Jill's former main axe, bought new by her. (Shown with the ever-borrowed English Horn.) She actually allowed me to work on it once, I de-burred a pivot. (Very carefully, of course.) Considering how proud and protective of it she is I feel honored. Replaced by the Royal in 2014, this is now her backup horn.
Saturday, May 14, 2011 the horn took a spill in the pit of a The Full Monty rehearsal, she put it down 'on the peg' but missed it in the dark, and the horn fell over when she let go of it. Disaster! The horn didn't play after that, which was bad enough at the rehearsal, but what was worse was that she had a symphony concert that very evening! (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Scheherazade. Major solos, there.) She and her guru fiddled with the horn for a couple of hours after the ill-fated rehearsal, and I glued on some cork bumper bits as directed, and the horn seemed OK. (The shellac glue gets brittle after thirty-odd years, a couple of cork pieces popped off.) She tried to use it for the concert, but ended up switching to the Laubin halfway through. (Not her favorite thing to do because the horns are subtly different and she was all primed and ready to go on this one. At least she had brought the spare horn, she was not convinced that the Loree was going to hold up. Wise. The cause of the switch might, however, have been the reed starting to go, because after switching to the Laubin she had to replace the reed within a short time. It was a miserable time for her, but out in the hall we didn't really notice anything except maybe a bad note or two when the reed went. Otherwise she sounded lovely, as usual.) Jill said the horn has been asking to go to the spa for a couple of years, I guess now might be a good time...
Jill's first oboe teacher willed this to her favored former student. (Not a bad horn at all, just not as good as her other one. In fact, opinions in the oboe world are divided as to whether this or the Loree would be the better horn, assuming both were in good working order.) It might need some servicing before it could be considered a usable horn.
In fact, it did. After 20 years of looking at it sitting in the closet, Jill sent it off to the Laubin factory in New York for an overhaul, and it came back Christmas Eve (2009), all fixed up. About $1,000 for the refurbishment, which included some replating of posts, shipping, etc. (She also bought a $300 bocal for use on the Loree English Horn, so the total bill was about $1,300 or so.) She says:
...although I haven't played with others it seems to be fabulous! I'm really looking forward to seeing how it works in a group...it seems to be very dark (lovely) but I've been having trouble projecting my sound in the orchestra—so this oboe may not work for that setting. We'll see, it's fun to play anyway.
Now that she's semi-pro she really should have a good backup horn for emergencies. And now she does! The real question now is which of these two fine oboes will be her backup horn. Considering that she got it free of charge in the first place, even with the expensive overhaul there's no doubt that the Laubin represents the better oboe value! (2010's price for a new one is just under $10,000, and there's a seven-year waiting list!)
Jill doesn't like it, even says it doesn't play right and never really has, so she plays a borrowed (and much better) Loree horn whenever she needs one. (OK, honey, why not fix it and/or sell it to somebody that will use it?) It might not actually work at all anymore.
Update: Thursday, February 26, 2009. I was at the repair shop today and he showed me that Jill had brought the horn in to have it gone through. Good, it's about time! It was badly out of adjustment, but didn't need new pads. About $97 for the run-through. Jill says it's playable now. I think she intends to sell it, though she's in no rush.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010: Jill has a buyer, for $1500, by way of word of mouth. She'd bought it for $1000 in 1995 (?), so owning it didn't cost her that much, if including inflation. With more pain and agony she could probably have gotten more, but she didn't want to mess with it. This was easy. She says it could really use a good bocal, she tried the one she bought for her (now-owned) Loree, and said it helped a lot. The horn went with us to Helena, where Jill had a substitute gig with their symphony, and we made the exchange there on Saturday. She got half what she paid out for the Loree that has replaced it, and says that the Loree is way more than 2× the horn in quality. (Both horns are probably actually worth more than was paid out for them.) I think she is pleased to cut the 'clutter' by one. Myself, I see nothing wrong with having a spare around, but if it's a horn she never did like...
Jill's brother's old school horn, something of a POS. I've worked on the case latches a couple of times to tighten them up. She's actually gotten paid to play this, in White Christmas, along with a borrowed tenor saxophone and, of course, her oboe. (She may have borrowed a better clarinet too, for the actual performance.) The Conn has taken its place for Jill's doubling career.
Thursday, December 5, 2013 Jill mailed it back to her brother. Turns out one of his kids needed it for school, the maybe 70-year-old one he'd gotten from his other grandma failed.
Cheap. Given to her by a friend because it was a POS and he couldn't stand having it anymore. Jill loaned it to friends indefinitely, which turned out to be around two years, but probably only returned because the original owner wanted to play it while visiting us so we retrieved it.
Jill bought this from an estate sale, and had been carrying it around (not literally!) for years. When we hooked up she was living in a basement apartment with a long flight of stairs up a hillside, I was not relishing the thought of moving this puppy! It was plenty heavy, and while I could pick up one end that was about the limit of my abilities. Carrying it around, even on flat ground, was going to be difficult. No problem, though, because her burly friends (the twins), who had moved it every time before, were still available. They just grabbed one end each and lifted, then walked out the door and up the stairs. Made it look easy. They put it in our rented U-Haul trailer. I was able to back the trailer up to the basement door to the house, and with some friends and some planks we were able to get it inside, where we worked it into place in the basement rec. room. It hasn't moved from that spot since. It really could use a tuning.
One opinion:
Acrosonic: This piano was introduced by Baldwin in 1935 and produced into the 1980's by Baldwin, but some think it is a different brand, so I am listing it separately. The pianos made early on (1930's, 40's, and 50's) were decent instruments. Modern Acrosonics sound tinny and cheesy (IMO—if you have a modern Acrosonic, I apologize for insulting you!). Remember to compare these instruments with other spinets, not with other upright pianos.
Daniel's class started recorder lessons in 3rd grade (taught by Jill!), and at the same time we began him on piano lessons. (A friend of Jill's comes over to teach him.) The piano is working well for that.
In 2010 we housed two contestants for the Cd'A symphony's Young Artists competition. One, a pianist, had thought she was going to be housed in a piano-less home and so was pleasantly surprised to find we had this. Though far from a Steinway grand, and somewhat out of tune, I think she was happy to find anything to play. The poor piano sure got a workout!
Jill has played this at a renaissance dinner, in full fig. (I was there.) She's also used it to do the sound effects for the Blue Fairy in a Children's Theater production of Pinnochio (a.k.a. Explodio), a contest production that actually made it to Nationals back East, as did the harp. So it's been around. Jill comments that the harp continually draws attention completely out of proportion to its role in any event and her abilities on it.
Jill would like to add levers (half-step key changers) to it, and wants me to do it. I would be happy to, but an evening of casual research showed that there are far too many options (style, brand, and number of) in the way of levers for me to feel comfortable making the choices for her. I told her that if she selected and bought levers, I'd be more than happy to install them.
Jill played a rented oboe d'amore in concert once, which gave me a fun idea for a Christmas gift. I made up this, umm, thing out of PVC pipe, fittings, and a green bean can label. (I was going to use the can too, but the fittings alone turned out to be more than big enough. The can would have just looked stupid, as I couldn't find a del Monte can small enough to fit my vision.) I used the Laubin as a pattern to size the pipe and space the main finger holes, then painted it all a nice black and stuck the cut-out label on the 'bell'. She tried playing it, but it doesn't work. It really needs a conical bore, the overlarge cylinder just doesn't cut it in a fauxboe.
It's a decoration in the house. Her favorite thing about it is the mashed and splayed oboe reed we keep in it. (I consider it a failure. It was supposed to play, badly, but it doesn't even do that. So now it's Art! Maybe someday I'll take another whack at it, if I can think of a good way to make its bore conical. I keep coming back to the idea of making a sand-filled stiff paperboard cone to put down the center and using casting resin to fill it in.)
This is a student model, bought for about $100 at Value Village. The valves work well, but the lacquer is poor. No real dents to speak of. The case is a new plastic one, in excellent condition. Has been pronounced a "good deal" by various French Horn players of our acquaintance. I held it up in the store to show Jill, expecting (and hoping for) an exasperated eye-roll, but instead she looked interested. Turns out she has a soft spot for French Horns, so I bought it for her. Daniel can even make note-like noise on it, and Jill enjoys that I can make it 'rip'.
Saturday, July 14, 2018 I tried out a new Wick #5 mouthpiece I'd bought, $40, in the theory that the large wide rim would be better for a trumpet player. Results are inconclusive, but the horn was pretty smelly. (I think we had loaned it out awhile ago.) I washed the horn, outside and in, in warm soapy water and put it and the case out in the sun to dry and deodorize. Besides the horn's basic #11 mouthpiece, I've borrowed a Yamaha 31B and a Bach 16. All four are quite different from each other, but so far I can't say any one is superior to the others.
Tuesday, December 13, 2022 I won (on eBay) a Neill Sanders wide-rim 16D mouthpiece, $24.07. This make had been recommended to a doubler like me.
Jill had wanted a MIDI keyboard for quite awhile, so one day at the discount liquidation outlet I found this broken one for $50 or $75. (I forget which.) I thought it a bit high-priced for something that had been stepped on, but as I had been looking for awhile without much luck I bought it anyway as all the pieces were there. [Later I found one for sale on Goodwill's auction site for $54, plus shipping.] I disassembled the keyboard and glued all the broken plastic keys back together using cyanoacrylate glue. That was easy enough, but the keyboard PCB had also gotten broken in several places. No problem for most of the breaks, I just glued them back together and bridged the traces with solder and wire, but a couple of the breaks went through the carbon interleaved fingers that were part of some of the keyswitches, below the conductive rubber domes. Those keys didn't work after the repair, but I scrubbed over the breaks in the carbon fingers with a bit of carbon-arc welding rod to fill in the cracks and then they started working again. It's been working fine ever since, Jill's even carted it to church to use during services. (That was scary to me, but it worked flawlessly. I don't think Jill appreciates how precarious I consider the carbon repair to be.) Daniel likes to play with it at times, sampling all the weird voices. For Christmas (2008—sort of) I got her a stand, FC-4 (heavy) sustain pedal, and USB MIDI interface, all through Amazon. I spent more on all this than on the keyboard itself!
Jill finally wanted to use the keyboard's MIDI more than a year later, she was going to transcribe some music to avoid an ugly transposition. While the computer would talk to the keyboard (and vice-versa), she was unable to get it to feed the Finale-related program she was using. No doubt the problem would have been soluble, but she didn't have time to fight it, and so ended up QWERTY-ing it in.
