[Trombone-l] Fixing your own horn

[Jackie Harris-Stone]

I and my horn have had a bad weekend.  First, I watched it fall off the conveyor belt from the top- near planeside- on the way to the Rochester audition, but Paul Abel, bless him,  fixed it up for me very nicely.  Then, I was teaching yesterday, and picked it up by what I though was a brace, and turned out to be my very short f-slide, and it came out of my hand- fell all of 4 inches onto carpet, the wrong way, and the bell is wrinkled.  It's soft enough I could restore most of the shape by hand, but there are still some big ridges.  
   
    I'm back in Mexico, so I have two choices- take a 12-hour bus trip to one of the big cities in Texas in two weeks in my week off, find someone to fix it, and take in some concerts or get some lessons to make the trip worthwhile.  
   
    The more practical one, perhaps, especially given that my bell is very thin, and easily dented, and next time I may not have a week with no trombones in the orchestra, is to look into how expensive and difficult it would be to get the equipment needed to do basic repairs for myself- rolling out the bell, taking dings out of the slide.  I have a Shires dual bore slide, and a Thein bell- 11 inch, I think. 
   
    Anyone able and willing to chat with me about the feasibility of this?  There are plenty of damaged horns at the places I teach that I could practice with, so my horn wouldn't have to be my maiden voyage.   
   
    The equipment might be a good investment- there is a repairman in town, but when our second bonist got a rag stuck and went for removal, he got it back with two visible dents in the slide.  I at least know what a repaired trombone should look like, which has got to be an advantage!   

		
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