TromboneChat

The other day, I managed to dig up a Benge 175 (straight 0.525), said to be NOS. So far it looks quite alright, with a nice dark honey-colored laquer.

The only issue I have with it is the extremely small distance between bell and slide which is only about 0.6 inch. Too often I hit the bell with my fingertips.

The problem is on the bell side with the connector where the tenon goes in. Is it difficult/expensive/risky to get this straight? Will it ruin the laquer? Should I leave it as is?

Thank you for your advice!

Wolfgang

Is the slide receiver bent? The only way to really change the bell angle would normally be to bend the gooseneck behind the receiver.

Not too hard. May just be able to 'cheat' the hand slide receiver to neck pipe joint a little to change the angle. However, it will most definitely burn the lacquer.

Cheers,
Andy

Maybe add some images to your question.

Perhaps error in assembly. Can you see any angle in the neck pipe? Neck Pipes are not necessarily perfect straight cylinders. It might just need to be heated up, cleaned of solder, rotated, the brace repositioned, and all soldered in a new position. Or if the neck needs more bend, it’s best to take it Off for that kind of procedure.

Regardless, if the angle bugs you, it won’t be a useful tool in your toolbox. A bit of lacquer loss probable,sometimes can be touched up, but any small scar is small price for improved playability.

The neck pipe bend looks okay. As mentioned it just seems to be a slightly misaligned joint between slide receiver and gooseneck. While a bit of variation there seems to be 'normal', on the Benge it's a bit too much. Could be the reason why it was still around in the shop.

That horn has a really hard, heat resistant epoxy lacquer. Some as King. A good repairman might, repeat -might, be able to heat the joint just enough to soften the solder and change the angle a little. I've done this to a lot of Conn 50H's, but the Conn lacquer always burned.

That might depend on when it was made. The last of the Benge trombones didn't have the dreaded orange lacquer.

Probably still epoxy tough. They could always buff off the discolored stuff and shoot it with some nitro lacquer.