SWMBA didn't want a trombone, but a baritone is more reasonable than (and a lot easier to pack around than) a tuba, her designated alternate instrument if you can go by her marching band past. (She's played a borrowed euphonium in church ensemble before, hence the idea for this one as a gift.) eBay description:
In our opinion this horn is certainly salvageable, having about one soft dent no big deal, some wear. Honors only years can bestow... Of some concern is what exactly it is, so we will do our best to describe: This KING is cased in OHSC [original hard shell case] which says KING THE H.N. WHITE Co. CLEVELAND O.; all hinges and snaps are fine. Horn is about 32 inches long, the bell is about 11 inches in diameter. There are two mouthpieces: EQUA-TRU 28 and just a 20, both H.N.WHITE. 177XXX is on the number one valve, KING is also on the valve and of course KING is adorned by FLOWERS on the BELL. Hey, my new horn friend from eBay just sent this in:Auction images:On the EUPHONIUMThere's no "varnish" on this horn. It is silver-plated. Its a "satin silver" finish with "bright" highlights. The valves are made of brass and are nickel-plated. The dark reddish areas are the brass showing through where the nickel is worn off. This horn will NEED a valve job and re-plate to play properly. All that being said, it appears in good order besides that.
I watched it close once with no bids, as I (and apparently everybody else) thought it a bit overpriced. Next time up (and for a bit less) I used own-it-now to get it, still paying more ($335, shipped) than it was probably worth but procuring it soon enough to have it by Christmas. (I was running out of gift ideas and time, and I wanted a horn that would clean up well and not be an embarrassment for Jill to play in church.) It came on Christmas Eve day a little before noon. Talk about close to the wire! It looked good, pretty much as expected/hoped for. Out in the garage it played for me, so that was OK. I sequestered myself in the laundry room with the silver polish and had at it. After church that evening I went back to it. I got the easier parts (bell and big pipes) shined up and I oiled the valves before I gave up at about 1:30 AM and wrapped it.
She got it half-polished the next morning. I'd bought Tarn-X when we went out for church the evening before, so later in the day I put on rubber gloves and one of Daniel's old knit gloves over that, stood the thing in a pan full of the Tarn-X and had at it with the glove. (Much easier than trying to hold a rag.) That and a bunch of Q-tip action got all the black off. Where I didn't use the silver polish it's not as bright, but that's down in the small intestines and it was hard enough doing what I did. It really looks remarkably good, cosmetically it's everything I could have hoped for. I vacuumed out the corduroy case and used neatsfoot oil on the leather belt and handle, and oiled the latch parts. The horn got a soapy bath in the tub, then dried and oiled and greased. Slides and valves all work well, or well enough.
I'd have to say that I think the horn was well used and well taken care of, then put in a closet to rot for years. I'm thinking about trying one of those Caswell nickel plating repair kits to cover the raw brass on the valves. I can't see how I could hurt it. (It's an electric paintbrush, gentle and slow.) I bought the nickel and silver kits, so we'll see. There are a couple of rub-throughs on the silver of the horn (as well as on the silver Holton trombone) that I thought I'd try repairing too.
Update: Thursday, January 15, 2009. I had another session on the horn, I used the Hagerty's Silver Foam to clean up some of the Tarn-X'd areas of the small intestines, which brightened them up considerably. That is easy, once the Tarn-X has done the heavy lifting. (The Hagerty's alone has a real tough time with heavy tarnish.) I then used Bartender's Friend soft scrub to clean off the places on the big pipe where the plating was worn off, then used the Caswell silver kit to touch it up. Not as invisible as I'd like, but the brass color is hidden. It's all about texture and polish—if you get that right the re-plating will be nearly invisible. Maybe some other time!
Update: Wednesday, February 4, 2009. Took to shop for dent removal. The proprietor was impressed with how nice the horn looked, he thought that in its current condition it might even be worth 2–3× what I paid for it. Due to the curved bell he says he won't be able to reach the dents that are around the first big bend, but the main (all minor) dents should be treatable.
Update: Tuesday, February 10, 2009. Dents removed, $15. It looks pretty good now.
Update: Sunday, April 12, 2009. Jill played it in our church ensemble. A friend (professional tuba player) tried it out, and said it played well, perhaps a bit stuffy but decent. He pointed out that the top slide is actually a 'kicker' for the third valve, and should be oiled to slip easily rather than greased for holding a fixed tuning. (That explains why it was so firmly stuck when I got it—oil fades away a lot faster than grease.) I later tried oiling it, but the slide is too 'grabby' that way, it's probably deformed a bit. I'll stick with the grease.
I've seen the King 28 mouthpiece sell on eBay for $40, and I've seen them ask some 3× that. Huh. Jill and I both prefer the smaller 20, however.
Update: Friday, July 6, 2012. Jill signed up for some kind of TubaFest, and the mavens flocked about her old shiny horn, but thought her horn was stuffy, and suggested a good clean-out and maybe checking the valve alignment. I blew out the horn with compressed air, and nothing came out. I checked the valves, and all three were a tiny bit high, referenced to the lines on the valve stems versus the tops of the valve caps. I cut paper washers and stacked them under the felt until the levels were even. I then washed out the horn, using a hose under pressure, and used a trumpet snake to clean what I could. There may or may not have been a bit of fuzz in there, if so it was a small amount. Nor was there any real grunge. To finish I did a quick polishing, which shined it up a bit. Best I could do on short notice.
The concrete-work rod I used for a mandrel on the Gemeinhardt M2 worked to remove the dents from the body and tighten up the head and foot joint tenons. The head joint was another story, as it tapers inside. I used a succession of automotive socket wrenches and the little hammer to push out the dents in the head joint. (These sockets are very smooth, hard, and the smaller ones have tapered noses. Not nearly as good as a dent ball set, but they're what I had.) The bent lip plate I pried out with a small screwdriver, wedging underneath against its own base rather than the body of the flute (which is delicate). You can still tell where the dents were, but they're not really dents anymore, just shallow ripples in the surface. They don't show when you look down the inside of the tubing, nor do they jump out at you at a casual glance.
Update: Thursday, February 26, 2009. I picked up some phosphor bronze spring wire at the repair shop. No charge.
Update: Friday, March 13, 2009. Now that the Gemeinhardt M2 is more-or-less finished, it was time to start on this one. The two normally-open pad cups on the foot were bent considerably outwards, like somebody had pried them out. The other one was bent inwards so that it wouldn't open very far when actuated. A mess, in other words. It seems to me that perhaps this instrument got vandalized, what with all the foot pads pried outwards significantly and the protruding lever on the body bent in around the body itself, and the missing crown. Hard to see how all that could have happened by accident.
Anyway, I removed all the keywork and cleaned all the silver and the pads. I then got out the pliers and the small hammer and began to bend the keys back into shape. Fortunately the metal is fairly malleable, and nothing broke. I got things sort of lined up again, I think it'll work though it doesn't look as 'right' as the other flute. With everything bent into place I oiled the keywork as I put it all back together. The spring tension needed some adjustment to match the other foot joint. This joint is not as airtight as the other one, but there is some pad damage on this one.
Jill has, however, expressed sufficient negative interest in flutes that I have abandoned work on this. For now, at least. There were two major flaws in my original thinking:
Too bad, the thought of us both taking up an instrument that neither of us could play was attractive, we could play together on a more equal basis. Small, light, and cheap instruments was also a bonus.
OTOH it wouldn't kill me to learn some kind of woodwind instrument anyway. The choice of a flute, though 'girly' (here you see old grade-school prejudices at work!) is somewhat appropriate for a trumpet player because with it, like with brass, you don't spend all your time fighting reeds! It's got a rigid and stable mouthpiece, just like a trumpet—put it together and play. A flute is also very small, and has rationalized keywork. (For the sound I'd really prefer a clarinet or saxophone, however, or at least an alto flute. Either of the others would also be a more practical choice for a trumpet player, given the nature of most big-band and jazz music.) If I ever did want to play something else I think having the flute fingerings down would help jump-start the process. Still only thinking about it...
Jill had been borrowing this (excellent) horn for years, from the Big Symphony player. (Said player had upgraded but kept this horn as a backup, and thought that Jill's stewardship of it would be better than letting a fine wooden instrument languish in a closet.) She'd recall it from time to time, sometimes loaning it out to deserving students, etc. She, however, is retiring now and didn't need to keep a 'spare' available anymore, and finally agreed to formalize the arrangement in 2009. $3,000. (Another symphony player actually prefers this horn to its replacement, so by all accounts it's a good one.) Naturally if she ever should need to borrow it for something I'm sure Jill would oblige.
At one point in there I did a bit of refurbishing on the case. I tightened the loose hinges, glued the torn interior lining, and painted the chewed areas in the wood case. It looked a lot better afterwards.
I can't win for losing. Yesterday (Thursday, August 27, 2009) I ran into this clarinet at the thrift shop, and as it looked rather beat I put it down and walked on. (I was rather proud of myself for exhibiting some degree of restraint.) When I mentioned it to Jill today over the phone she asked what brand. Huh? That's not the reaction I'm expecting. "Buffet." says I, expecting a verbal eye-roll. "Really? How much was it?" she goes on to ask. Uh-oh. "$30", I reply. "Is it still there? That's a good brand, and worth fixing if it's not ruined. You know I was looking for a good clarinet, right?" Well, no, I didn't. OK, so I blew it. (Actually, if I'd had a working cell phone I'd have called her then, and undoubtedly have bought it.) Anyway, I dashed back to the store before my scheduled lunch with Jill and it was still there, so I bought it. Turns out a Buffet is just about the best make of older horn out there, and if this one can clean up it might be a real keeper. Happy Birthday, Jill. It's not ready to play yet, however!
The horn was complete, and in a nice-looking faux-leather older (though not as old as the horn) case with music store labels on it from Richmond, CA. It didn't smell, and the wood was largely in decent condition, though there was tape residue on the wood here and there. There was quite a bit of green corrosion in the cracks and joints of the metalwork. The barrel seemed to be cracked, though perhaps not through to the bore. The bore of the horn had developed some white powdery residue on the wood grain, this could be a fungus or mold starting up due to neglect. The wood looked a bit 'dry', especially inside, and a good bore cleaning and oiling was probably called for. (This is a respectable restoration step, though more controversial as a maintenance step.) The pads that were left were old and gross, of course, and the corks were, as one would expect, nearly dead, but its most pressing problem was that the bridge (the between-joint link) was broken off of its key. It was in the case, however, so it can probably be silver-soldered back on. (Somebody had obviously already tried regular lead solder, and then glue.) There was a thumbnail-sized chunk of wood spalled out of shoulder of the tenon on the upper joint at the barrel end, but it didn't go through to the bore (nor even into the tenon) or to a tonehole or post, and should glue back nicely. Harmless, in other words. The bell looked very nice. All joints were marked with the Buffet Crampon logo, but only the lower joint had a detectable serial number.
