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Thread: Re-hab and play HN White E Flat. Help and conversation.

  1. #1

    Re-hab and play HN White E Flat. Help and conversation.

    I am new, but very happy to be here and happy to have an H N White E flat tuba, ser # 25494. It is kind of grungy but plays nicely with a Kelly 25. Does anyone have experience with cleaning the black, or even suggestions about whether to clean it or not? Does anyone have experience with the Kelly extra small mouthpiece in an e flat tuba? General thoughts about re-hab? Help much appreciated. Jay

  2. #2
    Welcome to the forum!

    If you could post a photo or two, it might help to know for sure about the black coating.

    However, IF the original finish was silver plating, then black tarnish is very common, and of course it gets worse over time. Elbow grease will clean it for you, as long as you have the right polish. Here is an article I wrote quite a few years ago, but it should still be applicable:

    http://www.dwerden.com/forum/showthr...ips-for-Silver

    I would start with a small area that is more-or-less hidden from the audience and try the techniques there. The polish I mention in the article is good at cleaning normal tarnish, but if you just can't get if off without a lot of hard polishing (which is bad for the finish) then you may need to use a product like Tarn-X:

    https://www.amazon.com/TARN-X-G-TX-6...dp/B00869MEGU/

    It can clean off tarnish without much rubbing, but it has not tarnish inhibitor in it, so the horn will start to tarnish quickly afterward. If you use Tarn-X, then I'd suggest using Haggerty (mentioned in the article) as a follow up.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  3. #3
    Thanks, very much appreciated. I will get some of the cleaners you suggested and have it……..seems like brass can develop a nice patina , not so much w/ silver. Possibly our paths crossed at the Academy. If so, I will extend the secret Charlie Golf greeting! No, no, no , I never learned the greeting . J

  4. #4
    Thanks again, Dave. I'm ready to start with Hagerty's and elbow grease.Click image for larger version. 

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    Jay

  5. #5
    Looks like a nice horn! Be patient with your polishing - there are a lot of square inches there, and some of them are hard to get to!
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Central North Carolina
    Posts
    2,362
    Sorry to come late to this thread.

    You need to determine what the horn is pitched to. Is it A=440 or is it higher pitch A>440 or lower pitch A<440? This will determine how usable the horn is and whether it might reasonably be converted to modern (A=440) pitch or not: Low pitch=yes, High pitch=no, without a lot of pain and $$$.

    Your selection of the Kelly 25 is an interesting choice. After a LOT of experimentation, it is what I've chosen for the best mouthpiece for my old Buescher 1924 Eb horn. But I also cut that from A=435 to A=440. I think you would find the Kelly XS to be good only if you want to play in the staff and above. But that's just a guess based on a large number of bass trombone and contrabass trombone mouthpieces I tried.

    Re-hab: What needs to be rehabbed? I removed a large number of dents from mine and polished the stuffing out of it. The plating on those horns is generally thicker than on ones today. Mine obviously had the "double plating" option offered by Buescher at the time. Yours may need new water key cork(s) (use Valentino), maybe new springs? And CLEAN (and clean and clean and clean ...) it inside. Flush repeatedly with soap and water. Use a trombone snake on it. Do it until your arms fall off -- or at least until you get totally clean water when you pour it out.

    Does that Kelly actually fit into the receiver? The receiver on mine is the "small shank" -- about (but not exactly) the same size as a bass trombone shank. If it's that, you might want to replace it with a standard shank receiver. Or sand down the shank on the Kelly to go further into the receiver. I believe that I have the last adapter (small-to-standard shank) that Matt Waters made for these, and I'm hanging onto it. But at some point, I may just pull the old receiver off and put a standard one on.

    Intonation can be wonky. Well, intonation WILL be wonky. Mine's quite good now, but that's after cutting it down to A=440 and tinkering a lot with the receiver, use of a sousaphone bit in it, and the Kelly 25. It has good "ghost" tones and so can play quite passably in the contrabass register all the way down to the EEb fundamental.

    Message me, if you want, about other questions.
    Last edited by ghmerrill; 07-27-2021 at 10:15 PM.
    Gary Merrill
    Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
    Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
    Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
    1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
    Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
    1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)

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