[Trombone-l] king laquer?

[Daryl Burch]

My '51 2B we estimated it had been in a closet in its original case for 
at least 20yrs. But the varnish had cracked. It actually cracked in a 
crossing pattern that looked like shattered glass put back together. It 
also had the rosey orange hue of which you spake.  It was odd but 
gorgeous. Then my repair told me if I wanted to brighten the sound up I 
could take the laquer/varnish off with some super fine steel wool.

So a 6-er of Guiness and a few Brillo pads* later on an odd Tuesday 
night, I did it. Now I attain those deafening 105db's in clubs!

*Note: No Brillo pads were actually used. Rest assured it was, in fact, 
super fine steel wool. The numbers on the Guiness, however, could be 
fudged either way.

Gimme the skinny on where you found said beauty (off-list). I've been 
casually hunting a 4B for pop work. I tried out an early '80s Silver 
Sonorous w/F in Oakland a couple months back. Loved it! Thought it had 
a really big, chocolate-ey sound that could really be pushed for salsa 
and big band stuff. But couldn't quite hack the $2k price tag. And the 
shop wasn't budging. So as far as I know it's still on the shelf there.

Cheers!
-D-
www.radionoise.com <- Rock star by night
www.burchinteractive.com <- Tech-nerd by day #;-)


On Apr 27, 2006, at 12:34 PM, dslide13 at aol.com wrote:

> The newest addition to my King collection is a 4B from around 1969.  It
> is a beautiful color of rosey orange.  Frequently, saxophonists will
> remark at what an interesting hue the bell is colored.  I recently had
> some dents taken out of the bell and asked the repairman, who formerly
> worked in Eastlake at the King factory, what kind of laquer was used.
> He said it wasn't a laquer, but a varnish.  He also said that when the
> horn was made, it would have looked like any other brass horn.  But,
> this varnish is sensitive to UV light and starts to turn brown after
> prolonged exposure.  Had the horn been in its case for the past 35
> years, it would still look like brass.
>
> Is this true?  Does anyone know more about this than I've already 
> heard?
>
> David Gibson
> trombonist/educator
> www.jazzbone.org
>
>
>
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