i may not know any WORKING repair technicians, but i’m not COMPLETELY out of the loop…

i contacted my friend (since high school) dave cole, who is currently a RETIRED repair technician, who currently lives in wenatchee, and he recommended a guy in fremont, tony portela, with whom i made an appointment this afternoon. when the time came, i went down to his shop, which is, literally, a stone’s throw away from the former hale’s palladium (boy has that neighbourhood changed A LOT since i was down there last!), and he and i spent a pleasant hour, chatting about this and that, while he freed up my two stuck tuning slides. he actually didn’t use any new, secret methods, basically the same things i had tried, only his “trying” was more forceful, and he did actually use a bigger hammer… and some weird plastic goo that forms around the tuning slide and then hardens so that he could whack on it more forcefully without denting the slide tubes.

and then he ultrasonically cleaned ALL my tuning slides, and lubricated them with lanolin (which i have never used on a tuning slide).

so, now my micro-tuba has ALL working tuning slides, and it only cost me $100, which i consider to be a fair deal! 👍👍