Byron Autrey stops by

     Byron's pedigree is lengthy and impressive.  Professor Emeritus of Music and Chairman of Brass at Michigan State (That's the Green and White one).  Over the years, Byron has also spent much time helping various organizations with promoting trumpet, trumpets, trumpet music and trumpet players.
     He was instrumental in being one of the first active participants of the original National Trumpet Symposium with Ralph Stroff of the University of Denver, Haskel Sexton of the University of Illinois and John Haynie of North Texas, as well as Dale Olson.  About 8 years later, this group became the impetus for and morphed into the International Trumpet Guild under Robert Burns of Norman, Oklahoma.
     He remembers Louis Fletcher and Joe Doxey (University of Denver - Chairman), playing from memory for 1-1/2 hours at one of the first symposiums.  Byron is still active in the design and production of trumpets and parts for various artists and manufacturers.

From Tazmania, Austrailia

          Julian Bush (Center) is no Tazmanian Devil,
                                         but, he is a Tazmanian Repairman.

Upgrading the Z60/61E~

     Ray Bennett (owner) of McClellan's Music House (Est. 1905) in Buffalo, New York and Lynn Harbold, one of his Repairmen, came here Aug. 26-27, '05, to pick up a Brand New Z60/Z61E Dent Machine with ALL the toys and several other new tools as well AND had a private 1/2 day seminar on the Z60/61E's use and setups; especially with the Z61-11 Tuba Arm using the Z61-13 Balls.  Lynn has played 30 years in the local symphony, there.

   ~Bruce McCall and his father, from McCall Woodwinds in Knoxville,
TN stopped by.  He's originally from Michigan.  I forgot the camera.~

Repairman from Poland visits~

                                  
                       Sebastian Rosol, Chicago & Greg Ryglicki, Poland

Two Z60 Artists from Memphis~

                                  
      Here are Richard Dolan and Jobie Kilzer, Jr. from AMRO Music in Memphis, Tenn. They came up, for a couple days, to improve their dent machine skills.

Paul from Montreal~

                                  
     Veterans Day, Nov. 11)  A nice visit from Paul Laurendeau (R) and his friend Gilles Laramee (L) was in planning for the last several weeks.  Paul came down to pick up the start of a very complete shop.  His shop will be about 24' X 40' as he diagramed it out to me.  We spent most of a day going over the several ways to use the various tools he was picking up; demonstrating them on several instrument he had brought with him.
     This included many of the new modern method hand tools like the P50 and P53 along with the N87A using N53 rods and the ALL NEW N31 family, with the N31, N31A and N31B. (All of these tools have their own pages in this website).

Russ Thomas & Jennifer Nicoletti
  (father and daughter) come from New York~

                                  
     Oct. 2003)  Russ Thomas has been repairing since the early 70's and it just seems right that his daughter Jenn joined in the business about 3 years ago.  Still eager to learn and do more, they go to Gabs together, as well as other "field trips" and delivery trips, like this one.  Besides the music store they run in Rochester, NY, they manufacture "Tune Lube", a really slick tuning slide lubricant that can't be beat.  Containing Ferree's secret Z6 ingredient, this great lube is distributed as T85 by Ferree's Tools. Suggested list just $4.95 ea. ($30.70/dz net)   T85, "Tune Lube", This one works!

        Pat Hiatt; "Back to School" or
              a return to the scene of the crime~

    
Katherine Neeley (L) has known Pat over 20 years, so has Curtis.
                  
                     Here is Pat's class picture from March,1967.
                                 (Front row, 4th from the left)
Oct. 2003)  Pat Hiatt has been here before, several times, but, this time he came to see the 'school' where he started learning band instrument repair and bring back his class picture.  While here, he renewed some long time friendships personally.  Pat attended the, "Ferree's Repair School" back in March, 1967.  As you can see, Pat hasn't changed much.  Pat has been a very close business friend, since then, and continues to be.

                            Ferree's Tools-"Because they work!"