Ways forward with Holton Galaxy

[nateaff]

I have an old Holton Galaxy (nickel silver bell rather than just nickel plated like later Galaxies) and I absolutely love the sound and feel of it, but the inners have fairly significant chrome loss.

I can live with a slow/scratchy slide up to a point buy someday id like to return the horn to it's former glory

Would it make the most sense to
1: Get an all new slide from another brand (Edwards/shires etc) with the installation of the corresponding receiver?

2: try to see if I can somehow get ahold of a set of exact match .485 and .500 Holton inners and install those in the original cork barrels?

3: see if I can re-plate the original worn inners (this seems the least practical to me but I'm not sure of it's feasibility)

Any advice from techs or people who've gone through similar projects would be greatly appreciated!

[ithinknot]

I have an old Holton Galaxy (nickel silver bell rather than just nickel plated like later Galaxies) and I absolutely love the sound and feel of it, but the inners have fairly significant chrome loss.

I can live with a slow/scratchy slide up to a point buy someday id like to return the horn to it's former glory

Would it make the most sense to
1: Get an all new slide from another brand (Edwards/shires etc) with the installation of the corresponding receiver?

2: try to see if I can somehow get ahold of a set of exact match .485 and .500 Holton inners and install those in the original cork barrels?

3: see if I can re-plate the original worn inners (this seems the least practical to me but I'm not sure of it's feasibility)

Any advice from techs or people who've gone through similar projects would be greatly appreciated!

1 doesn't exist in .485/500 dual, at least stock, and the length may not be correct in any case

2 won't happen

3 is commercially unlikely and undesirable in any case

Have you had the slide overhauled by someone really good? Chrome loss in and of itself isn't necessarily a huge problem - if everything else is good (tube straightening, alignment, and polishing) then you'd be surprised how not slow, not scratchy things can be.

Also, given how little Galaxies go for these days, for the price of any of the options you suggested, you could probably buy 2 or 3 other examples and find a better slide that way.

[OneTon]

I did this “re-manufacture” on an Olds Studio. I believe Chuck Ward did it. King 0.490 inner and outer tubes were used for the upper, King 0.500 inner and outer tubes for the lower. The Holton receivers and crook can be re-sized to match the new tubes. If the original Holton leadpipe cannot be removed or it can ascertained that the 0.490 King leadpipe is very similar, the King leadpipe can be utilized. I had the outer slide plated and lacquered. The total cost was about half the cost of a new slide. The net change in diameter, overall average, is 0.0025 inches. It plays virtually the same as before. Maybe better. Sam Burtis originally sold me the Olds.

You might find a replacement set of new old stock. It could take years or never bear success.

There is a Galaxy for sale on Reverb for $425 described as excellent. It isn’t. The case may be.

I have had parts nickel plated before. It was expensive. If the tube isn’t straight and round, the new plating won’t last long.

I played a gig on March 23 on a King 2B with plating loss on an inner slide. I maybe snook a slide retreatment in. By the middle of one short but aggressive set, it was about like chopping wood with a dull axe, no pun intended. If it wasn’t detrimental to the plating, my King 2B that was run over by a car tire does better than that. Thanks but no thanks.

[greenbean]

^ What he said.

[hyperbolica]

Even if you can't find Holton inners, you can find other new inners that fit and shouldn't change the sound/feel enough to worry about, especially when compared against the playability upgrade. It doesn't make sense to replace the existing inners with old ones unless they are really flawless. But that repair with new tubes might run about $500, which has to be pretty close to the value of the horn. I have some excellent slides that have some chrome loss. It's not the end of the world.

[ithinknot]

I played a gig on March 23 on a King 2B with plating loss on an inner slide. I maybe snook a slide retreatment in. By the middle of one short but aggressive set, it was about like chopping wood with a dull axe, no pun intended. If it wasn’t detrimental to the plating, my King 2B that was run over by a car tire does better than that. Thanks but no thanks.

If the plating loss is local, it has formed because the tubes aren't running straight and wear is unevenly distributed... so of course the action is bad. Until it's extreme and spread across large areas in the middle of the stocking, chrome wear is far more likely to be symptom than cause.


PS if a Holton TR602 slide fits (?) then that could be a very inexpensive solution

[OneTon]

If the plating loss is local, it has formed because the tubes aren't running straight and wear is unevenly distributed... so of course the action is bad. Until it's extreme and spread across large areas in the middle of the stocking, chrome wear is far more likely to be symptom than cause.

PS if a Holton TR602 slide fits (?) then that could be a very inexpensive solution

The King 2B was delivered to me with a well set up slide and no noticeable brassing of the inner tube. Several months of playing resulted in brassing of one of the inner tubes. There may have been previous wear on the plating which caused it to be thin, and then fail. Abrasion to the inner tubes can be aggravated by surface roughness, corrosion, or red rot of the outer tube inner surface. The King 2B's slide runs great for 10 to 20 minutes. Technicians rarely check the outer tubes with a bore scope. Once the slide runs well with lubrication, they will drive on to the next problem or horn. They don't typically play test horns for an hour to verify a set up.

We don't know what the condition of the original poster's slide is.

Players who use light pressures on their embouchure, use a light grip on the slide, use straight horns, and who perhaps warm up with multiple scales to achieve precise intonation locations may have higher expectations than other players with other priorities. Different strokes for different folks. I played in the past with a trombonist who started each rehearsal and performance by removing the outer slide from his 88H and dropping it horizontally onto the horizontal feet of any available Manhassett music stand, from a height no less than 12 inches, prior to application of his favorite lubricant. He had access to free repairs, and his 88H was in the shop 3 to 4 times a year. Any note beyond 2nd position was out of tune. God knows what his f attachment was tuned to and He won't tell. I am sure that that trombonist would have been perfectly satisfied with unplated inner tubes and soldered on stockings.