Keep or Lose the Remaining Lacquer During Rebuild?

Enviroguy

Enviroguy

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.
 
I would get rid of the rest, especially if you have already polished the bare areas, and give it a good coat of carnuba cleaner wax before putting back together.
 
I agree with David especially since you're in the middle of a rebuild; that seems like the opportune time to do this. I do luv horns that are so ugly that they are beautiful but I prefer a little more even patina even more. Do you have pics of the project? :cool:
 
If the battle scars were that bad to begin with that you didn't think they'd come out, then I'd ditch the lacquer. 30% won't help much on resale anyway, and it'll certainly look much better without it.
 
I would be much more likely to buy a horn with the lacquer removed than one wiht partial lacquer. I know the loving care it takes to remove it all and the horn looks better overall.
 
I'd leave it alone. Why remove the little remaining protective cover. I buy them to play, not to look at.
 
After a lengthy discussion with friends, experts and this thread, I've decided to remove the remaining 30% of her lacquer using a mild chemical stripper. She should look pretty good once hand polished. No buffing wheel is going to touch my baby.

BigB_Stripping.jpg
 
Enviroguy said:
After a lengthy discussion with friends, experts and this thread, I've decided to remove the remaining 30% of her lacquer using a mild chemical stripper. She should look pretty good once hand polished. No buffing wheel is going to touch my baby.
Click to expand...

Ugh! Been there, done that. With a soft brass scratch brush at low rpm done with soapy water the finish can look like this:

CopyofDSC02701.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom