This review is about the outstanding orchestral st...

This review is about the outstanding orchestral string repair at Summerhays Music Center. But first, a little background.

I am an orchestra and band director in my 30th year of teaching. I've done business with Summerhays the whole time, both privately and in behalf of my school programs. I also visit other stores, but Summerhays is my go-to source for equipment, accessories, and repairs.

They have the best selection of instruments in the valley, and I have found them to have the best developed repair staff in the state. This post is about string repair specifically.

Part of my responsibility as a director is to keep the instruments playing, so every year we repair them as necessary, Often, as the school instruments age, Christian Rapp would give me a repair estimate and say, "Also, it would be good, at this time, for the instrument to have this one thing fixed, IF you have budget. If not, I understand" And then we'd fix what was needed, but not what was wanted.

Well, this year I found myself with a little bit of extra budget money, because I didn't have any repairs during the shutdown, and it dawned on me to ask Christian if he could "revitalize" the look of our 25 year old school cellos. They have various scratches and chips after their decades of service. He studied out the problem, which included a German varnish that doesn't repair as easily as the traditional French finish, and gave me a repair estimate. I approved it, and I don't have words to adequately express how great the change is. When the student opened the case, they didn't believe it was the same one. Now I'm sending in all my cellos, one by one, and the students are all eager for theirs to be next.

TL;DR - I've always loved Summerhays Music Center in Murray, but this time, because of Christian Rapp - Luthier, I love them even more.