Repair Business stays in tune with musicians

Best Instrument Repair keeps in key to make the fix
by Eve Mitchell Alameda Newspaper Group

For more than 30 years, Dick Akright has smoothed out the dents and replaced broken keys on countless trombones and trumpets in his basement Instrument re pair shop near City Center.

Some of the Instruments brought to Best Instrument Repair Co. have been owned by jazz legends such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, and musicians from the San Francisco Symphony. Others belong to school kids taking up band or orchestra for the first time.

But whether the owner is famous or not-so-famous, people tend to share an attachment Instruments, said Akright.

"Instruments are a very personal thing," he said. "It's like a nice piece of jewelry. You listen to what (people) want, and you take care of their problem."

Each year, some 15,000 damaged brass, woodwind and string instruments - including many brought in by Bay Area schools - are fixed in the sprawling repair shop whose origins go back to 1938.

Akright, 54, and his 11 repair specialists sit at well-worn wooden tables and benches under bright lights, making meticulous repairs. Workers tend to stay at the job a long time, including one man who has been there for more than 45 years.

The delicate tapping of a tool against metal and the occasional whirring buzz of machinery is heard in the background. At each table, a steady flame burns from a welding torch. There are also miniature Bunsen burners where shellac is heated to be used for gluing on new key pads.

The atmosphere evokes a kind of low-key comfort and stability in a world where so many of today's consumer products are just thrown In the trash when they are broken.

"We are losing the repair end of trades because it's a throw-away world. You don't take your toaster to get fixed anymore," said Akright, pointing out that fix-it shops are long gone and shoe-repair shops are disappearing. "There are so many repair shops that don't exist anymore, but I think band instrument repair will be around forever. Instruments can be fixed forever unless they've been run over by a car.

Akright has worked at only three different jobs all related to the craft of making and repairing musical instruments. The father of three grown children, he lives in Novato. He is engaged to a band director for a San Francisco middle school whom he first met when she worked as a music teacher for the Richmond schools.

He began working as a repairman at Best Instrument Repair Co. in 1969 and plans to put in 50 years before he retires.

"Nobody does that hardly anymore. I'm going to be one who does. This just isn't a job for me. It's fun to come to work," said Akright, his voice tinged with enthusiasm. "And It's not just because I own the place."

The route that brought him here began with first job after he graduated from high school in Elkhorn, Wis. He needed a job so he went to work at the Getzen Co., a manufacturer of band Instruments In Elkhorn.

Two years later, he left Getzen for a business in the same town that specialized in musical Instrument repairs. When it decided to open a branch in Santa Rosa In 1968, Akright came out to the Bay Area to run It. After it closed shop in 1969, Akright started started fixing instruments at Best Instrument Repair, advancing to manager four years later.

He still puts in long hours and works six days a week at his shop.

"Sometimes people are very fortunate a field they are very good at and they like it. I walked into the right place at the right time. This place was meant for me. I've been at the same bench. I can't work on other kinds of benches", said Akright chuckling.

His office is filled with signed photographs of musicians he has met over the years. One is of Doc Cheatham, the renown jazz trumpeter who passed away a few years ago.

"I gave him a horn for his birthday, and they presented it to him at Carnegie Hall," said Akright.

Best instrument Repair was originally founded at a different downtown Oakland location in 1938 by Arthur Best before it was sold to another owner in 1950.

In 1985, Akright and fellow instrument repairman, Bob Gross, went in as partners and bought the business. Along the way, they also purchased tow companies that made mouthpieces for trumpets , cornets and trombones.

In 1988, the partners opened a retail music store, A&G Music Products Co.. Located above the basement repair shop, it's where the old and new instruments are sold and rentals are also available. Two years later, Akright and Gross purchased the Union Music Co. store in san Francisco. moving it in 1995 from its Tenderloin location to a new address on Bush Street.

Akright also had a 13-year-long trumpet-manufacturing partnership with a very famous trumpet player — Doc Severinsen, the former "Tonight Show: bandleader with whom he still remains friends.

But in 1998, Akright stopped making trumpets because he wanted to spend more time repairing instruments.

"In manufacturing, everything is all laid out — one, two, three, four, five and you're done. When you get into repairing, you're a problem solver," he said.

Over the years, Akright has seen the changes in the way music is taught in the schools. Sometimes there's lots of money to go around, sometimes music programs are the first to go when money is short. Right now, schools are putting more emphasis on music programs, he said.

Instruments have their ups and downs. "You've got the Kenny G thing, so that gets kids all excited about saxophones, he said. "The flutes, clarinets, and the trumpets, they're mainstay all the time."

His business is active in the music community, providing financial support for youth big band that practices during the school year on Saturday mornings at the Diamond Recreation Center in Oakland.

"Dick has been a great supporter of not only the music community but just the community in general," said Khalil Shaheed, a jazz musician who provides instructs the youth band and is director of the Oaktown Jazz Workshop. One year he hired me to get a brass quartet together and go to the shops downtown and play Christmas carols. He is a master craftsman, Jazz musicians form all over the world will send their instruments to him to get them fixed."

Like many people, Akright took up a band instrument — in his case the saxophone — in high school. Like most people, he did not become a professional musician.

"It's a very disciplined type of thing, any time you play a musical instrument, My discipline wasn't for playing — it's for what I do."

 

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