Expert: Kenton Scott - 10/17/2007

Question
I stumbled on a very old pocket trumpet or cornet in my Granparents basement. It's silver, has three different mouth pieces (one with more twists of tube), the music stand, mute,and the cleaning wand. The case is in bad shape, but the instrument is looking great. The horn is very ornate, with fancy banding around all the tube joints, and nice designs on the horn with "A.Hileron Paris". Please email me for Pics if you need them.  Second...How do you free up stuck tube slides?? I want to get the horn back into pristine playing shape, and can't move some of the tube slides. Thanks in advance\
Doug Ewing

Answer
It might be a pocket trumpet, but I suspect that it may simply be a cornet.  Have you tried playing it.  It might be an Eb rather than a Bb.  You can email pictures to me at Kenton@punxypa.com if you want.

Regarding the stuck slides, try spraying them with WD40 or PBBlaster and then put a shoe lace around the stuck slide and then attach the shoe lace to some solid pole, like a basement support pole.  Hold the outer portions of the slide and give it repeated tugs.  Don't over do it.  If it doesn't come loose fairly easily, take it to a repair service.  You can easily torque the instrument out of shape, and do more damage if you aren't careful.