After more than 25 years working for others, Bruce Himmerich recently began his own musical instrument-repair business.

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

After more than 25 years working for others, Bruce Himmerich recently began his own musical instrument-repair business. He now has a shop in his basement that keeps him occupied when he isn’t at his part-time welding job.

&uot;It’s something I always wanted to have in the house,&uot; he said. &uot;Things are great, and they’re just getting better.&uot;

With a small basement shop in his Albert Lea home, Himmerich often finds himself immersed in the intricacies of re-padding a clarinet or saxophone, bumping out dents in a trumpet or straightening the neck of a guitar.

It’s tedious work, he said, and it takes a lot of patience to get it right. But when the job is done, he said he gets a renewed sense of satisfaction.

&uot;The greatest joy is when someone brings in an instrument that just doesn’t play at all,&uot; Himmerich said over the Christian music playing in his shop. &uot;When they come to pick it up, I ask them to play and, when it works and sounds like it should, their faces just light up.&uot;

He said he concentrates on the playability of the instrument more than the aesthetics of it, although he can work on that as well. But an instrument is meant to play music and that is his goal – to make them play the best music they can, he said.

In addition to fixing the instruments, Himmerich plays the guitar fairly regularly, and writes his own music. He accompanies at church and plays at a weekly Bible study at his welding job.

But the real joy of this job is being able to be home with his four-year-old daughter, he said. Having raised two daughters who are now married, Himmerich said he truly enjoys being able to be home more with his youngest.

It also allows him to spend time on his hobbies, including carpentry work and fishing.

&uot;I just bought a boat,&uot; he said. &uot;I hope to get out and do a lot of fishing this summer.&uot;