Musical Instruments

As South Africa gears up to host next year's soccer World Cup, there are plenty of doomsayers predicting the worst. If transportation shortages don't ruin the event, crime will. The beer will run out. Or the stadiums will be half empty. But no one expected an ugly plastic trumpet to dominate the controversy.

To get the right sound in the little-known world of high-caliber musical instrument repair, some say it takes a certain touch, perhaps even a degree of voodoo. Musical instrument giant Yamaha Corp. has a different approach, involving cryogenics, fiber optic endoscopy and an ultrasonic cleaning lab.

For lovers of rare musical instruments, the Fiske Museum at the Claremont Colleges long has been an astonishing if somewhat mysterious collection. Its 1,200 instruments from around the world include an 18th century Italian mandolin, unusual over-the-shoulder military brasses from the Civil War era, a gourd fiddle from Africa and a 9-foot-long temple trumpet from Tibet.

Seven-year-old Hannah Cohen and her brother Brandon, 9, first touched the strings tentatively, almost afraid they would break the one-of-a-kind musical device. Then with exuberance, they swept their hands across the unusual 60-string harp to help launch a 60-hour Los Angeles celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary. The instrument is designed in the shape of the Hebrew letter samech, which represents the numeric value of 60.

Hoping to cater to everyone from the garage guitarist to the recording artist, Best Buy Co. is announcing plans to set aside store space for an array of musical instruments and gear in dozens of sites nationwide. The nation's largest consumer electronics retailer will announce Tuesday that it plans to open as many as 85 music centers inside its stores by the end of the year and could add more locations in the future, executives said.

At 3, Richard Hoffmann can't read or tie his shoes yet, but he can play the works of Johann Burgmuller, his favorite German composer. His secret: colors. Instead of seeing notes like C or F sharp, Richard sees purple and dark green, and knows their corresponding piano keys. It's a homespun technique developed by his parents -- Annie Wang, a piano instructor, and Heiko Hoffmann, a researcher at the University of Southern California.

Nick Carr likes his music gear to be old school, which explains why he was groping in a box for a vintage guitar effects pedal during a liquidation sale at the Groove Tubes factory in San Fernando this week. That kind of equipment -- pedals, speakers, microphones and, of course, tubes -- was in abundant supply at Groove Tubes, which was sold to industry giant Fender Musical Instrument Corp. in June and is closing its inventory sale today.

Pianist Phyllis Chen worried when she asked Andre Watts, her mentor at Indiana University in Bloomington, if she could use toy pianos for one of her doctoral recitals. After all, without his permission, the department wouldn't even consider it. Watts, more used to the standard classical repertoire, found the request surprising. But he listened closely to her proposal.

FOR more than 10 years, Wu Hong Fang's days have been filled with the same gentle sound, the quick chafe of sandpaper on spruce and maple. Working briskly, methodically, her hands a dusty blur, she sands violins all day, six days a week. There is a rhythm to what she does, but you wouldn't call it music. Wu laughs when she's asked whether she feels any connection to the melodies these violins will one day produce. "Basically," she says, "it's a living."

BY the time a musical instrument arrives at the Los Angeles Unified School District repair shop, it might be dented, cracked, scratched, bent, chipped, smashed, warped, jammed, gouged, rusted or snapped. It might be missing strings, keys, valves, hooks, hammers, springs, pads, paint, cork, felt or horsehair. Somebody might have carved "Tony {heart} Jenny" on its side. Maybe somebody kicked it or threw it. Maybe somebody used it as a club or bowled with it. Never heard of piano bowling?