TromboneChat

The 90+ year old leader of the big band I play in is moving to assisted living, offered to sell me his vintage 3B.  I was honored, so when he packed it up after the last rehearsal I took it home with out a close inspection.  Decide to check it out before I played it, glad I did.  Took a look down the slide, saw a lot of junk.  Snaked it out, ended up with a pile of brown goo about the sized of my thumb.  I almost hurled!  Mouthpiece receiver has corrosion just inside the lip so the mouthpiece won't seat right, and the slide tenon is dented and won't seat in the bell section all the way.  That my buddy was still playing at 90-some years old is admirable, but had he cleaned his horn and had it worked on by a tech it would have been a lot easier.  Me, I'm taking it to my tech for a THOROUGH chemical cleaning and repair before I play it.  If anybody wants pics of the brown goo, such as a teacher who wants to gross his students into cleaning their slides or a  PM me with an e-mail address and I'll sent them. You will need a strong stomach, believe me!

Yikes!!! Been a while since ANY horn I've cleaned has been like that. Gotta keep em clean... it's not just for looks!

I heard that if you count the rings in the goop it will tell you how old the trombone is 

I had a similar experience over the weekend helping the youngster who plays 3rd trom in my orchestra with his slide

QuoteThe 90+ year old leader of the big band I play in is moving to assisted living, offered to sell me his vintage 3B...

Decide to check it out before I played it, glad I did.  Took a look down the slide, saw a lot of junk.  Snaked it out, ended up with a pile of brown goo about the sized of my thumb.
Maybe he could play again with the brown goo gone. 

Quote from: robcat2075 on Nov 26, 2017, 08:17PMMaybe he could play again with the brown goo gone. 

Seriously, he is going to a VA home with no opportunities to play.  If he wants it back at any time, he can have it as long as he is alive, and agrees that he tells his family I get it back when the time comes. 

This reminds me of a story that Bill Watrous tells about Kai Winding. If you've heard it, you'll know. if no knows what I'm talking about, I'll do my best to recollect. (It's been about 10 years since I heard the story at one of his masterclasses at a local high school).

Great that he was able to play that long and enjoy doing it. My dad lived to be 100 but wasn't doing anything that interesting at 90+ or even 80+

And good that he has somewhere to go now that he can't take care of himself.

Great that he was able to play that long and enjoy doing it. My dad lived to be 100 but wasn't doing anything that interesting at 90+ or even 80+

And good that he has somewhere to go now that he can't take care of himself.