Recently bought a ‘61 Silver Sonic 3B really good shape overall but some tarnish some places the lacquer is missing. I would post a photo but I can’t. I used silver polish in a small area and it worked and seemed to remove the lacquer. I think I’m ok with this, I don’t mind polishing it occasionally.

Anyone with experience or ideas on this? You can also see what looks to be tarnishing under the lacquer.

If you do strip the lacquer, you can get rid of tarnish without polishing. If you heat baking soda in the oven at like 300, you can convert it to sodium carbonate. If you put the bell section on some aluminum foil with a little carbonate dissolved in, the tarnish will vanish basically instantly with no wear on the silver. You should be able to use a bath tub for this.

FWIW many silversonic players prefer unlacquered bells which may let them resonate more easily. There’s a 3BSS at Brass Exchange I saw just today exactly like this.

I unlacquered mine and it was a lot more zippy. I'm not actually sure it was any better, just different. With the lacquer it played a lot more like a large bore.

I owned a Sterling 3B for a short time that I felt played well on some notes, but felt dull on others. A previous owner had put it in a tub for cleaning, and had used water that was too hot. The lacquer was spotty - long strips had come off, but other parts of the bell had intact lacquer.

I stripped the rest of the lacquer mostly as a cosmetic choice when I had decided to sell it, and discovered (after I had a buyer) that it seemed to be much better and more even playing without any lacquer. This might not be an issue on a horn with more "natural" lacquer wear with a spot here or there, but I really noticed a major difference (and kind of regretted selling it). I used a commercial stripping product - lots of ventilation and wear gloves.

Jim Scott