Blessing B-88 rescue mission

[Estraven]

So, yesterday I rescued the dregs of a Blessing B-88O from the hands of an ex-middle schooler. It really sounds and plays well, but needs more work to be playable. Here’s what I have.

Bell section: excellent valve, tubing and yellow brass bell OK, most of the lacquer gone, needs a replacement bumper stop (already ordered) and may need an “F” tuning slide bow due to heavy denting.. Appears to have a Bach valve rather than a Conn valve.

Slide: again, heavy lacquer wear, Inner tubes are usable but sprung, outer slide probably need a new crook. Heavy overhaul is indicated.

I also have a scrap 88H with a usable red brass bell and scrap slide with a good crook, plus one very good 88H slide with red brass outer tubes (this is the slide I tested with the Blessing bell).

Given this box o’ parts, and assuming that the hand slide crooks are compatible (they appear to be, but I haven’t measured them yet) what would you do?

On edit: fixed the Conn vs Bach valve text

[DougHulme]

I'd sell the usable scrap 88H bell to me and use the thus generated finance to pay a good technician to deal with the rest!!!... Doug

[Blabberbucket]

Pictures of the damaged crooks would help come up with a better informed plan. That said... You have a lot of options.

If you don't have a strong preference on red vs. yellow bell, you could have the Blessing valve section converted to modular and switch bells as you please. A good trombone tech can source parts for this and easily do the work.

If the crook on the handslide is badly damaged, the tubes are probably quite bent and out of alignment. For a really good slide, you're probably best off having a tech decide which tubes and hardware are in the best shape of the slides you have and having them build one really solid slide for you.

[ithinknot]

I'd sell the usable scrap 88H bell to me and use the thus generated finance to pay a good technician to deal with the rest!!!... Doug

I'd sell the whole lot and buy a fully functioning used Yamaha.

If you can franken horns yourself, you'll have huge fun and can do whatever you want. But if you're paying for these adventures by the hour, it's good money after bad every time.

[blap73]

One of the bummers I've found is while you can freely buy parts from Conn-Selmer as an individual - [so King, Selmer, and Conn parts are easy - so you could buy a whole f tuning slide. Sometimes even already lacquered. ] BUT. good luck on Getzen, Blessing, and others. It seems like you can only get a few parts for those retail, and otherwise you need to be a proven repair shop or dealer. If anyone knows otherwise I'd love to hear about it!

[brassmedic]

One of the bummers I've found is while you can freely buy parts from Conn-Selmer as an individual - [so King, Selmer, and Conn parts are easy - so you could buy a whole f tuning slide. Sometimes even already lacquered. ] BUT. good luck on Getzen, Blessing, and others. It seems like you can only get a few parts for those retail, and otherwise you need to be a proven repair shop or dealer. If anyone knows otherwise I'd love to hear about it!

If you want to be a brass tech you need to have a business license, I'm sorry to say.

[Matt K]

I think you just have to have a registered business with the right NAICS code.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

Back to the original topic….
I’m not a big fan of sacrificing parts from multiple trombones to create just one trombone. If I am reading the OP correctly, you have two complete trombones and an additional slide. My recommendation is to replace or repair the parts so that you end up with exactly that…..two complete trombones and an additional slide. It would probably be a good plan to make all of the parts interchangeable.

Two notes:

1. If you decide that you want to pull parts from multiple trombone sections to make one “super trombone,” you will probably end up saying “what should I build with all of these leftover parts” at some point in the future. However, you will need to work even harder and buy more parts to make things happen.

2. It sounds like you are assuming that many of the parts that you have are not salvageable. I think you would be shocked what a technician can do with a mangled crook or piece of tubing. Many times a twisted/dented piece of tubing can be returned to like-new shape because brass is a very malleable alloy. Things get a little more complicated when there is a crack or hole in the metal, but patches can be made.

[bigbandbone]

I think you just have to have a registered business with the right NAICS code.

I had to provide my state license and my DBA to open an account, but that was years ago.

[Estraven]

Well, to get things going I paid the local school rental tech to go over it; among other things, he pulled a ball through the F tuning slide crook and got the worst of the damage out of it. After that I put the new bumper plate on the valve, cleaned it up again (yes, it was still dirty), freed up the linkage (he didnt do that either) and lubed everything with Monster synthetics. Here it is, mated to the “good 88H” slide. This combo sounds and works very nice. It isn’t pretty, but that’s all right with me.

I still need to borescope the valve to check port registration, maybe shave off one or both bumpers a bit. A Bach brass bumper plate fit the valve perfectly; a Conn bumper plate did not. So it appears to be a Bach valve / trigger / linkage on a (mostly) Conn 88HO bell section.

As an aside, the horn came with a Bach corp. 6 1/2 AM mouthpiece which, for me, makes the horn very sharp.

[Blabberbucket]

No need for a borescope to align the valve. Just sight down the neckpipe or thru the receiver with a flashlight to check alignment.