Musical instrument restoration and repair at home.

My Musical Instrument Restoration

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It all started when my playing abilities started to exceed the capabilities of my student trumpet, it had me looking for a better horn everywhere, I couldn't find a new horn but I stumbled across an old cornet (circa 1905) which played in the wrong key (after hours of modification just to get it to play at all, it played in the key of C concert instead of B flat!). The horn was a J.W. Pepper, and was completely black with tarnish, it was missing a few parts and needed soldering all over the place. It had no case (usually the case is gone with vintage horns, the complete package is rare) so I made one out of an old suitcase.

So using household cleaners, and pencil erasers I was able to remove all the tarnish, but the horn was a dull gray color not a shiny silver color. So after much searching I finally decided to have it sent away and repaired. It came back in barely better condition, the horn was playable, but sounded like a rabbit in distress, and still looked the same dull gray color as before. So I searched the chemicals again, and found an ancient bottle of turtle wax chrome polish. It worked, the horn was now reflective and one could see oneself in it! the quality of the polish was not perfect however and I eventually developed my own polish to keep it shinier, longer.   Then I started to work on its sound quality which was lacking I found several holes and attempted to patch them with solder which worked terribly so I came up with an easier solution, clear nail polish. it filled the holes and allowed the horn to play much better (not perfect, better) I then sat the horn aside for a while to do other things.

    I read somewhere that a horn without lacquer will play better than one with lacquer, so finally I had a way to improve my trumpet which I had played for years! I slowly removed the lacquer with metal polish. I then began experimenting with electroplating so I could silver plate the horn and be done with it, but I again set the trumpet aside when I found another old cornet, A J.W. York perfectone cornet.

The thing was beautiful, made in 1913, but it was black (not a problem) and missing a key slide (big problem). this hor also had no case (or so I thought) so I made one out of an old suitcase, (I later found the origional case, and I am in the process of restoring it). I sent the horn away

(to somebody else)

to have the slide replaced, and this time I was extremely pleased when it came back. the thing was gorgeous and played like a dream (not to mention it was the coolest horn in the trumpet line). But this made me want to use the other horn even more so I started playing it again, and started to teach myself to solder to repair it properly. The type of solder I used had a lot to do with my limited success. Eventually I found a fatal air leak right where the leadpipe attaches to the mouthpiece, and I soldered the hole shut which improved the horn a lot. Notice the silver plating on the reciever in the second photo (it needs a good polishing, but it has been holding up for many months now).

Eventually I got the horn working well enough that I was able to play a solo with it at my own high school graduation with the Berwick HS band.

So I was playing a lot, and decided I needed another horn to play, so I looked on ebay and found a flugel horn.

This horn was fine, but I bought a piccolo trumpet as well, and the thing sounded like a very young rabbit in distress.

So the fist modification I made was to the mouthpiece, this piece of junk was so poorly made it was shaped like footprint, flat on the bottom and steep tall sides.

So I painstaking ground down the rim to a comfortable level using a knife sharpening block (if I only had a lath!) and then steepened and rounded the cup. Since I am used to a deep cornet mouthpiece, I opted to keep the mouthpiece a little steeper than conventional trumpet mouthpieces. Then I took the mouthpiece and stuck it in the end of a drill, and turned it while I sanded to get a smoother finish. The final step was I buffed the thing using different types of rouges to make it have a mirror shine, before electroplating it (it currently has no plating because I keep modifying it further to tweak out the best performance as possible).

The horn was considerably better, but being the perfectionist I am, It needed more work, so I stripped the lacquer, and started totally reshaping the bell.

It was very tight and had a flare that was extremely abrupt, so I stretched it over time with every object and tool imaginable. The end result is this, it looks terribly dented, but plays so much better, it is worth it. I smoothed the dents with a wooden photography roller. Then I decided to anneal the brass (when brass is worked it becomes hard, so to restore the flexibility I evenly heated it with a torch and then allowed it to cool slowly. Still better, but not perfect. Then I decided the lead pipe was the flaw I was stuck on, so I tapered the mouthpiece receiver (using a dremmel grinder and buffing wheels) and it still isn't perfect, but it is close enough! I use it in "A Touch of Brass" brass ensomble quite frequently for our favorite song "Just a Closer Walk With Thee".

Home, Hobbies

Scott Bogard. 2007

Hey guys, my website has moved, I will no longer update this one. you want to go here for my new site.

My Musical Instrument Restoration