The mouthpiece was nothing special, marked "THE WOODWIND CO. NEW YORK" and "STEEL EBONITE". There was a "K7" on the reed table, and it was also marked "PATENT PROCESS, No 1452953". At least it wasn't broken. Jill will undoubtedly replace the mouthpiece with something else if the horn ends up being playable. [Maybe not. It seems that Chedeville might actually have made these, and that Benny Goodman favored one. Maybe a little bit special after all. One source I found will sell you one for a measely $125.] The reed strapped to it was blackened and gross, she threw it away at lunch.
Jill took it directly to her favorite repair guy, but he was reluctant to work on such an old horn. (He would of course, but he didn't think it would be worth putting that kind of money into it, and Jill didn't insist.) So back home it came. To me. Well, I have ideas... I'm sure I can clean it up and oil the wood, and I've successfully re-padded a clarinet before. (My mother's thrift-shop wooden clarinet [Conn] that she bought to replace her metal clarinet.) The neighbors make jewelry, and can probably assist with the silver-soldering. I think I can put a modest amount of money and effort into the thing in order to find out whether or not it plays well, and if that looks good then send it to somebody who knows what they're doing for final sort-out.
With very little to lose I began the rebuild process...
...Seven months (!) later Jill pronounced it acceptable. (Translation: at least as good as the Conn.) But it still needed to go to the shop for final sort-out.
After it came back from the shop tune-up (Friday, April 16, 2010), Jill played it for awhile. She thought it was freer-blowing and better-sounding than the Conn. It's certainly prettier, with shiny black wood and polished keys. It's the one she'll be using for her doubling career, it seems. Total cost for the horn: about $180. The only thing Jill did was replace the original ligature with a nicely constructed metal one, marked "FRANCE B♭.cl D. BONADE — PATENT PENDING". (I don't know how long she's had it, nor how much she might have spent, but I see they seem to be a $15–20 item new.)
Jill had a lesson a few days later with Dr. Schoepflin (former WSU professor and ICA honoree), to make sure she hadn't picked up any bad habits since she'd last had clarinet lessons (in college) and to make sure the horn was OK. He played it and said "this is a good horn", no changes needed there, not even the mouthpiece or the reeds (Vandoren 3's), nor did Jill need to do anything particularly special except practice. I think she was pleased, possibly even surprised, and I know she's feeling a lot better about the horn now. It's a keeper!
Jill was not very happy with the case, it's too small inside and things don't fit right, though she did like its small exterior dimensions. I think she wants one of the style that would match her oboe case, which would make it the Jakob Winter (Germany) case, probably Model 721B (single, Boehm system). Those are around $200 though, which is not tremendously attractive! I'd hate to have to spend more for a case than for the instrument that goes in it...
I bid on (and won, $38 shipped) a purse-style case through Goodwill; except for the latches the case is very much like the Winter case in all important aspects and should clean up nicely. (It even came with a clarinet inside!) The latches and springs all work, including the lid lifting spring, though it is a bit weak. (The horn itself is mystery-meat MADE IN FRANCE; no serial numbers, but B♭ and L.P. are stamped on the lower joint. There is a crude "1L" [?] scratched vertically under the keywork on the lower joint as well. That's a pretty pathetic excuse for a serial number, nor is it much as owner's or maker's initials. It's wooden, except for the obviously mismatched plastic bell labeled "The Regent" in a rather funky font, and it has a lyre screw socket on the tenon ring of the upper joint. The wood's nice looking, but the horn is pretty gucky and tarnished and it would need a thorough overhaul, perhaps approximating that of the Buffet's own, in order to play. Probably not going to happen! Based on the stamps and the keywork, and other cues, I'm guessing it's around the same age, too. The mouthpiece is a Vandoren Perfecta [Paris, "Diamond" Ebonite] with a few ligature bites on the edges of the #7 table, but it might turn out to be something useful. As might the barrel, as it's 65.7 mm, which is about 2 mm shorter than the Buffet's overlong item. The mouthpiece has a Bettoney FITALL protective metal cover, which fits poorly indeed!) The auction description had the usual useless mix of incomplete and/or incorrect information and boilerplate:
It is about 25.5" long. The bell is about 3" in diameter. It is marked The Regent, Made in France. It has some green residue on it, some wear and spots. The case has rubbing, wear, and dust on it. The case has some discolored spots on the inside of it. The metal parts of the case have some discoloration to them.Jill was not too pleased, she says it's not the case she has that's really the problem, but rather the lack of a close-fitting padded case bag that's the issue. Well, OK! I'm not done yet, after all... Besides, she has problems seeing through a project to what it will look like in the end. I think that she'll be pleased when I'm done. I oiled the hinges and latches, put neatsfoot oil on the leather handles, pounded the brads back in, and soaked the caked greasy/dirty/oily parts of the fuzzy interior with brake cleaner and mopped them out with paper towels. This helped the appearance a lot. I also used cyanoacrylate glue to seal the exposed wood where the covering had been scuffed through and to tack down the thus-exposed and loose edges of the cloth covering material so it wouldn't peel further. I sanded lightly to take off the rough bumps, then painted the exposed wood and damaged covering with black paint, two coats. I also used black paint to mask the damaged leather on one of the handles. It really looked better after all this, and the Buffet fits in this case much more securely than the one it came in. I then moved to the barrel and cleaned it out and off with scraping and brake cleaner. Once it was clean I used acetone to clean off the small flaw in the bore (like a chip that was starting to lift up) and then filled it with cyanoacrylate glue. I used acetone and a small half-round fine file to remove the excess in the bore, then used extremely fine sandpaper to finish the repair. It's very hard to see now. I then sanded off an imperfection in the outside surface, then used MAAS metal polish to shine up the rings. A generous coating of bore oil, inside and out, completed the refurbishment. I left it on for a few hours before wiping it off and buffing it with a paper towel. It looks very nice. I, however, should have checked it for fit before I started, as it's noticeably smaller in diameter than the Buffet's own barrel and won't fit on that horn at all! Oops. In chagrin I put the mouthpiece in the ultrasonic cleaner and scrubbed it off. I don't think the cork needs replacing yet. I also polished the ratty ligature and practiced my silver-soldering skills on it, reattaching the three (of four) loose pieces. I got a bit of solder in one of the threaded pieces, that was hard to scrub out since I didn't have the proper tap. Still, it turned out OK. Good practice, anyway. Maybe this mouthpiece will be usable in some fashion... (I've seen one offered for sale for $250!) [Jill later took a run at the mystery horn and said it actually played some, and sounded good. And some of the keys laid better under her hands than the Buffet's. But it needs a lot of work to be a player, and certainly needs a cleaning and polishing in order to look good. I think she was really just looking at its mouthpiece and tried the horn for fun.]This is a used instrument and has not been serviced, cleaned or tested for playability. For sanitary reasons we recommend that all instruments are professionally cleaned and serviced prior to use.
Now that Jill's got some time on the Buffet, including West Side Story, she thinks it plays a bit flat. The barrel is 67.8 mm long, whereas the other three barrels we've got (for various horns) are 65.5 mm, 66.2 mm. and 66.4 mm in length. It is unfortunate that the 'extra' barrel (case donor, above) doesn't fit any of the other horns, it uses the same size socket for both the mouthpiece and the upper joint, unlike all the others, making the joint socket about 1 mm smaller in diameter than 'normal'. It's also microscopically smaller in bore, nor is the bore tapered as the Buffet's seems to be, but that might be OK. I could ream the socket out to normal, but then the mystery horn would have no barrel at all, and would be unlikely ever to get another one. I'd hate to ruin a horn like that. Jill probably needs to go shopping for a replacement barrel. The Noblet and Bundy barrels both fit the Buffet a bit loosely, but she could try shimming with paper here as a first trial. Should she settle on a replacement that was a bit loose I could always re-cork that joint.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012, Jill had said that the A key above the first hole was too short, shorter than all our other clarinets, and too hard to reach from the first hole, so I made a little teardrop extension out of a scrap of grenadilla and glued it to the key using black weatherstrip adhesive. (Very strong rubber cement.) I sanded it using oil and very fine paper to make it as smooth as possible. The shape didn't come out quite as I'd envisioned, a bit narrow, but it looks good and might work anyway. We'll see if she likes it. [Later Jill said that she no longer notices anything unusual about the key, so I guess the operation was a success.] She also said that the G♯ key next to it opened too far, so I glued an additional cork bumper under it to limit its travel.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012. Jill said that something went wrong with the octave (?) key mechanism, so she dropped by the shop for a quick repair. I guess she didn't want to wait for me to take a whack at it...
Tuesday, October 23, 2012, Jill said that the G♯ key still had too much travel, wasting motion and slowing her down, so under her direction I glued a piece of cork under it to make it lift barely more than the A key lifts it.
Sunday, June 29, 2014, Jill said that the too-long barrel was enough of a problem that she had stolen the barrel off of the Conn, which fits OK but not great. It wobbles a bit, though the cork is not loose and she's concerned that there might be a gap. Well, let's see. The calipers (Brown & Sharpe) say:
Tenon Buffet Noblet Length 68.0 66.1 Dia. 23.5 23.5 24.0 Depth 18.5 18.5 18.8 Bore 14.85 14.85 14.85
It looks pretty good, but there is a slight 0.5mm diameter mismatch which causes the wobble, and there's a 'need' for a 0.3mm spacer. That's pretty thin, about 3 sheets of typing paper, or half the thickness of a polyethylene milk jug. I put two wraps of masking tape around the very end of the tenon, to bring it up to the diameter of the Noblet's opening, sliced it off flush with a razor blade, and colored it black with a Sharpie. This cuts some of the going-on wobble, but I think it needs more, because it can wobble when on. A heat-shrink band glued on would be even better, but I don't have anything that large. Also, the other end of the tenon needs it too, I think that's a major source of the wobble. Putting on thicker cork might mask the problem, but I don't think it's a proper fix. I then cut a ring of thin pasteboard to make a shim for the depth, so there's no gap. It took some trimming and adjustment to get it the right size, especially on the inside. Sanding the thickness was the worst part, at first it wouldn't let the barrel go on all the way. I then oiled the paper. Jill can decide if these temporary measures make any positive difference. If the original barrel is just too long the easiest way to get something that fits perfectly, assuming that a shorter perfectly-fitting barrel cannot be purchased reasonably, might be to just chuck it in a metal lathe and take it down 2mm or so. (Pull a band and make the three necessary cuts, then reapply the band. In fact it would be safest to make two cuts with the band on, then pull the band to deepen the band's own tenon.)
