TromboneChat

Wasn't sure where to post this...

Yesterday I gave my slide & tuning slides a bath in warm soapy water. I do this every couple of months, wash/rinse/dry/leave to rest for a few hours before putting it away.

I've just opened my case to find my F tuning slide has gone funny, it's lost its shine/gone cloudy & has some marks. Even the ferrules have gone as well. Only this & not the main/Gb slides nor the slide have been affected.

Any ideas what's caused it & can it be rectified??

Thanks,
Ross

Looks like it ended up with different lacquer from the rest of the horn. Maybe it had been repaired at some point. I don't know enough about lacquer to guess why it did that.

I've had it from new so no repairs etc. I just can't figure out what's happened between putting it away last night & opening the case tonight!

Water might have been too warm. This cloudiness also happens occasionally with ultrasonic cleaning. If it hasn't been damaged so badly that the lacquer is going to fall off, it can sometimes be fixed by carefully heating the lacquer to restore its transparency. It should be done by someone with a lot of experience, because the point at which it clears is pretty close to the point at which it burns, and then you end up with ugly brown scalded marks.

Okay, it didn't feel too warm & I could easily have put my hand in & kept it there without any issues. I did put all 3 slides in at the same time so it's odd why it's only impacted that one.

It's certainly not damaged to the point of it falling off. I know it's only an aesthetic thing but it's still annoying as I always try to take extra care.

I don't know what Rath Is using, but from my experience, Conn/Selmer, Getzen and others are now using lacquer that is not very robust and is very easily damaged.

When I see this kind of damage, it rarely happens evenly to the entire instrument. Why it would happen to one part and not another is anybody's guess.

I do think that could be repaired with heat. If not, it wouldn't be difficult to just relacquer it.

Another possibility: I recently saw a thread here where people noted lacquer damage from off-gassing inside certain types of cases. But the fact that it happened right after you cleaned it and not before makes me think the cleaning must have been a contributing factor.

Thanks Brad. It was shiny when it went into the case but not when it came out, I guess it's just a freak thing!

It's due a service imminently so I'll see what can be done with it.

Out of curiosity ... what is the make, model, and age (or time since purchase) of the horn?

I'm with Brad on this one. It looks like warm water has reacted with the lacquer. I had this effect on a trombone I bought and managed to correct it with heat, but it is a delicate process.

Hi Chris, I've never encountered anything like this before in any trombone I've owned. I just find it odd that it's happened now. Worst case is getting re lacquered, I'll see what Bryce says when I next see him.

BP... it's a Rath R9, 3 years old.

RoscoTrombone wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 3:32 pm Hi Chris, I've never encountered anything like this before in any trombone I've owned. I just find it odd that it's happened now. Worst case is getting re lacquered, I'll see what Bryce says when I next see him.

It should be possible to fix. If it needs a relacquer it's only one slide. Heat, properly applied should work.

Having worked in a small shop like that, I can tell you that lacquer is not applied to an assembled instrument. Every part is lacquered separately, and it's a multi-step process. It's not impossible that slide was done with a different batch of lacquer than the rest of the instrument, or it was cleaned prior to lacquer in in an ultrasonic machine just before the liquid was changed out, or any number of other possibilities.