Studio 7 celebrates 40 years

Walk through Bristol’s bustling Harbourside, into the historic old city quarter, up the hill towards Corn Street and you will see, on your left, the entrance to a dark, narrow alleyway occupying the small tract of land in-between Stanford’s bookshop and the grand pillared facade of Cosy Club. This is Leonard Lane, an obscure and receding thoroughfare which once formed the medieval boundary of the city of Bristol. Take the plunge into its shadowy recesses and, after a minute or so, you will come across the ‘light in the wilderness’ that is Centrespace; a thriving collective of artists and craftspeople, which is home to one of Bristol’s best-kept secrets.

Studio 7 Music Repairs is a tiny artisan workshop which, for 40 years, has been trusted by local musicians to offer quality repairs and servicing of their most valued possessions. The proprietor Richard Smith, who is celebrating four decades of craftsmanship this year works with woodwind and brass instruments belonging to musicians from Bristol and the surrounding area. While his business might not be well known, Richard has a loyal core of clients who value his skill, knowledge and personal service: “My workshop has been described as a ‘hidden gem’ because, while not many people know I’m here, those who find me keep coming back! 

Studio 7 was born in 1975 after Richard finished training in college in Newark, and quickly realised that he wanted to run his own business: “I spent some time working in a couple of music shops as resident musical instrument repairer, but I was really just gaining experience to set up my own workshop as soon as possible – I’d worked for other people and thought I could do it better!” 

When asked what his work entails, Richard gives a characteristically wry response: “Broadly – I repair musical instruments that you blow: if you pluck it, I don’t want to know!” More specifically, he strips, cleans, adjusts and tests woodwind and brass instruments – specialising in ‘double-reeds’; a family of instrument which includes the oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, and the French horn – that are brought in by anyone from students to professional soloists: “My last one was a Russian chap who was sent across from the Hippodrome – he had a problem with something and was playing in a performance that night!”

Richard’s core business is repair work, but he also offers a restoration service to customers who own vintage instruments – sometimes up to two hundred years old – that need rescuing and bringing back to a usable condition. In fact, working with traditional materials is, for Richard, one of the most enjoyable parts of his job: “I have a real joy of working with silver – probably my favourite metal – and some of the woods I use are gorgeous to work with. Materials we use have been in use for hundreds of years to make instruments work and, although there are many new techniques being tried, such as new plastics, and new ways of treating wood, very often I go back to the traditional because that’s been proven to work over time.”

Richard’s fastidious approach to his craft is born from a genuine respect for musicians whose instruments he looks after: “I’m interested in the relationship between people and their music and part of what I do is guide people towards instruments which will reward them. If you are a student you need to have an instrument which is playable. When you’re learning something you want something that will make the correct sound if you get it right, rather than fighting against you. That’s one of the things I do a lot – is guide people in this way.” 

And Richard takes his role as a custodian very seriously: “I always say for musicians, certainly further up the skill set, their instrument is second only to their first born and sometimes it’ s actually the other way around! So you’ve got to imagine going to somebody and saying ‘give me your child and I will look after it’. You need to have a huge amount of trust before you’ll allow someone to do that, and so that’s why I operate in the way I do.” Asked why he feels his customers keep coming back, Richard says, “Because they get what they need. I hope they come back because they feel as though they’re valued and they’re looked after and their instrument is treated with the respect it deserves.”

Looking to the future, Richard hopes to continue what he’s been doing for the last 40 years; meeting people, working with instruments of quality and providing advice and support to Bristol’s flourishing community of musicians. “I want to be able to continue doing this sort of work well past the normal retirement age and I want to keep learning because there’s always something new – a new technique or instrument – there’s always something new to find out!”