Posted by Rick Denney on January 08, 2001 at 23:20:58:
The project continues...
Over the weekend I did a little buffing, and in so doing realized what I've realized before. I am just no darn good at removing dents. I tapped that polished dent hammer on that bottom bow at least 500 million times, and the dents have become ripples, at best. Some of those ripples others would call dents (though acoustically insignificant, especially compared to what they were). It's embarassing. Every time I take hammer to brass, I'm reminded of the sheer artistry of the guys who know what they are about. I do not have this skill, yet I can't resist proving it once again in my desire to keep a $400 horn a $400 horn.
So, I decided to just to get the horn playable so I could, ah, play it.
But the greater ugliness is in the braces. There's one design feature I don't much like on Bessons (and maybe others, too). Those nice, wide tuning crooks for the fourth valve and main tuning slides are braced on either side of the instrument. If the mainframe of the instrument isn't just right, the slides won't fit. I'd prefer a properly sized set of braces between the slide sleeves, with more adjustment ability between the slide sleeves and the outer branches. I fiddled with those braces for hours, and never could get them to line up. I had no trouble lining up the sleeves so the slides would be a good fit, but not with the braces looking like they ought to. I gave up. I slid the tuning slides in place, and then just soldered those blasted braces wherever they lay. Yes, folks, the weight of the horn increase about a pound from all the solder I stuffed into those messy gaps.
I was almost motivated to file down the solder drips and runs that are the natural result of filling too large a gap, and then give the whole horn a good ragging. But the motivation wasn't there, so I finished the assembly and sat down to play it. Only then was I happy with my "handiwork."
I keep thinking I have the drive to perfection and patience to get it right, but in the end I prove to myself that I'd rather be playing the horn that working on it. I'll have to live with the fact that when my mid-life crisis kicks in and I throw my current career in the trash can and show up on Joe S's doorstep ready to be an apprentice, that he will look at this euphonium and toss me out on my posterior. Not that he'd need that much reason.
Rick "who would rather have an ugly player than a pretty wall-hanger" Denney