How are your instruments holding up?

[Jharris]

Brands often claim excellent build quality, but how are your instruments holding up for wear and tear?

Reviews can only remark on the here and now, often pristine condition…

So, please post pics of your instruments, older than a year, played regularly.

Tell us what repair work and maintaining work you have had done.

Perhaps the collective of the forum can establish which brand or model really is living up to their advertised claims of excellence.

[Shinn]

Besson euphoniums from the 1960s and 1970s are legendary…STILL!

No repairs ever to the 1971 or 1974 horns. I did have some dents removed from the 1962 horn. Replace with properly-sized felts, springs, corks, and spring dampeners along with regular cleaning and a polishing using Hagerty’s spray-on silver polish and these are fully capable and ready for any occasion - today and into future decades.

Here are pics of my instruments.
David

[MichaelSchott]

No pictures as I recently sold my Willson 2900 but after 41 years, the only issues were some missing plating in areas where I held the horn and the normal dings.

[Jharris]

I do get the feeling that the 70s Besson/Boosey etc. are gonna have held up the best… be interesting to see how the newer models compare, plastic guides etc….

[MichaelSchott]

I do get the feeling that the 70s Besson/Boosey etc. are gonna have held up the best… be interesting to see how the newer models compare, plastic guides etc….

Plastic valve guides have been around for 30-40 years. I can’t recall if my Willson had them initially but if so I changed them to plastic. 2 sets lasted quite a long time.

My experiences with higher end horns if they are properly maintained they can last 30, 40, 50 years without major repairs.

[franz]

This is my Besson Prestige 2052, one of the first made in Germany in 2007. The fourth piston slide was shortened at the time of purchase. Later I wanted to customize the look with gold and ruthenium plating of the slides, trigger and water triggers; a water catcher and a heavy 4th piston bottom cap were made by me and then I added the lefreque plates. I also personally made the breather holes on all 4 pistons and the original springs were replaced with the Meadsprings and the rubber shock absorbers on the pistons and lower caps were changed. The only repair that was made was the re-welded of the pivot that anchors the trigger on the main slide. After 14 years of daily use it is still in perfect shape. This look probably won't appeal to everyone, but I love it.

[tonewheeler]

Miraphone 5050S Ambassador: Still built like a tank and holding up well. I bought the horn "new" in 2010 and inherited a trigger tuning slide issue which FINALLY was fixed about 2 years later.

I've lost some of the trigger linkage a while back and had to track down replacement parts (no easy task).

[hyperbolica]

I have 3, well, 4 valve instruments. Valves are a double for me, so I don't need these to be top quality, just being "mostly" functional is good enough for what I do with them.

Conn 24i It's kind of physically beat up, with dents and removed dents and a lot of missing lacquer, and a bent leadpipe that needs to get fixed (bought it used a couple months ago). But despite all that, it's a wonderful player, great tone, great upper range. The only complaint is that the valves are loud, and I'll probably get that remedied at my next shop visit. Also, I had to get Doug Elliott to make a special shank for a mouthpiece I already had, as it doesn't like typical small shank (tenor trombone) shanks and doesn't like big mouthpieces. Overall, I'd say it has lasted pretty well. It's got to be ~50 years old. I don't know who has owned it in the past, but it looks like it wasn't always treated very well.

King 2280. An occasional slow valve, and the slides are tweaked enough that they aren't smooth and easy. The spring mechanism for the 3rd valve is gone as is most of the lacquer. The one repair I want to have done here is to straighten out the 4th valve slides, since that is the unique characteristic of this horn. But it has a glorious tone, and the thing resonates in a way that makes it kind of addictive to play. Some small dents, but yeah, I'd play this in public. One complaint is that as the 24i receiver is too small for a typical small shank mouthpiece, the 2280 is too large for a typical large (bass bone) shank mouthpiece. I may eventually get a special shank for another DE EUPH piece, but for now I'm using 2 wraps of masking tape on a DW SM3. This horn is probably 30-40 years old, and is just an old sturdy, dependable horn.

