[Trombone-l] Fixing your own horn

[Eric & Candice Swanson]

Jackie Harris-Stone wrote:

>I and my horn have had a bad weekend......
>   
>   ......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.....
>   
>....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.....
>

Jackie,

You might be able to roll gentle creases out of bells fairly easily if 
you had a dent roller.  Sharp creases will not roll out completely and 
you would have to get a bell iron and a dent hammer to get those 
completely out.  I doubt that you could develop the hammering skill 
required, on your own without some study and many hours of practice, to 
do a nice looking job on the sharp creases.  But the more minor or 
gentle creases you could figure it out.  A dent roller could be bought 
as cheaply as around $70, but the problem is that it has to be held in a 
large vise, and the vise has to be bolted to a immovable object like a 
very heavy work bench or a steel post bolted to the floor.  You're going 
to be pushing on the thing hard, and it has to be sturdy.  So, by the 
time you buy the roller, the vise, and the workbench, you may wish you'd 
just paid somebody else to do the work.  If you have a local repair 
shop, you may just want to work with the guy to help him develop the 
skill to do the work for you.  Take some junk bells in for him to 
practice on or whatever.

I would suggest you not try to work on your own slide.  You would most 
likely do more damage than good.  With new slide sections going for 
$1000 or even more, it doesn't make sense for an amateur (you) to be 
working on yours or any student's that has a $2000-3000 horn.  I have 
seen many slides that have been ruined by supposedly professional repair 
technicians.  It might be better to buy a spare slide as a backup if 
yours goes down.  Then whenever you are able to get to the states, get 
them both fixed when you have the chance.  Good used Bach slides seem to 
be selling for $500 or a little less.

Eric Swanson