Sunday, February 15, 2015, Jill said that some pads had gone bad, and she bought a fairly complete rebuild kit. (The kind with tools too, but the tools are mostly POS. Oh well.) Anyway, today I had some time and repaced nine pads, the ones that 'clicked' because they were torn. Mostly on the top joint, and the badly-deformed register pad got replaced with cork, which is what was in the kit for that. I also did a bit of cork adjustment on some of the anti-click places, and lubed the pivots. With a bit of adjustment to the hot glue on the new pads I think it's not leaking, but Jill will have to test it to be sure... I spent the next week or so tinkering with it under her direction, trying to get everything working smoothly. At the moment she seems fairly happy with it.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015, Jill said that recently she noticed some cracking between the top two holes (the ones with the very long keys) and she wasn't too comfortable continuing to use it. I had a look, and they didn't really look that bad to me, but what do I know? I cleaned the cracks out with brake cleaner, then ran cyanoacrylate glue into them. A razor blade applied with a gentle scraping action removed the excess, then I sanded and applied the bore oil and polished it. It looks pretty good, to my eye. We'll see what she thinks.
Christmas is coming, and good gift ideas are hard to come by. (Even not-so-good ideas are tough, and I'm not sure that one more 'thing', especially a larger one like this, will much please SWMBA. Oh well, faint heart never won fair lady and all that.) I've wanted a tuba to complete the noodling ensemble and to maybe give Jill something to practice on for her occasional summer sousaphone activities. I also didn't want to cut it so close to the wire this year, timing-wise, so I've been looking for awhile and I was finally (Sunday, September 6, 2009) successful. This one looked good, and was a nice complement to the King baritone, and the local expert said it looked like it might be a reasonable choice if the price didn't rise too high. (And perhaps could he borrow the bell from time to time to stick on his King sousaphone, assuming it fits, when a rain-catcher was called for? Sure!) The lack of a case is unfortunate, but extremely common for an older, more affordable tuba. The condition of the silver looks like it might clean up nicely, though it is of course pretty dented up. But that's what you get in an inexpensive older tuba. The $550 price (with shipping) was perhaps a couple of hundred more than I wanted to pay, but if this cleans up half so well as the baritone and is playable in the end I'll be happy, and I really didn't want a repeat of the baritone fiasco this year. I'm assuming that the bell creases can be taken out, and that as the bell is removable it will help ease that job and perhaps drop the cost accordingly. I doubt that most of the tubing dents can be easily dealt with, but they shouldn't affect the playability much at all. eBay description:
KING Silver TUBA REMOVABLE BELL UPRIGHT BELL.... SERIAL #446XXX ...... BELL SIZE APPROX. 22 INCHES ACROSS, TOTAL LENGTH APPROX 40 INCHES.... Item is in fair to good cosmetic shape, Item has some dings, dents, scratches, and worn finish. PLEASE VIEW ALL PICTURES. ALL of the Slides Valves move and ALL of the Keys press down with good spring back. I do not play a music instrument and I do not repair music instruments, you purchase as-is, parts or repair, no refunds, no returns. Item has no case. Buyer to pay $65.00 shipping in the lower 48 states.Auction images:
| Tuba | Bow | Valves | Bell, creases |
| Creases, again | Top bows | Bell collar | Coil |
| Coil, back | Bell, back | Valves, back |
I don't like Amado water keys, one has been obviously grafted in place of a regular one that probably got knocked off. It may or may not be restorable. I'll need a mouthpiece or three, and some kind of bag to put over its head.
Tarn-X was on sale at the drugstore, I bought two bottles in advance. $6. I queried my local expert about mouthpieces, wanting to get a range of maybe three sizes that would cover us. Suggestions:
My guess is that shank-wise, anything normal will fit. A normal choice would be a Bach 18, though I used a Bach 22 in high school. There are probably are a lot of Bach mouthpieces out there. I suspect anything saying it is a Helleberg (Conn and others) will be too big for you, though I might be interested. Mirafone C4 would be fine also. Frankly almost anything might be fine. Stay away from anything saying it is for E♭ or F tuba or for a Besson (wrong shank). I picked up a plastic mouthpiece at Hoffmans that works fine. I think I got their Helleberg model, so maybe I am changing my earlier suggestion.
It came, and it was quite the monster! The bell has a different serial number, 483XXX circa 1973, which is unfortunate as there's anecdotal evidence that the two pieces were normally accoustically matched at the factory. I couldn't actually find anything on either piece that actually says it's a King, but I suppose its configuration would tell that to someone knowledgeable. (It looks a lot like a photograph I've seen of a King 1240, and that's a very likely diagnosis for several reasons. [Once some tarnish was removed from the bell the normal King sheld was visible.]) Scratched onto the big tube are "P.C. 0078095887" and "EBRPSB", that's lovely. There's an "L" on #1 casing, perhaps for low-pitch? (I thought they'd stopped doing this by then, perhaps it's for large-bore or something instead?) There were a lot of pings and dents, but no major collapses. The bell mount was ovaled a bit. Much silver wear. The valves moved, and with an application of lamp oil and the bending of #1's button stem a bit to avoid interference with the top cap they all worked well. #2's button is different than the other two, and is from a lacquered horn. I tried the larger baritone mouthpiece (with the DEG enlarging European shank adapter from the bass cornet) but it still sat loosely in the hole. I played it anyway; even with no bell on it made a scale, sounded like B♭ to me.
It needed a lot of work before it would be presentable, so I began the refurbishing.
Research indicates that perhaps I ought to seek out an old King 26 mouthpiece, with Bach 18 and/or 22 and Conn Helleberg 120S as alternates.
One suggestion for a tuba case is: 1800usaband.com's Item #7540, about $220, and it's likely to fit the horn, since it's for a King 2340. Naturally one would check first before spending that kind of money! The down side is that in a case the horn would occupy even more space, which is becoming limited.
I found a Conn [2?] mouthpiece for $10 on TubeNet. It looked pretty good, fits well, and plays OK. (At least so far as I, a trumpet player, can tell.)
I bought (on eBay) a beat-up Blessing 24AW, $23 shipped.
The 24AW came five days after being ordered. Looks OK. A bit scabby, but OK. It should polish up. It doesn't say "Blessing" anywhere on it, so it could be something else. The rim/cup is an awful lot like the mystery Conn, so it might not have effectively broadened the selection. There was a small ding in the shank end, but some gentle reaming with the needlenose pliers put it right. A session with the MAAS polish really helped its appearance, but it's definitely not what one would call in great condition, there are a number of nicks in the rim and such. Probably good enough, though. I also polished up the Conn, which looks a lot better.
Christmas Eve day I brought the horn in from the garage and did some final spot polishing, and played it into the tuner. I got it more-or-less tuned and determined that it was indeed at least a little playable, and all prepped for its appearance under the tree tomorrow. The total cost so far, $772, is considerably more than I'd wanted to spend. Naturally.
She was not entirely overjoyed by the presence of the tuba (due to its size and the near-filling of our music room). I had set it next to the tree and strapped a branch down to it with a paper clip and called it an ornament, but she was not fooled.
A tip on soldering popped braces:
Besides using plenty of flux, another key to soldering on silver is to use a solder with a lower melting point like a 50/50 or 60/40 vs a 70/30. A trick to keep it from running is to outline the bottom braced area with a pencil. Of course, the real trick is to not over feed it... Note: don't outline the top, it will keep it from running into the brace!
Sunday, April 4, 2010 we (our pick-up seven-piece brass band) played Easter service; Jill played the baritone, and Leonard (the local expert) played our tuba. (It was a good excuse to try it out, in a non-critical venue, and saved him from having to drag his big tuba up to their lake place, from whence they'd traveled directly to church that morning.) To my ear it sounded great! (A couple of days before I'd washed and polished all three horns we were going to play, and oiled the valves and greased the slides. It was amazing how tarnished the tuba body had gotten since last time, yet the bell had not.) He spent some time tuning it and pronounced the horn a decent one, and worth what I'd spent on it. He said that even though it was a three-valver it was pretty well in tune. Because of the mismatched second-valve button he thought that the valves might not be in perfect alignment, and that it might play even better if that were straightened out. He thought the mystery Conn mouthpiece was the better choice of our two, something that Jill and I had already thought, but naturally he used one of his own for the performance.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 we loaned the tuba out to a trombone-playing friend who needed it for pit duty in Thoroughly Modern Millie.
My sporadic eBay search for an original King 26 mouthpiece finally paid off, in 2013 I won a rather ratty looking one for $15.38, we'll see if it's any good... When it came it was as described/expected, and cleaned up well with the usual aluminum foil/washing soda/hot water trick, followed by MAAS metal polish. Shiny, but dinged—perfect. I reamed open the dented shank end with the needlenose pliers and tried it in the horn. It felt pretty comfortable to me, and I was actually able to play a 2-octave scale on the thing. Badly, but recognizable, and it was the bottom two octaves to boot! It is apparent that this mouthpiece works, for me, far better than either of the other two.
I'd been looking at tenor saxes for some time, for Jill's doubling career, but most of the ads I threw her way met with little enthusiasm. (Especially unenthusiastic was her reaction to the C melody I'd brought home!) I'd even enlisted the help of the Sax on the Web online forum, with this query:
Quest: a tenor saxophone for my lovely oboe player.I did get some:(Yet another choosing a saxophone thread, sorry about that!)
My wife is a semi-professional oboe player with a local small symphony. (She got her Master's in oboe performance.) She loves this, but even more perhaps I think she loves being called to be in the pit orchestras of various shows. Her chances of being called for a show go up if she can double, and besides oboe (and english horn) she's willing to take on clarinet and tenor saxophone in fill-in (not solo) capacity. (She has done so already, more than once. Thought I should make it clear that this is already a reality, not a wish.)
However, we don't have a saxophone! Last time she doubled she borrowed an old one of my aunt's, which was of questionable quality and condition. We had it tuned up at the shop, and I performed some case repairs. Call it our 'rent', my aunt was unwilling to sell us the instrument.
Why rent when you can own? I want us to have one, but choosing the right one is, of course, a tricky business. I'll try to spell out our criteria as I see them. I am pursuing this, rather than she, as a potential gift situation. Good gift ideas can be rather hard to come by. Yes I know, buying an instrument for someone else can be rather perilous, but I try not to let such thoughts stop me.
Naturally we don't want to spend too much money on something that'll get, at best, played once or twice a year. On the other hand, she can be a bit of an instrument snob, her double reeds are top-of-the line horns. (As they should be.) The sax can't be too weird, or cheap and nasty, else she can't hold her head up in the pit. (I guess.) I suppose the ideal is a horn that can be handed to the real saxophone player, who noodles on it a bit and says "Hey! Not bad." One that he didn't dismiss as crap out of hand, without even trying it.
