1920 Pan American Silver Trombone Refurbishment
Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2016 9:55 pm
Hi there! I haven't been on in almost a year or so at this rate, but I come with news. Just today, I received a 1920 Pan American Silver Trombone (With a inner Brass bell finish) in my hands.
The trombone was found on Ebay in Fort Wayne Indiana. As of November 25th 2016, it is now in Dayton, Ohio. I would love to know if anyone can round up ANY history on this trombone, who it might've been played by or any of that type of information. Serial Number 15505.
It came with it's own Lyre (Without a screw though, but that probably wouldn't be too hard to find.) As well as it's own mouthpiece (Unknown size. Most likely a 12C. Although as I compare it to my 12C that I already have, It has a smaller throat (Minimally) But the same Cup. I can't hit low notes with the mouthpiece, but I can go higher than normal.)
I am first going to show you the pictures of the trombone before I received it myself...
Once I received it, I gave it a quick soapy bath, cleaned up the insides (Which were gunky to say the least.) And also gave it a good wipe down on the outside to ensure I would get a good cleaning when it came down to actually polishing up the old beauty.
My main goals were to polish the slide, as well as the inner bell. (At the time, I believed it was an all-silver instrument. With the inside of the bell being discoloured due to just old wear and tear.
As I was cleaning the bell, I realized that it was actually coming out more brass than it was silver.
I still have a lot of work to do. What I am currently going to do is allow myself some time to get lessons on the trombone (Since I am still a brand new player.) And in the mean time, still work on cleaning it. I know you are only suppose to polish an instrument once a year, at best, but I think if I gave it just one more, simply run down of cleaning it up, it should look like it just came out of the Elkhart facility in 1920.
My main thing is that the plating looks very new still, almost like it was done recently over the last 10 to 30 years. My Conn Valve Trombone is in a worse condition than this instrument is, and the Conn is only 40 to 45 years old at best.
All of the polishing and washing work was done within around 3 to 4 hours. As I spent time looking around for things to clean up the trombone well with. Such as a possible polishing took to really get it polished up without all the manual labor (I gave up on this as no stores had a small polisher at 3")
The trombone was found on Ebay in Fort Wayne Indiana. As of November 25th 2016, it is now in Dayton, Ohio. I would love to know if anyone can round up ANY history on this trombone, who it might've been played by or any of that type of information. Serial Number 15505.
It came with it's own Lyre (Without a screw though, but that probably wouldn't be too hard to find.) As well as it's own mouthpiece (Unknown size. Most likely a 12C. Although as I compare it to my 12C that I already have, It has a smaller throat (Minimally) But the same Cup. I can't hit low notes with the mouthpiece, but I can go higher than normal.)
I am first going to show you the pictures of the trombone before I received it myself...
Once I received it, I gave it a quick soapy bath, cleaned up the insides (Which were gunky to say the least.) And also gave it a good wipe down on the outside to ensure I would get a good cleaning when it came down to actually polishing up the old beauty.
My main goals were to polish the slide, as well as the inner bell. (At the time, I believed it was an all-silver instrument. With the inside of the bell being discoloured due to just old wear and tear.
As I was cleaning the bell, I realized that it was actually coming out more brass than it was silver.
I still have a lot of work to do. What I am currently going to do is allow myself some time to get lessons on the trombone (Since I am still a brand new player.) And in the mean time, still work on cleaning it. I know you are only suppose to polish an instrument once a year, at best, but I think if I gave it just one more, simply run down of cleaning it up, it should look like it just came out of the Elkhart facility in 1920.
My main thing is that the plating looks very new still, almost like it was done recently over the last 10 to 30 years. My Conn Valve Trombone is in a worse condition than this instrument is, and the Conn is only 40 to 45 years old at best.
All of the polishing and washing work was done within around 3 to 4 hours. As I spent time looking around for things to clean up the trombone well with. Such as a possible polishing took to really get it polished up without all the manual labor (I gave up on this as no stores had a small polisher at 3")