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Boosey & Hawkes round stamp Sovereign, completely restored!
Hi, it's been a while since I posted on this forum, but I think this one is worth sharing!
Last summer, I came upon an opportunity to buy a 1980 Boosey & Hawkes Sovereign globe stamp (sn 647xxx). These are very hard to come by, especially on mainland Europe where I'm located at.
The seller told me that the horn had been in the possesion of an older gentleman, who quit playing due to old age and was, presumably, the first and only owner yet. The horn itself was in a decent state, with some wear an tear and some dents, nothing to major. It had an aftermarket trigger installed that worked fine, but wasn't as smooth as a modern trigger system and lacked a belly guard, so it constantly blocked due to contacting the body while playing.
I bought the instrument on the spot because, while it wasn't near any perfection, it had a sound that no other instrument could beat, coming from my experiences with Sterling Virtuoso, Besson Prestige and more modern Sovereigns.
Now, last december I fell pretty hard with my bike while carrying this instrument and as you could already have guessed; the horn was near total destruction. I decided to send it to Mcqueens Musical Instruments located in Manchester, a very fine shop in brass instrument repairs and refurbishment. (Check out their facebook page!) and last week, I finally got the horn back.
You can see in the picture that the instrument is now near perfection, with no signs of repair or damage at all. The horn has been completely disassembled, undented, reassembled and replated.
As far as playing goes; soundwise it's still pretty much the same, I could tell no difference from memory. The trigger still has the same problems, but those can be easily dealt with. The one notable difference was the air consumption; this thing is no joke! Maybe it's because of the resoldering, but the instrument has almost no resistance at all! This is great for the sound, but it takes a lot of effort to keep it going so to speak.
Maybe someone could recommend me some tips or even some mouthpieces to try out? I'm currently playing a Wick 4al, having changed back from sm4 since I got the horn back and I found the responce a tiny bit improved on the 4al. Sm4u was too big to match with this instrument. Maybe I should try out a Shilke 51d or 52d?
Please let me know your thoughts, and enjoy the picture! I'll try to upload some more in the coming days, including some from the refurbishing process.
Kind greetings,
Vito
Last summer, I came upon an opportunity to buy a 1980 Boosey & Hawkes Sovereign globe stamp (sn 647xxx). These are very hard to come by, especially on mainland Europe where I'm located at.
The seller told me that the horn had been in the possesion of an older gentleman, who quit playing due to old age and was, presumably, the first and only owner yet. The horn itself was in a decent state, with some wear an tear and some dents, nothing to major. It had an aftermarket trigger installed that worked fine, but wasn't as smooth as a modern trigger system and lacked a belly guard, so it constantly blocked due to contacting the body while playing.
I bought the instrument on the spot because, while it wasn't near any perfection, it had a sound that no other instrument could beat, coming from my experiences with Sterling Virtuoso, Besson Prestige and more modern Sovereigns.
Now, last december I fell pretty hard with my bike while carrying this instrument and as you could already have guessed; the horn was near total destruction. I decided to send it to Mcqueens Musical Instruments located in Manchester, a very fine shop in brass instrument repairs and refurbishment. (Check out their facebook page!) and last week, I finally got the horn back.
You can see in the picture that the instrument is now near perfection, with no signs of repair or damage at all. The horn has been completely disassembled, undented, reassembled and replated.
As far as playing goes; soundwise it's still pretty much the same, I could tell no difference from memory. The trigger still has the same problems, but those can be easily dealt with. The one notable difference was the air consumption; this thing is no joke! Maybe it's because of the resoldering, but the instrument has almost no resistance at all! This is great for the sound, but it takes a lot of effort to keep it going so to speak.
Maybe someone could recommend me some tips or even some mouthpieces to try out? I'm currently playing a Wick 4al, having changed back from sm4 since I got the horn back and I found the responce a tiny bit improved on the 4al. Sm4u was too big to match with this instrument. Maybe I should try out a Shilke 51d or 52d?
Please let me know your thoughts, and enjoy the picture! I'll try to upload some more in the coming days, including some from the refurbishing process.
Kind greetings,
Vito
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