The story behind is a friend sent me the listing to some Goodwill-like store where apparently this was just sitting on their shelf and was cheaper than you could imagine. I said why not and placed the order. I had a small heart attack imagining how they would package and ship the horn, and another small heart attack unboxing the horn. It was not....packaged by an owner of a trombone, I guess would be how I would described it. Definitely packaged and shipped as if it would be a wallhanger decoration piece and not a musical instrument. However, the horn is overall undamaged as a whole in the end, more or less.
Granted as you can imagine...there are problems. There is this weird gunk/foam all over the place. It's like it lived in a cheap chinese foam case in scorching heat for a years and then removed and the foam had stuck to it. The tuning slide is stuck and wont budge. The slide receiver lock screw nut thing is frozen/stuck so i cant really put the 2 together. The brace attaching the receiver to the bell is detached on the receiver side. spit valve assembly could use with being completely overhauled or replacing.
Now on the positive side, the bell only has a few very light dents! Silver plating appears to be in decent condition as well as the gold wash. the ENTIRE horn overall as a whole seems to be sound and free of major trauma. Now the most surprising thing about the horn is the slide....and I have no idea HOW it is possible that the slide is this good. Dry, the slide action is 7/10. You'd think the slide would be pretty bad based on the condition of the rest of the horn, but no. It seems well aligned, despite poor packing in shipping and possible rest of its life. It does not stick to the inner slide at all. IN FACT, if you told me someone replaced both inner slides with brand new ones, I wouldn't question it. That's how little wear the inner slide shows. Just seems like the whole outer slide assembly being deep cleaned would significantly improve the slide action.
How'd I do on this find? now I just need to get it repaired and cleaned
