Re: how to lacqure a sousaphone


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Lee Stofer on October 23, 2003 at 07:04:36:

In Reply to: how to lacqure a sousaphone posted by Anthony on October 22, 2003 at 20:22:38:

Yes,
There are people out there who know how to make an old, corroded sousaphone shine. And yes, there is epoxy lacquer out there, hopefully in the hands of people who have the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) required by OSHA and know how to safely use it.
Restoring a sousaphone is a snap. First, you apprentice for a good long while or go to instrument repair school for a year, then work more to get experience. After that, all you have to do is strip the old lacquer off, completely disassemble the instrument with a torch, wiping off the old solder, chemically clean each part, de-dent each part, order missing parts, carefully buff each part, first with tripoli compound, then with rouge compound, meticulously de-grease each part, carefully re-solder the entire instrument back together to near-perfection, rebuff at the joints and hand-rag the instrument as needed, de-grease again, then spray the instrument with lacquer, hoping that you have not missed any spots in the de-greasing process. If you have, then you have a lot more work ahead fixing the blemish. If you figure that a highly-skilled worker is willing to do this sort of work for $20.00/hour and it takes 150 hours of labor to complete the overhaul, that is $3,000.00, and we haven't even addressed the costs of rebuilding the valves, the cost of replacement parts, or business overhead. Why should one consider having an old tuba or sousaphone completely restored? The result of an overhaul like this from an industry leader such as Badger State Repair in Elkhorn, WI, is an instrument that is frequently better-than-new, due to the care and time they put into each instrument, at a fraction of the cost of a new instrument of like quality. Instrument refinishing, if you care about the instrument, is nothing to tackle in the garage on the weekend.

Lee Stofer


Follow Ups: