Antique Musical Instruments/The Buescher Baritone

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Expert: - 5/30/2011


Question
I had a buescher baritone give to me (from Elkhart Ind.) serial number 272633  can you give me about when it was manufactured.
The valves are a little noisy,any way that can be fixed?  Finish is still good, good tone.

Answer
Your horn dates to 1935.

The three most likely problems with the valves would be 1) the pistons are worn and are too loose in the casings.  That can be fixed by replating/resizing the valves.  2) the guide key is worn and the valve can wander side ways.  That can be fixed by replacing and refitting the valve guide.  3) The felts and corks are missing or are flattened.  They would then make noise that the ends of travel.  They can be fixed by replacing them with felts and corks of the proper thickness.  

Antique Musical Instruments

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Kenton Scott

Expertise

Please note: My area is BRASS instruments, not other wind, string or percussion instruments. I will provide information on antique, obscure and out of production BRASS instruments. 1) Please don't ask for evaluations, I'll not provide them on this site. 2) I am often asked very similar questions, so I'd invite you to first check on Horn-u-Copia.net. Much of the information I have garnered about this topic, I have posted on this WEB site.

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I perform in several historical bands, have informally researched the area, repair brass instruments, and operate a Forum dedicated to the topic at http://horn-u-copia.net

Education/Credentials
B.S. Ed, M.S.

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