Posted by Art on July 31, 2001 at 22:48:22:
In Reply to: Helicon Restoration Stories posted by From Parts Unknown on July 29, 2001 at 22:02:52:
Ok, I know many of you will slap your heads and moan about this story, but since you asked...In 1967 I obtained a beat-up old Beuscher BBb helicon with 3 cylinders and two pistons. I obtained a four-valve set in pretty sad shape from Walter Sear for $25, and spent a week with a propane torch and some steel wool. I popped some of the worst dents out by soldering thumb rings onto them and then yanking them off. I fabricated a leadpipe using parts from an old Italian euphonium. When I was finished I painted the whole thing black, which helped to seal some of the leaks. (I tell people the paint gives it a darker tone.) I used it like that for 25 years in a dixieland band, enjoying its flexibility. Wild Bill Davison loved it, and Max Kaminsky called it a "helicopter". Then I bought a brand new upright Bohm & Meinl, which I used for about a year before realizing that its valve section could work on the old helicon. So I ordered an identical valve section through Custom Music and paid for shipping it from Germany to Michigan to Connecticut, and spent another happy week with the torch. This time I put on a leadpipe from a King sousaphone, but I stayed with the black paint. (By now quite a few other brass players are going with black too.) I sometimes imagine what it would be like to have the horn restored properly the way Joe S. would, but I am still having too much fun playing it as it is. I could not bear to part with it for that long.