Leersfool, when I took my son's alto sax to the music store for sale, the owner gave me a price, and told me he would pay a lot more if I took it to the St. Louis Woodwinds and Brass Instrument Repair, and get a clean bill of health.
There was only one person ahead of me when I arrived. Someone was explaining every detail of what was wrong with her horn, and what it would take to repair it.
That can't take but a minute I thought, but he seemed to go on and on. Fortunately the wait was a pleasant one. This was in a very large open room, with a long counter separating the customers from the instrument repair specialists at their separate work stations.
As I sat in a comfortable chair listening to classical music and watching the men at work, I began to experience the calm this place exuded. Whether the person was working on woodwind or brass, he seemed to have an attachment to that particular instrument as he played a few quiet notes for testing. The calm expressions on their faces indicated to me, there was nothing else that they would rather be doing, or no place else they would rather be than here; consequently, what they were doing didn't fit the definition of "work".
Although I'm not particular fond of classical, I liked this music. While I couldn't see the rig, the mellow tube sound that was the antithesis of ARC, indicated it was probably old refurbished electronics. The speakers were custom horn, probably very efficient. I liked this sound much better than what I've heard that was supposedly state of the art.
I had gotten fairly comfortable when, "Can I help you"?
"Yes, I have an alto sax I would like you to go over"
That exchange brought me back to the reason I was there. After examining the horn, he explained every detail that was wrong, and told me I could wait, which I didn't mind at all.
There were photos on the wall of local jazz musicians which I instantly recognized, plus the classical musicians from different venues in the city. All of these photos were of musicians who had their instruments worked on here. There were even photos of world famous musicians. The fact that they all had been here and had their instruments worked on was quite impressive.
When they called me to the counter for the bill, it was less than I expected. After I took the horn to the music store with a clean bill of health, he gave me more than I expected; that was a good day.