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Posted by Joe S. on February 21, 2001 at 00:06:59:

Here's what a sousaphone (Conn 20K in this instance) looks like just before the satin finish is put on its surface prior to being silver plated. The masking tape that you see here and there is to protect any area of the instrument where a "high gloss" finish is desired: bell interior (large cardboard discs also employed here), bell engraving (has to be carefully marked around its perimeters and the masking tape has to be cut around it with a hobby knife), bell tenons, branch ferrules, branch protective ribs, etc. All of those places we polished to a mirror finish, and then protected from the sandblaster with masking tape. Of course, prior to plating, the masking tape will all be removed and we will use a bit of solvent to gently remove any masking tape "goo". The valve caps, slides, and other similar parts aren't mounted, are high gloss, and will be plated separately, so masking them is not necessary. Incidentally, we used 35mm film cannisters in conjunction with masking tape to protect the valve casing interiors, the threads, and the "trapezoid" shapes at the outer ends of the casings. On sousaphones with smaller diameter pistons, regular (skinnier diameter) prescription medicine pill bottles are used. You might notice that the instrument looks "clean" (reflects light and images) but is not super shiny: Polishing the rest of the instrument to a mirror finish would be a waste of time, since it is all going to be sandblasted to a "satin" finish, anyway.

This sousaphone is headed off to a high school in Prince George's County, Maryland. We already sent them one that was a "factory" satin silver instrument and, prior to our restoration, only had light damage. This pictured sousa wasn't so easy. Besides having to do the satin finish from "scratch", this sousa is actually a "junkpile" instrument: body branches from here, valve section from there, a few brand new parts, and the bell from...
...a nice guy on this bbs! (All "genuine 20K" parts, though, and NO worn-out parts nor any patches.)



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