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For all of you playing any Wessex horn for a bit longer:
In 2015 I bought my Bb ophicleide in raw brass, in 2018 the french c tuba in silver plated. I played them both for a lot of hours and they saw some gigs before C...d. They had both minor tweaks which I could sort out myself in the first days, of the sort I didn't bother for this price.
Last December when preparing my Christmas french tuba quartet for the video I found the some notes a bit strange. On the recording day it felt so bad, especially the lower Dbs (on 46 and 56) that I rinsed the horn and found open soldering joints on the bow of valve 4 and 6 and a pinhole in bow 5.
For the recording duck tape was the rescue (meanwhile my repair guy did a good job!).
In January I looked at the ophicleide while the sun shone on her through the window... and saw the soldering of one of the big braces coming apart.
And some weeks ago I bought a 2015 Wessex Saxhorn (copy of the Courtois 366, they had it until 2016) from a former student. When I tried it it sounded like a leaky water key. When I cleaned and rinsed it some days later the complete leadpipe/tuning slide assembly fell of, all solderings had disintegrated.
Do you have some similar experiences or do I have some black magic in my studio? All other horns are OK, the longest owned is my Courtois trombone (for 39 years) without soldering problems.
In 2015 I bought my Bb ophicleide in raw brass, in 2018 the french c tuba in silver plated. I played them both for a lot of hours and they saw some gigs before C...d. They had both minor tweaks which I could sort out myself in the first days, of the sort I didn't bother for this price.
Last December when preparing my Christmas french tuba quartet for the video I found the some notes a bit strange. On the recording day it felt so bad, especially the lower Dbs (on 46 and 56) that I rinsed the horn and found open soldering joints on the bow of valve 4 and 6 and a pinhole in bow 5.
For the recording duck tape was the rescue (meanwhile my repair guy did a good job!).
In January I looked at the ophicleide while the sun shone on her through the window... and saw the soldering of one of the big braces coming apart.
And some weeks ago I bought a 2015 Wessex Saxhorn (copy of the Courtois 366, they had it until 2016) from a former student. When I tried it it sounded like a leaky water key. When I cleaned and rinsed it some days later the complete leadpipe/tuning slide assembly fell of, all solderings had disintegrated.
Do you have some similar experiences or do I have some black magic in my studio? All other horns are OK, the longest owned is my Courtois trombone (for 39 years) without soldering problems.
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