Wessex Festivo. 2 years old. I bought it new, and recently had a warranty repair done on it (leak in the 2nd valve compensating loop). It took several months of playing and cleaning to feel like the valves had broken in. The lacquer has worn through where my left hand grips and where my right forearm rests. The slides don't all work as well as I would like, and one of them did get stuck enough that I couldn't get it out. The valves will stick if I don't play it for a week. The valves are incredibly quiet compared to the older horns. That makes it a joy to play, and makes it feel like a higher quality instrument. Will it last like the other two? Mechanically, probably. I think the lacquer will be mostly gone before the horn tuns 10.

Mack Brass 422 3/4 4v piston BBb tuba. This is a CHEAP TUBA (<$2000) about 1.5 years old, and gets played the least, probably once a week just to remember if I can still deal with the mouthpiece. The valves are reasonable, but a little loud. The slides are pretty miserable, either from misalignment or bad fit or corrosion. I have to say the quality of the instrument only has so much it can contribute to the sound. A good player can make real music on this horn. How long will it last? Longevity of musical instruments is mostly a function of the owner and the environment, the actual qualities of the horn to a lesser degree. A typical student in a typical band situation might destroy a horn like this in a few years. If I keep it and never take it out of the house, it might last forever. The lacquer hasn't started to come off yet, but I do use a strap with it, so I don't grip it as much as I would otherwise.

[davewerden]

I have 3 instruments older than I am, a Gunkel tenor horn (1895) a Holton Double-Bell euphonium (1935), and a King Liberty (2B) trombone from around 1940. The two newer ones have held up very well. The King had so much playing before I bought it used that not only is the silver plate worn off around the hand grip, but the brass beneath is pitted. That, I think, does not in any way indicate fragility. Just the opposite! The Holton is nearly like new mechanically, and has very little lacquer wear. The Gunkel has also held up well considering its age. The brass is bare around the hand grip area where the nickel plating wore off. The valves leak horribly, but I doubt that was due to lack of quality - at some point before I bought it from a Salvation Army thrift store ($5) it should have had a valve job.

My other two senior horns are actually kids, relatively speaking. My Sovereign Eb tuba and my Sovereign baritone horn are both from the early 1980's and are just about perfect. The tuba could use new pads on top of the pistons - the original silicone dealies are yellowed and flatter than they started out. Neither has had full-time use, so there is no surprise.

I have a Yamaha symphony tenor with F attachment from the early 1990's, and it is in perfect shape excerpt for a small pink spot inside the bell.

[RickF]

My Miraphone 5050S Ambassador is holding up very well. No problems at all after seven or eight years.

[daruby]

Aha, well I have a 2009 Sterling Virtuoso, one of the last of the Bauerfeind horns. It is in near perfect shape, though I have had some service and mods on it. While in the UK at the Sterling shop over several years, I have had the receiver replaced (incorrect taper), and the belly pan mounts unsoldered and moved to a different location (mine was the first Sterling to use a Besson belly pan). I have had both Sterling and Osmun music here in Boston area repair and resolder the trigger pivot mounts. I have also broken both ends of the false hand grip and had them resoldered. I might add that my horn has been "across the pond" 7 or 8 times and done quite a bit of domestic US travel over the last 12 years. At this point in time, the horn is in fantastic condition. The valve action is amazing and the horn plays well.

My Adams E3 prototype is a newbie (5 years?). It also has had one end of the false piece hand grip resoldered. I guess I am hard on the hand grips!

Doug

[John Morgan]

...It also has had one end of the false piece hand grip resoldered. I guess I am hard on the hand grips!Doug

Well, Doug, you are probably not the only one!. On my Adams E3 which I have owned new since May 2016, I, too, have had to have one end of the false piece hand grip resoldered. I sent my horn to Lee Stofer in Iowa to do this. I also had a pin prick, really, just a tiny pin prick on the lower branch fixed. Lee made the pin prick disappear entirely. I used him because of the brushed finish on my horn and the fact that Lee had just done some miracle work on Dave's horn (bell) which had fallen to the ground from his car when he opened the back. I also had Lee do some work on the valves (so that they would work even better). This was more akin to cosmetic surgery as it wasn't essential, just something I wanted him to do (some lapping and shining). My horn to this day looks brand new. I think there is a slight wear mark where my right thumb rests on the first valve casing (the same place Dave mentions about the Sinfonico not having the room to easily put your thumb there). I have a brushed finish so this appears as a smoothing of the brushed finish where my thumb touches. Very unnoticeable and probably nothing at all I can do about that. I also use a cloth to help hold the horn with my left hand/arm so that my bare skin rarely touches the horn with any part of my left arm/hand.