And I have a serious Jones for quality vintage instruments, particularly 'sleepers' that can be had inexpensively. (I'm particularly fond of silver finishes, as they can be polished up to a rather nice appearance with nothing more than some time and elbow grease.)
She doesn't like jazz, her forte is Romantic, lyrical, if this helps in the selection for tone. (Of course, pit orchestras play the books, whatever it is that's written. But Romantic is her preference. Non-jazz on a tenor sax? Is this Heresy or what?)
I know little about saxophones, and I can't say that she knows enough either to be entirely sure about which keywork style might be best for her. There's entirely too much variation in the 'operating systems' out there to suit me. (That's the trumpet player in me coming out!) Something too old/weird/clunky/stiff would probably not be a great choice. Need expert advice there.
I did drag home a nickel-plated Martin stencil C melody, LP. It was cheap, and I knew what I was getting. I tried to pass it off as a B♭ tenor (because of the neck) that I 'got a real deal on' at the junkque store. For some reason, she did not find this as amusing as I did! She won't touch it. (Hey, it's only a little transposition, should be no problem for a music major... :-)
She's quite careful with her instruments, we have no need for the extra durability of a 'student' horn. She's taken the same five-figures-worth of persnickety wooden double reed instruments to her gigs for years, with never any damage.
Your mainstream Yamaha? OK I guess, but leaves me rather cold. Your Selmer Mark VI? Nice, I'm sure. Won't pay for it! Your 1940's "Le Boeuf" silver-plated oddity that's well built, in decent shape, and plays superbly after being tuned up? Well hello there!
I am mechanically handy, though with no experience as an instrument tech. I can/do work on small stuff all the time. Usually successfully. I once re-padded my mother's old Conn clarinet, well enough to suit her anyway. A bent (sat-upon?) Gemeinhardt M2 flute that I picked up as a challenge now plays, or so I'm told, and you can hardly see the repairs. A horn with a few challenges to sort out doesn't scare me, if they're reasonable.
Recent horns that have turned up locally are Antigua Winds, Yamaha, and "ITO" (Vito?). I know AW is new and cheap-ish, but I've been reading that they're not actually bad choices. I suspect the one we didn't get that sold for $350 (before we could call) would probably have been satisfactory, the price certainly was. Not very satisfying to my penchant for oddities, unless you consider a decently-built Chinese horn to be an oddity, but if it worked well at a good price...
Well, any suggestions?
Selmer Mark VII (1st model after the Mark VI) (Potential for increase in value)and
Almost any Yanagisawa, (These are really good horns, very well made) (many Vito models were made by Yanagisawa)
Yamaha YTS 62
Yamaha YTS 52
B&S (last choice, but they made some good horns)
Yamaha 61 and 52 seriesThere were others, see the thread for the rest. Some probably even meet my criteria, which I tried hard to spell out. (I don't think they were often consulted by the respondants.)
Antigua Winds
Vito
B&S
Vintage Pre-1963 Bueschers
Pre-1978 Buescher 400's
Vintage Conn 10M tenors, 6M altos, 12M baritones
Several Shop brands from Kessler & Son Music
Vintage "The Martin"
Keilwerth Stencils (Bundy Special, Couf, etc...)
CE Winds
Possibly a used Phil Barone
Yanigisawa Stencils
Pierret
And many others.......
She'd said that she'd heard that older Martins were good saxes, yet for not too much money, so I'd concentrated most on those. (I found a nice-looking silver Handcraft, but it was from '28 and Jill said its keywork design would be too old and clunky and that I should stick to post-War. Sigh.) Anyway, we'd missed out on a local decently-priced $350 Antigua Winds sax that, though Chinese, is reputed to be surprisingly decent for the money. Next up locally was this Vito, and they were willing to take our offer.
ITO tenor sax in great condition. Purchased new, used 3 years, well maintained. Includes hard case in great condition and 2 mouthpieces: Selmer Tenor C* S-80 & Rovner ligature C-2R. Sax, mouthpieces, reeds, and case $575.
We got it for $450. The second mouthpiece is actually a metal Berg Larsen 110-1-M, also with what appears to be a Rovner fabric ligature. There was a third mouthpiece in the case: the original Vito 4C. The half-dozen or so reeds are Vandoren 3's and Hemke (Rico) 3.5's, there's also a nice neck strap and some cleaning supplies. Ready to play, from all appearances. Not bad-looking at all. Near as we can tell it was made by Yamaha, in Japan.
Supposedly bought new by the previous owners as the upgrade horn for one of their children who used it through school, mostly for jazz, and then stopped. They were cleaning house.
It's kind of a bland (to me) horn, a very prosaic end to the exciting hunt for buried treasure, but it is supposedly quite capable. I was looking forward to some really interesting vintage horn, but I guess you can't have everything! The upgrade mouthpieces and ligatures alone would cost around $330 retail, so I suppose this was a pretty good deal, if she can make use of them.
It has been suggested that the Selmer mouthpiece might work a bit better with a C** or D facing, which is something that can be done to the C*, and that for pit work she might consider swapping the Berg Larsen for a Link Tone Edge 6. Things to consider.
Jill thought it wasn't playing quite right, due to the neck vent, so she took it in to the shop. He tweaked it a bit, pronounced it otherwise good, and sent her on her way—no charge.
...Now that Jill has some time on it (a year, and several gigs) she thinks it has an awkward 'operating system', and that the old bari sax is actually a superior horn. We may wish to upgrade to a little better horn now that there is no time pressure to do so.
Jill had a shot at possibly doing a West Side Story benefit (unpaid) performance in the Fall of 2010, and would need a bass clarinet and a baritone saxophone in order to be considered a real threat for the Reed 3 book. While we had a line on a baritone sax we could borrow, bass clarinets weren't thick on the ground around here. And good ones tend to be expensive. Enter eBay:
VINTAGE BETTONEY BASS CLARINET WITH CASE AS-ISSee photos....sold in as-is as shown condition for repair or restoration.
Mouthpiece missing.
Short and sweet. I won it Monday, July 12, 2010 for $106.53 (plus $18.95 shipping, total $125.48). It cost about twice what I wanted to spend given its apparent condition, but if it can be made to play it'd still probably be worth it. (Oh please let it not be high pitch!) It was missing the mouthpiece and neck, and had uncertain other problems, but it looked like wood and for a doubler I really liked the idea of the smaller case that goes with a two-piece body. Auction images:
| Assembled | Loose parts | Upper joint | Upper socket |
| Bell socket | In case | Case |
If this can be fixed up, it might be halfway decent. This one is a real gamble. I spoke to our favorite repair tech about it, and he just shook his head and suggested that maybe I'd made a mistake on this one. (Well, he didn't say "maybe", and he suggested that as described it probably wasn't worth whatever I might have paid for the shipping, let alone the auction price. I didn't tell him what I spent. He also pointed out that necks and bells are always what you need, and that he didn't have any in his junk pile, though he did have a horn that needed them.) I guess we'll see!
It came Tuesday, July 20, 2010, and seemed to be complete, except for the neck (and mouthpiece, of course). It appeared to be hard rubber, not the wood that I thought it was from the pictures, and the broken pad cup shows that the keys might be pot metal since it has a very crystalline look. The pads are leather, and don't really look all that bad. Perhaps they're even salvageable. The corks look good enough that they might even be usable as-is. It's very dirty and in need of cleaning, polishing, and lubrication. The detached ring should be easy to set back. One of the rods is a bit bent, and some of them may need swaging or the like. The missing neck is the sort that has a cork and goes directly into the body, and that has a vent on it since there's a thumb key that works a destination-less lever up there. The diameter of the neck socket is 26.7 mm, and is 20.8 mm deep. I tried a bit of the MAAS metal polish on the keys, and it looks like they might be nickel-silver and will polish up. There was tarnish on most of the keys that looked like worn-through plating, down to brass, but it came off with polishing. I see no signs of failed plating on any of them, so perhaps they are solid nickel-silver after all. Most of the keys have "32" stamped on their bottoms, matching them to the horn I guess. The bell is nickel-plated brass, with plating wear here and there. There was a loose vintage card that had been taped to the case somewhere, with:
typed on it. (Except for the serial number, which was printed fancily.) This business is apparently still there and operating, not that that makes any difference.
NO 4970 JACKS HOUSE OF MUSIC 2528 YORKTOWN AVE SACRAMENTO, CA 95821 0350020 77 [Z7?, not 27]
With Jill's birthday fast advancing, Wednesday, July 21, 2010 I began the rebuild process...
Another abject failure. Jill basically doesn't like cool old instruments, only shiny new ones, and as it doesn't go down to low C she's got no interest in it.
My aunt hit her school's surplus auction some time ago, and picked up this horn along with many others (such as the tenor sax we borrowed once and a couple of worn-out Larilee oboes). She paid $80 for it, but it was broken: parts and rods were loose and in baggies and one of the posts (a two-holer at the upper end of the G♯ nailfile key) was missing entirely. There were some dents in the body, including some that impacted the toneholes, and signs of solder repairs, but the bow and the bell were in pretty good shape. I think it got dropped on its nose, bending back the front rim of the bell and punching in the body tube via the bell brace, and possibly popping loose the posts. It's going to need a fair amount of work to play again. I paid her $100 for it, she didn't figure she was ever going to get around to fixing it and Jill wanted to borrow it anyway for a potential gig (West Side Story). Rather than put money in for repairs just to have to give it back, I bought it from her. This simplified things, IMO, but Jill wasn't pleased to have yet another instrument around the joint.
At home I looked it over more closely and all the steel parts exhibited varying degrees of rust, especially the needle springs. The rollers are all frozen, there are a number of missing setscrews, too. The broken case seems to show signs of glue failure and delamination on one end. This horn sat in the damp for some time, methinks.
I took it directly to our favorite shop, but he was swamped and didn't really have the ability nor interest in fabricating a new post. (He didn't keep that a secret.) It languished there for a month, and we were starting to get concerned. I called around, and a different shop expressed an interest in the job, and intimated that the fabrication price, if necessary, would be low—something like $25. I reclaimed the sax from the first place and brought it home, and made arrangements to take it to the second place a week later when she had room. While I waited I started gluing the broken case back together. It looked like it had gotten wet in one corner and the glue had delaminated. I used both cyanoacrylate and polyurethane glues for the repairs. The first evening I got the two layers of one side glued back together. I also started soaking the frozen MoP rollers in Kroil. I got three loosened up fairly quickly, but the other three are more recalcitrant.
