A Salute to 25 Years of Service

[Crazy4Tbone86]

Please tip your hat in observation of the Edwards outer slide tube below for 25 years of service. The owner claims he got the horn in about 1994 or 1995 and has used it constantly ever since. You can see that this outer tube (lower) needs to be replaced and the upper inner tube also needs to be replaced. If you look at the photo carefully you can see the player's thumb mark to the left of the brace solder and the big hole where his index finger or middle finger was placed.

Three interesting things about this particular slide:

1. It is so early in Edwards history that there is no Edwards labeling on it.
2. The slide crook is gold brass (about .589 bore).....I never saw that before on an Edwards.
3. The player admitted that he wrapped up the holes with packing tape and kept playing on it for about 2 or 3 years!

https://trombonechat.com/download/file. ... ew&id=5931

[harrisonreed]

If only he had used leather grips!

[ArbanRubank]

Looks like snake oil damage to me.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

If only he had used leather grips!

I have never used leather guards or grips, but this is substantial evidence that they certainly have a purpose!

[ericcheng2005]

Please tip your hat in observation of the Edwards outer slide tube below for 25 years of service. The owner claims he got the horn in about 1994 or 1995 and has used it constantly ever since. You can see that this outer tube (lower) needs to be replaced and the upper inner tube also needs to be replaced. If you look at the photo carefully you can see the player's thumb mark to the left of the brace solder and the big hole where his index finger or middle finger was placed.

Three interesting things about this particular slide:

1. It is so early in Edwards history that there is no Edwards labeling on it.
2. The slide crook is gold brass (about .589 bore).....I never saw that before on an Edwards.
3. The player admitted that he wrapped up the holes with packing tape and kept playing on it for about 2 or 3 years!

https://trombonechat.com/download/file. ... ew&id=5931

Wait, this is an outer tube?!?! It got mangled by the owner.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.

[ericcheng2005]

Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.

Wow!

[Elow]

Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.

Is there any way to find out you have acidic hands before it’s too late?

[ericcheng2005]

Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.

Is there any way to find out you have acidic hands before it’s too late?

Lacquer wearing off too quick? I have no clue, I do remember something about a test for sweat pH somewhere though...

[BGuttman]

You can check the acidity of your sweat using the pH paper available in the Chemistry lab. Just touch the paper when you are sweaty (it won't hurt you). If your sweat is under pH 5 it's pretty acidic. If it's around 6-8 that's pretty neutral.

Note that some salts can also be corrosive to metals. If you sweat a lot of sodium chloride and that sits on the horn you can start to eat through the metal. That's one reason to wipe your horn down after playing it.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

The acidity and corrosive strength of your perspiration can change with a person's age as well. When I was in college, my perspiration chewed through lacquer and silver plating (on my euphonium) very quickly. I even had a hole in the braces on a couple of my inner slides from contact with my left hand.

Now.....35 years later, it takes me a long time to even chew through lacquer. I still play every day, so it is not a matter of how much time my hands are spending on the horn.

[tbonesullivan]

I remember that the Saxophone Professor at Rutgers when I was there, Ralph Bowen, had acidic sweat. He ended up with holes in his horns where he held them. Some people just are that way. I have friend who plays guitar, and his strings are black after about half an hour of playing. For me it takes a month.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

I remember that the Saxophone Professor at Rutgers when I was there, Ralph Bowen, had acidic sweat. He ended up with holes in his horns where he held them. Some people just are that way. I have friend who plays guitar, and his strings are black after about half an hour of playing. For me it takes a month.

That would be a bummer to be a saxophonist and own a Selmer Mark VI, only to have your hands chew holes through it! What does he do? Buy a student-level saxophone and just expect to get a new one every few years?

[cmcslide]

That would be a bummer to be a saxophonist and own a Selmer Mark VI, only to have your hands chew holes through it! What does he do? Buy a student-level saxophone and just expect to get a new one every few years?

Salt air will do it too. I know saxophone players who do exactly this for playing gigs at the beach.

[Elow]

I remember that the Saxophone Professor at Rutgers when I was there, Ralph Bowen, had acidic sweat. He ended up with holes in his horns where he held them. Some people just are that way. I have friend who plays guitar, and his strings are black after about half an hour of playing. For me it takes a month.

That would be a bummer to be a saxophonist and own a Selmer Mark VI, only to have your hands chew holes through it! What does he do? Buy a student-level saxophone and just expect to get a new one every few years?

Would gloves work? For our school silver plated horns we always wear gloves and our 30 year old yamahas and kong’s still have no wear. There’s plenty of dents and scratches and such but no plating wear.

[ArbanRubank]

Keith Hilson of the Schmidt Music Trombone Shop wears what looks like latex exam gloves when he is testing a horn that must stay as minty as possible to sell.