He’s a Repairman of Note : Ask Any Musician--Chuck Madere Can Make Broken Instruments New

Chuck Madere hasn’t yet received the calls he often gets this time of year. They usually come from desperate brass or wind musicians, visiting California for the New Year’s Rose Parade, whose instrument won’t play right. From among the bands that choose to stay in Anaheim, someone usually drops an instrument and needs it fixed in a hurry. And with few instrument repairers in Orange County, Madere often gets the call.

Regardless of the time of year, Madere, who lives in Anaheim and works at Sam Ash Music Store in Cerritos, receives calls from musicians of all levels--from elementary, junior high and high school band members to professionals. Broken valves, bent keys, worn pads--Madere fixes them all. “I can fix anything,” he said. Over the course of his career, Madere estimates, he has worked on more than 80,000 instruments.

Sometimes people don’t choose their professions. They fall into them.

That’s the way Madere describes how he ended up a repairman of brass and wind instruments. Madere never trained intentionally to be the instrument-repair guy. He never went to instrument-repair school; none exist. And when he started playing the clarinet at age 10, he certainly didn’t have a profession in mind. Life’s events just sort of directed him toward the esoteric profession.

Madere, 62, repaired his first instrument while a member of the Marine Corps Band in 1956. The band didn’t have someone to fix its instruments. As a child, Madere liked to tinker with model airplanes, so taking on the intricacies of instruments came naturally.

When he got out of the Marines, Madere needed a job. Knowing of Madere’s skill, a friend offered him a job repairing instruments for 75 cents an hour at a music store in Baton Rouge, La., where Madere grew up. In 1972, Madere opened his own repair shop in Anaheim near Magnolia and Katella avenues. He ran that store until 1994, when he got tired of having his own business. About a year ago, he went to work for Sam Ash Music.

“There’s an art to fixing the brass and wind instruments. It’s almost like being a surgeon,” said Jim Agnello, a regional manager for Sam Ash Music. Because more people listen to and play guitars, it’s rare to find someone who knows the brass and wind instruments as well as Madere, Agnello said.

Madere worries about the fact that not many people have the skills he has acquired over 40 years. Thus, he has begun to plan videotapes that will give instructions on how to repair each instrument.

But Madere said he doesn’t plan on retiring any time soon. “I’ve got a lot of years left in me. I think I’ll be at it for a long time.”

Judy Silber can be reached at (714) 966-5988.