Wednesday morning I did more gluing, and yet more in the evening. The case is starting to seem pretty intact now. I removed one of the roller-equipped paddles so that I could get better access to the axle screw, and while trying to remove it the MoP broke into four pieces. Rust pressure from the center combined with twisting forces. Damn. I think, however, that with acetone and some cyanoacrylate glue I can get it back together. We'll see. Thursday morning I used a bit of contact cement to secure some of the loose covering for the metal trim that rims the edge of the case. I also used it to tack down a loose flap of the furry pink lining. Thursday evening, more gluing on the outer covering. Friday morning, more glue. I tried gluing the broken MoP roller together, but it's difficult! I am also missing a sliver or two, I think I'll end up having to get a replacement, assuming I can. It might not be the only one... Friday evening I found the missing sliver. Not easy digging a tiny piece of shell out of a shag carpet that has much the same colors and level of irridescence under bright light! I pried apart the roller and cleaned it again, scraping glue off with a razor blade, then held it all together with my fingers while I dripped more cyanoacrylate glue into the cracks. It seems to have worked. I also glued down another flap of loose case material. Saturday morning, more gluing on the case. Just about done with that, I think. Sunday morning I trimmed the excess glue out of and off of the repaired roller and reinstalled it. It doesn't roll well because it's a bit off-center, but it'll do for now. I also freed the penultimate roller. That, at least, went smoothly. Monday morning I got the last roller out, but in pieces. The rust swelled it enough to crack the shell. I cleaned the pieces (four) and glued them back together as before, then sanded the ends and drilled out (fingers spinning the bits) the center. That got it working smoothly again. I put the roller back and then put the sax into the case for delivery to the shop today. The shop trip went well, she estimates about $150 to put the horn into playable condition, including dent removal, some pad work, and the whole post thing.
Friday, October 15, 2010, we got back the horn. In working condition, but it needed more work than expected. (Imagine that!) About $250, with tax. She'd had to pull the horn apart. The dents are pushed out, the missing post is replaced (with brass, but so what), and all the keys work again. Jill says it plays. It still looks fairly good, so that's OK.
Friday, April 1, 2011, and Jill again has another gig lined up for the horn, The Full Monty, but she's not happy that the horn only goes down to B♭ and not A because the book has many A's in it. New horns go to A, old ones don't. Well, the main trick is to stick some sort of extension in the bell that will trade B♭ for A and pray that you don't have too many of both! Rolled up magazines, cardboard collars, PVC pipe sections, all have been used; I told her that I would be happy to help out. But my clever wife was wandering the hardware store aisle (Lowes') looking for PVC and found something that works perfectly! A rubber sewer pipe collar intended to adapt 4" clay to 4" metal (or PVC) pipes. It is stepped in diameter and nestles nicely inside the horn, and is heavy enough to handle easily, yet is soft enough that it won't mar the metal. However, it reeks so it's spending some quality time outside airing out.
...Three weeks later and it still stinks badly. I went to Ace Hardware and bought a different rubber coupler that doesn't stink. SKU 44605, $9, labeled:
PIPECONXIt fit a little too tightly into the horn, so I took it to the disc sander and trimmed it down a hair. That helped.
by UNISEAL
pcx 02-44
Made in USA
Evansville, Indiana
Sadly, it turns out Jill doesn't like the whole situtation enough that she's borrowed a different Bari sax, a newish Hollywood Winds, for this gig. Too many low A's. Sigh. Her next Bari sax gig, Thoroughly Modern Millie in September 2011, she again borrowed the Hollywood. Apparently I have failed here.
Yes, totally failed. She liked that Hollywood well enough that she went and bought one, new retail!
Daniel had been learning (soprano) recorder and Jill had one too (which is to be expected as she was in fact his class's music teacher). While listening to them practice one day I idly thought that maybe if I had one too we could do a little consort work sometime (Jill also has an alto recorder), so I bought myself a tenor on eBay, $20. (It took a little while to find one in my price range, tenor [and larger] recorders are relatively rare. If we play three different voiced recorders in harmony and counterpoint it has a chance of sounding more like music and less like Daniel's class!) When it got here Jill thought it was for her, because it turns out she had kind of wanted one for awhile, so she snarfed it. I suppose she'd let me 'borrow' it, if I begged hard enough.
Jill kept being bothered by the ricketiness and general air of decrepitude of the Conn, and particularly its lack of a low A; she was also quite taken with the Hollywood Winds bari she borrowed from a friend. (She's quite partial to shiny and new.) So she went out and bought one. (Full retail. It may take some decades before this even begins to approach paying for itself, which was my main objection to spending much on a doubling horn. It was more money than she paid for either her oboe [though not necessarily in cost-adjusted dollars] or her english horn, both of which she does play a lot.) She likes the case because it has wheels, and the mechanism works better for her as compared to the Conn. (Hey, it's new, we'll see how it holds up as it ages vs the Conn, assuming we keep the old horn.) Supposedly this one has some mechanical improvements over the borrowed one, so we'll see. She's borrowed a Selmer C* mouthpiece from another friend, she'll probably purchase it as she likes it the best of those she's tried. (Hates metal mouthpieces, they're just not her sound.) She returned the borrowed Bari sax and finished playing the gig, Thoroughly Modern Millie in September 2011, on this one.
I/we'd been looking for a soprano for Jill's doubling career for awhile, and had gotten skunked a few times. (As a result she rented when necessary.) Finally this one turned up locally, which was good because it could be play-tested before purchase. Another of the myriad mostly-Asian horns, cursory research showed mixed opinions, as per usual, but at least some of them were thought to be, by some owners, surprisingly decent. Prestini saxes are rumored to be assembled in the USA (Nogales) by former Conn employees, though the parts all come from Asia. The stock mouthpieces are supposed to be dreadful.
I found this one on Craigslist, and Jill seemed to have missed it. The P.O., a former high-school alto player who had only played this for his last year, had a baby coming and needed more money and less clutter. I did some research and determined that it was at least worth a look, and Christmas was coming, so I arranged with one of Jill's saxophone-playing friends to go see it Saturday, November 26, 2011. It was in very good cosmetic condition, the Yamaha mouthpiece is a good sign. Using her own mouthpiece my tame expert thought it had sealing problems down low and thus couldn't tell whether response down there was good, but she says intonation was surprisingly decent and the responsiveness was good up top. The mechanism was good, though the right-hand pinkie key spread was completely unacceptable to her because of her small hand size. (Jill's hands are much larger.) I decided to take the plunge, and at $300 I figured we were right in the ballpark on the budget (which was significantly reduced, IMHO, because of her recent splurge on the new Bari.), maybe 1/3 of what the best clones of a good horn might cost and 1/10 what a good horn itself could go for; we could probably flip it for around the same price if it didn't work out. It's going into the shop first thing to deal with the sealing issues, and my expert wants another shot at it afterwards. She thought it was definitely better than the Antigua Winds that Jill had first rented, but probably not as good as the Hollywood Winds she had also rented.
Horn Porn Images:
| Horn | In case |
I dropped it off at our favorite shop Monday, November 28, 2011, he thought it might take a couple of weeks. I picked it up Monday, December 5, 2011, only adjustments to cure several leaks starting in the middle and going down were required, no new pads or anything like that. $76. He said it played well, in tune and everything, I think he was a bit surprised. He said it tended to gurgle on low notes unless its mouthpiece was inserted quite far, but that he'd seen a lot of that over the years and it wasn't all that unusual. (A mouthpiece gap mismatch, or something like that, especially seen with new mouthpieces on vintage horns. So it might be that a different mouthpiece wouldn't exhibit the problem. He said that its Yamaha mouthpiece was a bit on the bright side, and I know that Jill doesn't like them overly bright and might want a different one anyway.) I looked at it and oiled some of the pivots, and I think I found that there's a missing bumper on a screw stop that pushes down on the third pad from the bottom. Will get an expert opinion, it shouldn't be too hard to put right once I know what I'm to do.
The bumper was a deep little socket on the end of a tiny setscrew, and it was rather loose in the arm and could easily have worked out and dropped off sometime. I removed it and glued in (contact cement) a little square of cork so that it stuck out a little bit, then used some light (purple) Locktite on the threads to tighten the fit, then I put the socket back in place and set it so that the cork was about in the plane the metal was before. It can be fine-tuned from there. No more clicking, anyway.
Thursday, December 15, 2011, my consultant had another crack at it. She pronounced it good, with no sign of gurgling using her mouthpiece. (A Selmer S-80 C**, which she suggests should be one that Jill tries because of its dark tone.) One or two notes were a bit resistant, but she said that was quite normal for a soprano sax, even a fairly good one, and that it was well within the norms. The horn is above average in its price class and will be a suitable gift.
Jill got it at Christmas, and seemed to like it. It was a complete surprise, apparently I was sufficiently stealthy.
Sunday, June 29, 2014 the horn finally got a good workout. (It has been used as a road-trip practice horn a few times, because it packs small, but nothing for real in an ensemble.) We were rehearsing for a holiday parade, and Jill was going to cover the Trumpet 2 parts on the B♭ soprano sax. It worked out fairly well, and the sax was brighter and louder than a clarinet would be. In an outdoor parade, that's all to the good.
Jill mentioned in passing once that she wanted a banjo. Joking or not I made a note of it, and kept my eye open for an inexpensive one for a Christmas present. One finally turned up on Craigslist, I got it for $80.
Have had banjo for five years and just upgraded and want to sell. Good starter banjo. Call or text Ted (208-620-19XX) no email, text is best.To me it looks nice, well worth the price. (Pickup was a nightmare, trying to find an unfamiliar address at night out in the Deliverance-ey sticks out past Athol, but the axe looks worth it. Dang-a-dang ding dang...) The finish was actually in fairly nice condition, and the hardware is nicely finished. To my eye it looks to be a step up in quality from the very bottom, using the guitar as a yardstick. Maybe not a big step...
The next day I hit the thrift shops on a lark, and managed to score a Hohner guitar gig bag that looked like it might fit. It did, $8. Sweet. I used a little spray cleaner on the banjo's head to remove the grime and marks, it looked a lot better.
At Christmas (2012) I gave her one box with the guitar bag in it, she first guessed guitar, and then banjo as she handled it, but unzipped it to find a new frying pan with a long stick taped to it. She thought that was funny. The next box had the axe in it.
I brought out the tuner, and she looked at me like I was nuts. "It's a banjo", said she, and started plucking away. The transformation was eerie, I say. Daniel gave her a set of picks and a learn-to-play book, and she spent more than an hour picking away at the thing. She learned three chords, I told her it was time to find a paying gig!
Q: How do you tune a banjo?
A: Wire cutters!