I have many other horns, but suffice it to say, I take excellent care of my horns and they show it. They all look new, as horns should look if you take care of them. I think I may have a tiny little dent on the end of one of my trombone slides where I inadvertently hit the slide against a Manhasset stand when playing. I will probably have that fixed even though my section mates think I am crazy and overly persnickety about my horn(s), which I am.

[John Morgan]

I have 3 instruments older than I am, a Gunkel tenor horn (1895) a Holton Double-Bell euphonium (1935), and a King Liberty (2B) trombone from around 1940. The two newer ones have held up very well. The King had so much playing before I bought it used that not only is the silver plate worn off around the hand grip, but the brass beneath is pitted. That, I think, does not in any way indicate fragility. Just the opposite! The Holton is nearly like new mechanically, and has very little lacquer wear. The Gunkel has also held up well considering its age. The brass is bare around the hand grip area where the nickel plating wore off. The valves leak horribly, but I doubt that was due to lack of quality - at some point before I bought it from a Salvation Army thrift store ($5) it should have had a valve job.

My other two senior horns are actually kids, relatively speaking. My Sovereign Eb tuba and my Sovereign baritone horn are both from the early 1980's and are just about perfect. The tuba could use new pads on top of the pistons - the original silicone dealies are yellowed and flatter than they started out. Neither has had full-time use, so there is no surprise.

I have a Yamaha symphony tenor with F attachment from the early 1990's, and it is in perfect shape excerpt for a small pink spot inside the bell.

There is a wide spread rumor floating about that you actually also own an Adams E3 euphonium (older than a year)!

[ghmerrill]

I don't have any comments on how my newer (1960s-2000s) instruments -- like y'all seem to have -- are holding up. But my 1924 Buescher Eb tuba is doing just fine. I've finally decided to sleeve a standard American-size receiver onto it so I can use my Kelly 25 mouthpiece (and potentially some others) without the benefit of the Matt Walters adapter I've been using.

[aroberts781]

Jharris, I think this thread is a great idea, thanks for getting it started!

I wanted to share pictures of what my euphonium looks like as an example of how a decidedly not premium horn has held up. I bought my Schiller Elite euph 7 years ago (August 2014), so it has 7 years of use on it. The first four years it got played daily. I was meticulous for a few months about wiping and oiling the valves during and after each playing sessions, which I think helped a lot because I really have no valve issues to this day. I replaced the original springs with standard Mead Springs and love them. I use Blue Juice, tried Hetman valve oil for a while but experienced gunky build up so switched back to Blue Juice and have no plans to switch oils.

During the first 4 years I took it apart and gave it a decent cleaning twice per year. The last three years I only average playing a few times per month. Some weeks I get several sessions in and some weeks I don't touch it. It hasn't gotten a full cleaning in probably a little over a year, although recently I was having some uncharacteristically sticky valves so cleaned the valves and casings pretty good with just a cloth and a brush and that helped a lot.

You can see in the pictures that the tuning slides are fairly discolored, although they move easy and smooth. I currently use Hetman tuning slide grease and it works great for me.

Dent-wise there was really nothing worthy of a photo, some small dings on the bell and one on the bottom bow, I'm sure I picked those up in rehearsals on chairs or stands, but really nothing huge.

I would say the most disappointing issue of my cheap horn is the pretty significant lacquer wear. The wear on the hand brace isn't too bad and has developed slowly over time. The spots along the bottom bow and fourth valve happened pretty rapidly somewhere around year 2 as I recall. I was worried at the time that it was going to happen all over the horn, but it never got more extensive than that.

Hopefully this post is helpful for anyone considering buying a cheap stencil instrument for themselves or their kids. Schiller is not known for superb customer service. It is a decent sounding horn, and considering the 7 years I have owned it I have been very happy to have it. At the time it was sure better than not having a horn at all!