Karl Danner

Mobile “operating theater” for instruments comes from Linz

Karl Danner employs 14 people.(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

Soldering, dent removal, oiling! Karl Danner and his team not only help out at the company headquarters in Linz, but also at major events with a repair workshop that can be transformed into a mobile "operating theater" if necessary. From the flute to the timpani: the Upper Austrians make everything fit again.

When the Woodstock of brass music puts Ort im Innkreis in a state of emergency for days on end, Karl Danner and his team "ordain" as Yamaha instrument doctors on the concert grounds.

"At festivals in particular, things often break down and visitors really appreciate the fact that they can have their instruments repaired in our mobile workshop. Whether 80 years old, new, expensive or cheap - we repair, solder, dent and oil everything," says Karl Danner.

It's not just the mobile "operating theater" for instruments that is popular. Together with his wife Angelika, the master wind instrument maker runs a contact point for all things musical at the company's location in Harrachstraße in Linz: for instruments and sheet music.

Six instrument makers work in the in-house workshop. "True to our motto 'there's no such thing as impossible', we find a solution for almost all problems," says Danner. What is particularly appreciated? "The fact that we can repair almost the entire range of instruments: from flutes to timpani."

As a local musical supplier, the company is also very popular with music schools, wind orchestras and clubs. The Linz-based company has noticed a continuing trend away from cheap products towards high-quality instruments.

In order to make it possible for people to play music even in apartments with poor sound quality, the team not only sells trumpets, guitars, tubas and other instruments, but also offers electronic instruments that can be played at "whisper volume", as Danner calls it, or with headphones.