Jill's relatives had this beautiful piano in the family since new. (Emerson is a pretty good make, apparently.) When it came time to downsize in 2013 nobody else really wanted it, or had room for it. So it came to our house rather than be ignominiously sold. Unlike the last piano to come here it made the trip in the open pickup bed, nicely wrapped for the trip. I was unable to be there for the loading, but two piano dollies (specialized tools, and worth every penny of the rental fee I hear) and a ramp from the high porch right into the truck bed made it very easy. Padded and lashed down it made the trip with ease. Un-loading was a different story. We hired professional piano movers, and I'm glad we did. While I could perhaps have deployed the crane to lift the piano up to the deck it was in uncertain condition at the time, and Jill didn't want to do it that way anyway. Three guys manhandled the piano up the back deck's stairs and into the kitchen, in spite of the ice and snow on the ground; from there it was easy to get it into position in the dining room. (Getting the kitchen slider off its tracks was a bit of an ordeal for me. There are issues.) It really could use a tuning, but it needs to acclimate to its new home first.
Jill had long said that she had zero interest in an Alto in spite of her general doubling on saxes in pit orchestras, didn't like 'em, wouldn't have anything to do with one, etc., but it turns out that this wasn't entirely true. It seems that my brother's old Conn alto is probably coming our way someday, and she had a minor interest in one at that price point (free). I then ran into this at one of the local thrift stores. $108, with tax. It looked good, especially for its age. Very good lacquer, maybe 80% or better, with one big worn patch on the bell front where the engraving is. (Right where you'd grab it to remove it from the case.) All parts there, pads looked pretty darned good. Even the case was in very good condition for 88 years old. There's one popped brace on the lowest pad keyguard, some competent dentwork done on the bow, the neck plug is missing, and the lock on the case doesn't catch. I couldn't pass it up, one of these ought to be worth quite a bit more than I paid, and maybe Jill can use it until that other one shows up. (Assuming it actually does, I'm not entirely sure that my brother was consulted on this proposed housecleaning measure!) I know these old Conns are well thought of, especially for their sound, in spite of slightly clunky vintage keywork. Ones like this seem to go for $300–500 on eBay, assuming it plays, so it seemed a fairly safe purchase.
When I brought it home I dusted it, polished the tarnished bits, and oiled the keywork and the case hardware. I had to make one cork bumper for the lowest pad that was missing one and clanking against its guard, but that was it. (The spacing is probably still off.) I also treated all the (leather) pads with Leatherique, a few of them definitely need replacement. Jill seemed remarkably unenthused, no real surprise there. The next day I used compressed air to blow it off and out, and vacuumed out the case. I then used a scrap of maple burl (from Jill's aunt's big tree they had to take down) and turned a new neck plug to better secure the horn in the case. The size is a bit off, it's way too easy to get caught up in the thrill of turning and go too far, but it'll do.
I sent both altos to the shop Monday, July 1, 2013. They're in for minimal surgery to fix only the bad pads, if possible. The tech is of the opinion that this is a pretty good horn.
...It took forever, mostly our fault for not pursuing this and picking it up from the shop, but Thursday, June 25, 2015 we got this sax back. $150, with a 1-year warrantee. The tech said that the action is nice and light on this horn. She also said that she'd just done a similar job on a similar horn that the owner'd paid around $500 for, so we got a pretty good deal on it.
Thursday, June 17, 2021 summer band started, and Jill was going to use this sax. The case center latch (still) didn't catch, so I beat on it with a hammer, which didn't work, then I bent the mating hooks towards each other with stout needlenose pliers and did some filing, which did. All three latches now catch, which should be secure enough. I wrapped some cellophane tape around the too-loose wooden neck plug to make it fit better, and labeled it "Meeker Maple '13" with a fine-tipped Sharpie, to reflect the source of the wood.
Based on the dates this was probably bought new by my mother. My youngest brother played this in school, and gave it up in disgust at some point when they tried to put him on bari sax, stuck with the 'boring' parts back in the tuba 'ghetto'. The horn mostly sat in various closets since then. (Apparently my other brother borrowed it for a time and taught himself to play it in stage band, but what he really wanted was a tenor.) Brother was tired of it kicking around the house, figured he'd never play it again, and knew Jill played saxophone sometimes, so it came to live with us. The price was right: free! It looked good. No significant dents. Very good lacquer, maybe 95% or better. Missing one pad guard bumper and maybe a cork shim or two, pads looked good. Even the molded paperboard vinyl-covered case was in very good condition, no peeling. The ligature is missing one screw. I know these Conns are not well thought of, primarily because of their highly variable quality. Ones like this seem to go for $100–150 on eBay, assuming it plays.
When I brought it home I put the case's accessory hatch screws back in, using bits of wood and yellow glue to tighten up the holes, and washed the mouthpiece in the ultrasonic cleaner. I oiled the keywork and the case hardware. I also treated all the (leather) pads with Leatherique, a few of them definitely need replacement. I made one cork bumper to replace the missing MoP/felt bumper assembly.
One opinion:
Toward the end of Conn's viability they sent sax mfg. operations to Mexico as a last-ditch effort to cut costs down to a survival point. These 'MexiConns' are probably the least desirable instruments Conn ever made. The general design is the same as the Conn 'shooting stars' horns built in the USA a little earlier, but the metal is thinner and the workmanship is, at best, questionable. If damaged seriously—which is easy 'cuz they're so flimsy—you just throw 'em away & get another... hence the other moniker players have hung on the 'N' horns over the years: 'disposable saxophone'.These saxes actually sound fine because they have the Conn body tube contours that produced the great voice of the better horns, but any attraction for that reason is canceled out because they are so easily damaged, hard to work on, and generally flimsy in character. If you're lucky enough to get one made after the siesta they can play and sound pretty good—just don't go putting it down on your knee too hard.
I sent both altos to the shop Monday, July 1, 2013. They're in for minimal surgery to fix only the bad pads, if possible. The tech is of the opinion that the older one is the much better horn.
...It took forever, mostly our fault for not pursuing this and picking it up from the shop, but Friday, March 6, 2015 we got this sax back. $65, the note in the case claimed 2 pads, 2 corks, chemical clean of the neck, 3 small dents, and a ligature screw. Jill wanted to loan it out, so she finally went and got it. (The other one's still not done!) This horn and its case really are in remarkably good condition, cosmetically at least. It still could use a proper replacement for the missing MoP/felt bumper assembly, but for now it will do.
The instrument, though complete (with case!), had never been set up, so I hit the Googletubes and found this article on how to do it, their picture looks very much like what I bought. I got it assembled and tuned, more or less, and spent some time rosining the bow so that it'll be ready to make noise when presented. (The rosin block that came with the instrument was shiny, and had obviously never been touched.) I was able to make it go a bit, so it's ready enough.
May, 2021 Jill was taking violin lessons as part of getting her (music) teaching certificate, and was using this. Shortly after beginning a friend of hers gave her a slightly (marginally?) better axe, which is now living in the case. This violin is now living in a pillowcase.
Jill's been keeping an eye out for more recorders to complete the collection, and ran across this on eBay at a reasonable price. (The same seller had a Moeck, but it ended at the same moment so you really couldn't bid on both. We were the only bidder on this one, but plenty of other good basses have sold at around the same price, so we're happy.) It's a good brand, or so say experts. It's not one of the wretched-looking 'knick' jobs, instead using a bocal, so that's good. Auction text:
Beautiful Kung bass recorder for sale! This recorder is used and may need some adjustment, but it is in great shape. Please look at all the pictures and message me if you have any questions before buying! Thanks!Auction images:
| Disassembled | Bocal |
| Bag | Body |
| Head & Foot, Face | Assembled |
| Head & Foot, Back | Key |
| Stamp | Bottom, Face |
It arrived Tuesday, March 18, 2014, and looks good. Jill says it plays on the quiet side, and we might need to attend to a small bend on the end of the bocal where it goes into the instrument.
Jill's new (used) main axe, bought to replace her first Loree. She'd been thinking of upgrading for awhile, and Loree's new oboes have somewhat improved keywork over the old. In spite of the Laubin's being very good, and generally desirable on top of that, she just doesn't like it that much. The newer, heavier, Royal model she found felt better in the hand and had a richer tone, and was possibly a bit louder—all characteristics she desired.
This was for sale locally, and she was able to borrow it for a week to evaluate. It passed her auditions, so she bought it Friday, March 21, 2014. She's considering selling the Laubin to pay for this.
Disaster! Thursday, September 11, 2014 Jill reports that the top joint has cracks in it! 2–3 long cracks in the top joint, though aparently they're not all the way through and it's still sealing. The day before a major Opera performance and this happens. The whole point of buying a used oboe was that if it was going to crack it should have done so by now. So nice of it to wait 'til we owned it—not! Jill pulled it from duty so that it shouldn't finish cracking all the way through, and because her backup Loree is currently out on loan and she's not comfortable switching to the Laubin on such short notice she's arranged to swap the Laubin for somebody else's Royal for the duration of the Opera gig.
Crack images:
| First Crack | First Crack, extended |
| Second Crack |
(They have started closing up now that it's not being used and is in the case with two string humidifiers. They started out much more visible than this.)
Saturday, October 11, 2014 it's back, with 8 pins in it. She sent it to Ken Decker in Montana, and the charge was quite reasonable: $350. Now she has to break it in fresh, it'll be awhile before she can play it for real again.
Jill has long desired a bass clarinet (that was not the Bettoney), but not having the budget for a good one that goes down to C, this one finally turned up locally at a modest price. It looked to be in very decent condition, needing some pad (white leather) cleaning and maybe a bit of adjustment, and a new bell-joint cork. It had been bought for a music student from one of our local shops, he liked it but was not playing it anymore and wanted to move it on.
I used ultra-fine sandpaper and bore oil to remove some unsightly scuffs in the upper part of the top joint, and applied some Leatherique to some of the nastier-looking pads on the top joint. I think it has some small leaks, but I think it should play.
Further examination showed that the lower joint has a filled crack at the top, and the top couple of pads were in need of replacement. The top-most pad (where the crack terminates) was entirely missing its leather, and was quite leaky as a result. Not having a spare pad on hand, I removed the key and found the felt part to be intact. I used hot glue to re-seat the pad, with a piece of polyethylene bag as a new sealing surface. When reassembled the joint was a lot more airtight, this patch repair should hold until some new pads can be procured. (The bulk of the pads on this horn seem just fine.) The bell joint was extraordinarily loose, in danger of falling off the horn in use, yet the cork looked fine. Compressed with age? Mis-applied? Anyway, I wrapped some glue-backed fabric tape around it, sufficient to make it fit snugly again. This will do for now.
Saturday, November 14, 2015 Jill got it back from the shop, about $300 in repairs to fix pads, etc. She says it's OK now. Not great, it'd cost a lot more to make it great, but OK.
