Bolero noisy and sluggish slide

[micka572]

Hi, I have a Selmer Bolero that give me some troubles.

It's my first vintage trombone so I'm not comfortable with the issues that my slide give to me.

When I receive it, I immediately give it a bath and run the Brass Saver into all the tubes.

Nothing goes out and after cleaning with the cleaning rod and see nothing on the cloth I presumed that it was clean.

The problem is that the slide is very noisy and sluggish, not slow but not very supple.

I've tried Yamaknot with some water but don't get very well and after some research here tried trombotine with yamaknot plus water but don't get well too.

The problem is that after 5 minutes the slide feels like it's dry as hell even if I spray a lot of water.

[GabrielRice]

Take it or send it to a really good technician for a professional cleaning and polish. DO NOT let them give it an acid bath or other chemical clean. What it needs is manual polishing to remove corrosion from the inner surfaces of the outer tubes. They should also check all four tubes for straightness and alignment and correct any problems.

Does the Bolero have nickel outer slide tubes? They can be tricky - if they're bowed at all it might take multiple passes to bring them back to straight.

[Vegasbound]

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[micka572]

Ok will let it to a pro.

Just a question, with the technique of trombotine, cleaning inner before silicone lube and water spray, ok you add water when it become sluggish but how do you know when it's time to add silicone lub or trombotine ?

[bellend]

I would also recommend you get it checked over by a repairer who is good with slides but before you take it you could try this first.

Fill up the outer slide with diluted kettle descaler.
You can get citrus based ones if you're worried about the chemicals .
You need to let it soak for a few hours to dissolve all the crud that's built up over the years.
Thoroughly flush through with warm water and maybe a tiny drop of washing up liquid and don't forget to brush out the bottom crook. Flush with clean water , then start carefully wiping out the inners.
The outer legs on the Bolero are quite soft so be careful not to force the cleaning rod in to harshly or you could quite easily distort them. You'll need to keep going until the cloth comes out perfectly clean which could take some while.

I would personally use trombotine next and be generous with it working each leg separately first dry and then with water. This may feel bad to start with but stick with it then start wiping of the trombotine off the inners and re spray with water. It could take a week or so for everything to settle down.

During the time I worked at the UK's only trombone manufacturer the process I've described above was standard practice on all slides coming in for repair as you first have to get everything spotlessly clean before starting any other repair processes.

Good Luck !

BellEnd

[mickael57280]

Hi, I have let it to a tech, he have cleaned it with white vinegar and tell me he get it out lot of junk.
He as also straigthtening the tubes.

After 2 days the slide still fell sluggish and noisy and everytime I putt trombotine on it, work the inner into the outer and then wip off the inner, I get LOT of dark green/black junk on the paper.

Is it normal?