I am right in the middle of a rebuild project for a 1941 Buescher Big B Aristocrat tenor. I lucked into this horn on eBay a few months back and even in very poor condition, she still sounded wonderful.
After getting Paul Heimann to agree to do the body work on her, I'm now finishing up the keys and doing the pad prefit. And I need to decide if the remaining 30% lacquer is worth keeping. Paul did a lot better job than I had thought was possible and the horn's battle scars are no longer too bad. I've hand-polished all the exposed bare brass and she is starting to look pretty good. But the areas of remaining original (I believe) lacquer are dark cracked and some are burnt.
It would be very easy at this point to use a chemical stripper to remove the remaining residual lacquer. The result would be a pretty good looking instrument in hand-polished bare brass. But I know that removing this last remaining original lacquer may devalue the horn. Even though I hope this sax is a keeper, I still don't want to destroy her value. I see way too many over-buffed re-lacquered Big B's on eBay. And I don't want this grand old lady to suffer the same fate.
Please let me know your thoughts and opinions on this.
After getting Paul Heimann to agree to do the body work on her, I'm now finishing up the keys and doing the pad prefit. And I need to decide if the remaining 30% lacquer is worth keeping. Paul did a lot better job than I had thought was possible and the horn's battle scars are no longer too bad. I've hand-polished all the exposed bare brass and she is starting to look pretty good. But the areas of remaining original (I believe) lacquer are dark cracked and some are burnt.
It would be very easy at this point to use a chemical stripper to remove the remaining residual lacquer. The result would be a pretty good looking instrument in hand-polished bare brass. But I know that removing this last remaining original lacquer may devalue the horn. Even though I hope this sax is a keeper, I still don't want to destroy her value. I see way too many over-buffed re-lacquered Big B's on eBay. And I don't want this grand old lady to suffer the same fate.
Please let me know your thoughts and opinions on this.