Saxophone maker: "My parents never forgave me for that"

When Max Frei works, it has to be quiet. He does not listen to music because he can not concentrate, he says, even though he has to deal with instruments every day. The 54-year-old is a saxophone maker. Until he found this job, he took a detour.

When Frei was 16 and had graduated from high school, his parents decided that he should do an apprenticeship as a metal wind instrument maker. They owned a music store in the Allgäu and it was clear then that the only son should take over once.

After passing the journeyman and master exam, Frei first started working in the parents' shop. But he did not enjoy selling violins, pianos and sheet music. He wanted to be more involved with the instruments, do handicrafts - and quit. "My parents never forgave me," says Frei to SPIEGEL.

Nevertheless, the man from Bavaria took his first workshop, made an additional training in the field of woodwinds and went several months on the Walz in Germany and the United States to know different workshops and his favorite instrument - the saxophone - better. The precision mechanics and the filigree would have interested him, he says.

Frei now has his own workshop in Munich. The photographer Janina Laszlo gives an insight into his work with a photo series. Although his job description saxophone maker suggests that he builds instruments himself, he only repairs them and builds the spare parts. "It would be far too costly and expensive to manufacture them completely yourself, today most of this is done by machine," says Frei.

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It takes several days to completely overtake an instrument. The 54-year-old has to disassemble it completely and disassemble all the items. He cleans all tone holes, flaps or springs, exchanges them as needed, removes cork and felt, improves dented areas. Each saxophone must be processed after six to eight years, says the instrument maker. The photographer Janina Laszlo gives an insight into his work with a photo series.

The lathe on which he turns brass plates into round shapes, soldering torches, screwdrivers, utensils for working bumps like steel balls or small hammers, files and sandpaper are among his tools. "But my hands are the most important tool," says Frei, who has been playing saxophone for years - and not just for fun: "I have to try the instrument myself when I'm done."

Professional musicians from all over the world come to Frei. The biggest challenge is to edit the instruments according to the musicians. "Everyone has their own style of play and other needs, which I want to incorporate and support it with sound," says Frei. If he does not know a musician yet, he first hears recordings of him to later tune the instrument to it.

In his profession, there are few changes over the decades, says the saxophone maker: "It's a very classic instrument and most want it to stay that way." He therefore does not use new techniques or materials. More and more people would come to him but also with cheaply manufactured and ordered on the Internet instruments. But those, says freely, he does not even touch.