Odd Jobs Colleges Eastern School of Musical Instrument Repair

About the Eastern School of Musical Instrument Repair for the student aspiring to guitar repair and technician.

SCHOOL DAYS--OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT REPAIR

Eastern School of Musical Instrument Repair

1565 Union Avenue

Union, N.J. 07083

Got a yen to repair ukuleles? Want to improve on a Stradivarius? Then this is the school for you. Founded in 1948, it was the first school of its kind in the U.S. Until that time, musical instrument repairing was learned strictly by apprenticing.

The complete course lasts 2,500 hours, and tuition is $5,000, or $2 per hour of study time. Students learn how to distinguish between various models and makes of musical instruments, how to diagnose malfunctioning, how to repair all musical instruments, how to play all musical instruments well enough for repair purposes, how to organize work to eliminate wasted effort, and how to estimate the fee for a job. They also learn the business principles of running a repair shop.

The curriculum is divided into 11 parts, or courses. Piccolo Repair takes the most time (550 hours). In that class, you learn "key corking, pad floating and seating, assembly, regulation and adjustment, head repair, etc." The rest of the curriculum consists of: Brass (420 hours); Clarinet (300); Saxophone (275); Accordion Familiarization (50); Polishing/Lacquering and Plating (75); String and Percussion (25); Flute Repair (500); Sterling Silver Instruments (175); Review (100); and Business Operations (25).

As the school's brochure says, "Learn to be the Man behind the Band." This is an excellent career for people who are handicapped, incidentally, as long as they're not tone-deaf.