Who’s Behind the Counter: David Fedderly at Baltimore Brass Company

Patch: How long have you been in business?

David Fedderly: I ran Baltimore Brass Company out of my house in the city from 1992 until August 2001, when I moved the business here to Catonsville. In 2008, we added more space for storage and built the teaching rooms.

Patch: How has your business changed over time?

Fedderly: At first I dealt only with tubas, which is my instrument. Then I started expanding, doing instruments for schools. I think it was the baritone sax in the dining room which put it over the edge. That’s when you start looking for a store.

Patch: What drew you to the tuba?

Fedderly: In fifth grade, I wanted to play the drums, trumpet or trombone, but my band teacher took one look at my size and he found me a King Sousaphone, which I could play for free. It was big and shiny, and I liked the sound it made.

Patch: Why did you choose Catonsville? 

Fedderly: We are a destination store. I say that we were a world-wide store before we were a local store, because I’ve shipped internationally and had people fly in to buy tubas since the beginning. So, being close to the airport is convenient.

Also, I’ve been with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for 28 years, and the second horn player, Bill Kendall, lives near here. He is an amazing craftsman with horn repairs, and I wanted to bring him into the business.

Patch: What services do you offer?

Fedderly: I offer free space for teachers to come and teach. We sell new and used and consignment instruments: woodwind, brass and percussion, to beginners through pros. And we do repairs.

Patch: What’s a typical day like?

Fedderly: All of my employees are professional musicians, so we close at 4:30 p.m. so that we can get to our concerts and rehearsals.

Patch: What is your busiest time of year?

Fedderly: We do all our school repairs in the summertime and we are swamped. In fact, we have to shut down our repairs to the general public. Now we are playing catch-up with all those repairs we had to put off.                                                      

Patch: Do you have a signature service or specialty?

Fedderly: I have a reputation for being brutally honest. I have some specialty instruments here that people can’t find elsewhere, so musicians will ask me how an instrument plays and what shape it’s in. I can give a complete assessment and my customers know they can trust that.

We also have some very high-end stuff here, but it’s not really selling right now. Because of the economy, people are getting their instruments repaired rather than buying new ones. Our repair business is up 100 percent.

Patch: What’s one of the hardest things about your work?

Fedderly: Physically this is hard work. You work on a tuba and everything hurts. The instrument averages about 28 pounds, and there is a lot of lifting and packing that goes on. 

It also is emotionally painful to see the condition of some of the instruments we get in for repair from the schools. It is horrifying to see how some students treat the instruments.

Patch: What are you proud of?

Fedderly: I am proud of our reputation for being honest and fair. That’s something I work very hard at.

Patch: What’s your favorite thing about your work?

Fedderly: I enjoy dealing with our customers. If you walk in here and all you leave with is more knowledge, then it has been a successful visit. 

No one is on commission here, so the only question is: How can we help you?

Patch: Do you have any specials or loyalty programs for customers?

Fedderly: Everything in the store is marked and that’s what you pay. Everybody, no matter who you are, pays the same amount. I don’t give professional discounts. Technically, professional musicians should have to pay more for our instruments because we get to write them off.

Patch: What are you looking forward to?

Fedderly: The economy getting better!

I always look forward to seeing what new equipment is being developed and getting to test it. We get to try everything.

Patch: What is one thing you think is needed in the business community?

Fedderly: Catonsville is a very vibrant community. We’re Music City, Maryland! We have a nice mixture of "niche-y" music places, and people can find pretty much anything here that they’re looking for musically.

Patch: What's the best piece of advice that someone has given you when it comes to running a business? 

Fedderly: When I came to Baltimore in 1983, we had an internationally known conservatory and symphony but no music store like what we have here. So, I took what I liked from all the music stores I’d been in all my life and I tried to build a business like that.