Vintage Sax Restoration/Playing Questions

[rs2sensen]

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[Pete Thomas]

It's presumably satin frosted silver as opposed to glossy shiny silver. This is very hard to polish to a new looking shine.

As for health issues, this is unlikely unless there is some awful bug on the mouthpiece that doesn't go away with a good wash or dip in disinfectant. This is so unlikley as to not be an issue for most people. (Presumably you don't have a problem using cutlery in a restaurant).

It's also just possible that if the leather of the pads have some mould, you may inhale the spores, but most mould is non toxic anyway, and if there vis no noticeable mouldy smell then there should be no problem anyway.

Sounds like a real bargain.

 

[rs2sensen]

Thanks Pete!

Yeah, this is actually a pretty fun horn to play around with, although I can understand why the C-mels died out (little edge to the tone) I have heard that can be improved greatly through a more modern mouthpiece, and the horn does have a couple leaks (these will be fixed with a bit of cork, not the fault of the pad too much).

Yeah, most of the horn is the "satin frosty silver," although the logo did shine up so much I assume that had been glossy (which is typical on a lot of these horns). No gold wash on the bell, which is a shame, but I can't complain too much. She may just be a stencil, but it's a very solid horn playing-wise.

 

[paulsax]

Congratulations, I will be picking up my L&H Buescher stencil from my tech tomorrow, following a complete refit. Speaking to him yesterday he said the horn, using a tenor mouthpiece, now sounds like Coleman Hawkins without the edge; I look forward to not sounding like a 4 yr old on a kazoo.

As to your questionsn I hope the following will help-

To get rid of the green spots try WD40, if that doesn't work apply ammonia, use a cotton bud and avoid pads, corks etc, and wash off with water. Failing all the above a minl tool (eg dremel) with a brass brush will do the job, done carefully this should not damage any intact plate. Any bare areas can be touched up with silver plating formula, although these will not be satin.

I am surprised that alto reeds fit as these are much to narrow for my mouthpieces, you may want to try tenor or bass clarinet reeds. There are several new c melody mouthpieces now available some of which are getting good write ups. In addition many c owners use tenor mouthpieces which seem to give good sound and intonation.

I recently read a claim that the serial numbers on Buescher stencils follow the main Buescher list, so looking up any of the available lists may give you a good idea as to age.

For a wealth of info on C's, including serial lists, try www.cmelodysax.co.uk.

Hope this is of help.

Paul

 

[rs2sensen]

Thanks Paul! Yeah, cmelodysax.co.uk is a truly great resource! Out of curiosity, what serial number is your L&H? Do you have any pictures?

Mine appeared to be in very rough shape, but some elbow grease has really brought her in line. I just placed an order for a plug-in silver plating unit. One of those $40ish dollar things. I'll be curious to see how well it works. Unfortunately, it doesn't do the satin effect, but I've heard if you can crank up the current, it will.

I've found myself caught up with the history of these c-mels, very interesting stuff to research!

Hope your horn plays well for you when you get it back! I'm glad the keywork and pads on mine were in pretty good shape, otherwise I wouldn't have put the money into a repad. She still does look like a beastie though...

 

[paulsax]

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[rs2sensen]

Paul, the plater comes in the mail tomorrow, and I may or may not get to using it then. I'll be sure to put before (when I first got the sax), intermediate (what it looked like after polishing), and after pics (what it looks like after plating), and describe my experience with the plug 'n plater (or whatever it's called) from Caswell. Based on the video they have on the plater's page, it looks like the silver plating goes very quickly. If I have enough solution, I want to go over the areas completely worn down to brass, as well as most of the keys.

Thanks for the reply! Good luck on the c-mel when you get it back, as well as the c-sop!