Jill's birthday was coming up, and this turned up on Craigslist. She'd been somewhat interested in maybe having a horn that was newer than the 1928 Buffet, but it never seemed quite worth the cost. This, however, was not expensive, though still perhaps not as new as she'd like. It looked in decent shape for its age, the wood was in far better shape than the other one, and the case was in excellent condition. Missing a ligature, but the mouthpiece, marked Buffet, seemed fine. I didn't see any cracks, nor missing pieces. I made an offer, and he took it.
Sale images:
| In case | Also in case |
| Assembled | Case |
| Brand | Logo |
| Motto | "Made in France" |
I polished up the bell, and the barrel. I used heavy string to polish the rings, that was the easy way to get down into the grooves. (All the rings are loose as if [likely] the wood has shrunk slightly with age, and will need to be removed and have silk put underneath.) I used the ultrasonic cleaner on the mouthpiece and cap. I had the horn put together to hold the barrel while I worked, I think it might have cracked at the center joint under the ring, I'm not sure. I thought I heard a little <CRACK>, and I now think I see one there. I'm not 100% sure it wasn't there before, though. If so, that is unfortunate, but still fairly harmless, unless it spreads. It's probable this is the result of the loose rings...
The next session I put black silk under the rings of the barrel to make the rings fit tightly. (Lay silk over the end and hammer the ring most of the way on, then use a razor blade to trim off all excess then drive the ring fully into place. Spend the next year trimming out little threads and tufts that show up long after you think you are done.) I re-oiled the barrel and polished it again with a rag. It looks very nice. I pulled the ring off of the bottom joint and cleaned the wood with brake cleaner. With all the goo off, and under strong light, I could see that what had appeared to be a crack was just a grain mark, or scratch. It didn't go through to the outside, nor was it visible on the end grain. Whew!
In the next session I wanted to do the top joint first, but I opted for the safety of silking the last body ring instead, which is on the bottom joint. (Assembling the instrument with a loose or missing ring is just asking for a big ol' crack, and we've already dodged that bullet once here.) To do that I had to take off some keys, which were in the way of the mallet and the razor blade. I polished the ring once it was in place, it looks pretty good.
Next I used a Dremel buffing wheel, run on a Variac for slow speed, to polish the five keys I'd removed. That is tedious, but not as tedious as a hand polishing. (Which you have to follow up with, anyway.) I removed the other four keys and the thumbrest from the bottom joint. Most of the pads actually look usable, if I don't wreck them during polishing.
The next day I polished all the posts, and the thumbrest, and then liberally doused the joint with my homemade bore oil, inside and out. Shiny! It gets to soak in for a bit now.
The next session I finished polishing the keys, and wiped off (and out) the joint. I then reassembled it. It looks fairly nice, now. The rest will, sadly, have to wait 'til after the presentation. At that time she can choose whether or not I repad it, or whether someone else will.
I gave it to her on her birthday and she seemed pleased enough. She played it; even with the old pads and after the mangling I gave it the thing was able to play, at least a little. She promptly stole the (shorter) barrel to use on the other horn, at least for now.
Somewhat later I started tackling the upper joint. The first day I polished two keys, and their posts. I refreshed the shine on the (old) barrel that was now in the case. In the next session I did two more keys. This takes a fair bit of time, but done a couple of keys at a time it's no real chore. Next I removed the rest of the keys, uncovering an "R 51" stamp on the body. Craftsman's ID? I polished two of the keys, and used cyanoacrylate glue to fill what looked like it might be a crack (or not) starting on one end of the upper tenon, after first cleaning it out thoroughly with brake cleaner. Removing the excess is always the fun part, carefully scraping it off and out with fine chisels, knives, and razor blades. Afterwards you can't really tell where it was, which was the point. The next day, two more keys and their posts; only four more to go. Tedious, but not too bad spread out like this over time. The next session, two more keys and their posts. The final session went well, except for the blood. (Damned needle springs!) The next day I moved on to the wood, and coated the joint inside and out with my bore oil. Messy! I'll leave that on for a few days, applying more as needed.
I ordered a rubber sheet, for making pads. 12×12×1/32". Specs:
| Color | Black |
| Surface | Smooth |
| Temp Range | –30°F–210°F |
| Tensile Strength | 900 PSI |
| Durometer | 50–60 Shore A |
| Elongation | 270% |
| Fire Rated | No |
| UV Rated | Good |
| Chemical Resistence | Excellent |
| Composition | Synthetic Blend |
Jill had been talking about maybe getting a djembe, and then this turned up on Craigslist during the Christmas 2016 season. I was stymied for a gift, and this looked interesting. The owner said that it had a storied past and had made many a trip over the years to Arizona and back on "the pink bus", apparently a hippy thing, but that it was time to retire it. Hey, it's fun, and kind of cool looking, and not terribly large.
Jill and I have been talking about one of these off and on for years. Cheap school cast-off for use in parades, etc., perhaps graced with a fun paint job. Well, she found one at CVHS, in the obsolete pile. Free, can't beat the price! Looks complete, except for valve buttons. (Looks like $25 for a set that will fit.) Slides are mostly siezed up, but it looks to be in pretty fair condition, except for the scuffing. The bell's not all chipped, at least. It has the neck and one mouthpiece bit, but that's not quite enough. I did try to play the horn, it seems to work.
One opinion says "...worst of the worst fiberglass junk", so that's not encouraging. Another: "...it might not be too late to take legal action against whomever gave you the horn." Huh.
Tuesday, August 15, 2017 I contacted our favorite tech to see if she had any parts for this. She said to send along a valve, and she'd see what she could scrape up.
Friday, May 25, 2018 the shop called, and said she had the goods. The new valve buttons, Allied A327, are supposedly the exact parts, and they certainly look the part. She also supplied a second 'bit'. Upon reassembly it looks great, but the spring for the valve I sent in seems to have disappeared from the horn. In 2019 I spent $3 at another shop to buy a matching spring, which works perfectly.
Friday, January 18, 2019 I ran into a Conn (no other mark, which probably makes it a #2) tuba mouthpiece, with a sousaphone bit, at an antique mall. I bought the pair for $40. A bit much for an old mouthpiece, but the bit swung the deal. (I don't think two bits is enough on this horn, to reach without any posture-killing hunching, so I'd been thinking about getting another one or two. [Leonard disagrees.] We'll see how this does.) The pair shined up beautifully, using my usual boiling water and aluminum foil procedure, followed by MAAS polish.
I'd been keeping an eye out for an inexpensive, yet workable bassoon ever since Daniel started playing the things, but nothing ever came up locally within my price range. Possible use is as a backup, or as the seller called it, a "bleacher bassoon." Jill also was considering spending a bit of time learning to play, for potential pit doubling purposes and for getting to participate in Bassoon-arama. Wednesday, May 23, 2018 I finally found one to buy, a guy was downsizing and decided he was never going to dust his chops off. Daniel play-tested it and said that it worked, but that it was definitely different than his and didn't play in the upper registers as easily. $500. So far it's a secret from Jill, I haven't yet decided upon the appropriate occasion to present it to her... It ended up being a birthday present.
Sunday, March 31, 2019 David brought the horn back, at Bassoonarama. (Jill would perhaps have played for this, but had a conflict.) He'd taken it with him a month or so ago to do some minor tuning up. He fixed a few leaking pads, leveled a tonehole or three, and caulked the leaking seal in the boot's U-joint. He says it plays a lot better now.
Jill's going to be playing Mary Poppins, and her book calls for a harmonica part. Well, we don't have one, and she's concerned that she wouldn't be sufficiently adept on one even if we were to get one. Enter a Melodica, which she bought used for around $30. Cute little thing, needed its mouthpieces and optional hose swabbed out.
Every time an oboe comes up on Craigslist I tell Jill about it. She's been wanting an inexpensive, yet decent enough, plastic oboe for awhile for playing in questionable circumstances, and the 'camping' oboe doesn't really cut it. (It was never meant to.) Finally this one came up (on Craigslist). She bought it, for $400, which seems to be a solid middle price for one of these. (Turns out the seller was a bandmate of mine.) Jill plans to look into adding a "Side F key", something that's not usually found on student instruments, and the lack of which pleases her not.
Monday, September 18, 2019 the horn is back from the shop, for $406.46 they put on a side F key. Six hours of labor, plus parts, may have doubled the cost of the horn, but more than doubled its utility, to Jill.
Jill's sister-in-law played this back in school, and was cleaning house. She asked Jill what to do with it, and Jill said she'd take it, and either keep/play it (pit) or pass it along. She brought it home Sunday, March 31, 2019.
The only serial number list for Bundy I could find places it at 1909, but the plastic case belies this. There is some tarnish, but it should shine up nicely, if anyone wanted to take the trouble.
For whatever reason Jill had borrowed a Yamaha ERB070-2 bass guitar 'starter kit' with a Precision Instruments BA-20 amplifier, I think she was going to play in church on something. She seemed interested in getting our own kit, so Tuesday, September 24, 2019 I found this on Craigslist, $200. (That was about the retail price of the guitar alone, when new.) Complete with a Crate BX-25 amplifier, cord, and SKB Freedom hard-shell case, but no strap. I Googled, and the reviews were reasonable, as was the price. Yes, there's better everything out there, but not really at this price point. Because of Jill's interest in extended low range bari sax and bass clarinets, I thought perhaps the 5-string, with its extra-low B string, might fit her personality.
It all smelled kind of stale, and had a lot of pet hair attached, so when I brought it home I used a rag wet with Simple Green to wash everything down, including the fuzzy case interior, followed by wiping down with a rinsed-out rag. A vacuuming and drying outside in the sun and wind completed the job. I figured Jill would like it better if she'd never seen it dirty. I changed the battery in the guitar (it was weak) and tried it all out. Everything seems to work just fine. No, amps like this Crate don't get all that loud. They're for practicing, and accoustic gigs. Perfect for us, in other words. The BX-25 is a lot bigger and heavier than the BA-20, which means it'll probably work better but be more annoying to pack around. I found online manuals for both guitar and amplifier, and printed them, and laid everything out to present to Jill.
Jill had expressed vague interest in a set of pipes, and one day these came up for sale locally. The seller had developed emphysema, and could no longer play. He'd paid $1800 for the whole kit 1.5 years earlier, and was looking to defray the expenses of a set of electronic pipes so that he could continue to play. $800, complete with case, reeds, reed knife and supplies, practice chanter, zipper case. Jill's Christmas present.
Jill has long desired a bass clarinet that went to low C, not the common E♭, and she finally bought one, new.
A dear friend owned this, his 'starter' serpent, which Jill had played before with him in a serpent duet in church, and gifted to her Saturday, November 23, 2024 by the widow. We chose to make it a Christmas present.
I tried to play it. OMG these things are dreadful!
