brass and woodwinds and can make a tuba that has seen better days look brand new in a matter of hours.

Robert Reynolds, assistant band repair technician, is the newest member of the SAISD instrument repair shop. He has been working with the team for three years and specializes in woodwinds, but works on brass as well.

A closing "note"

Though Elorreaga, Abrego, and Reynolds work behind the scenes, their specialized knowledge, skill set, and myriad toolkit are an integral part of SAISD Fine Arts. Their work is responsible for so much joy and education at each and every school across the District.

Created By

Deborah Silliman

Appreciate

Credits:

Photos by Deborah Silliman/San Antonio ISD