A Salute to 25 Years of Service

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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

Please tip your hat in observation of the Edwards outer slide tube below for 25 years of service. The owner claims he got the horn in about 1994 or 1995 and has used it constantly ever since. You can see that this outer tube (lower) needs to be replaced and the upper inner tube also needs to be replaced. If you look at the photo carefully you can see the player's thumb mark to the left of the brace solder and the big hole where his index finger or middle finger was placed.

Three interesting things about this particular slide:

1. It is so early in Edwards history that there is no Edwards labeling on it.

2. The slide crook is gold brass (about .589 bore).....I never saw that before on an Edwards.

3. The player admitted that he wrapped up the holes with packing tape and kept playing on it for about 2 or 3 years!

<LINK_TEXT text="https://trombonechat.com/download/file. ... ew&id=5931">https://trombonechat.com/download/file.php?mode=view&id=5931</LINK_TEXT>
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harrisonreed
Posts: 6479
Joined: Aug 17, 2018

by harrisonreed »

If only he had used leather grips!
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ArbanRubank
Posts: 424
Joined: Feb 23, 2019

by ArbanRubank »

Looks like snake oil damage to me.
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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

[quote="harrisonreed"]If only he had used leather grips![/quote]

I have never used leather guards or grips, but this is substantial evidence that they certainly have a purpose!
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Anonymous
Posts: 184
Joined: Mar 22, 2026

by Anonymous »

[quote="Crazy4Tbone86"]Please tip your hat in observation of the Edwards outer slide tube below for 25 years of service. The owner claims he got the horn in about 1994 or 1995 and has used it constantly ever since. You can see that this outer tube (lower) needs to be replaced and the upper inner tube also needs to be replaced. If you look at the photo carefully you can see the player's thumb mark to the left of the brace solder and the big hole where his index finger or middle finger was placed.

Three interesting things about this particular slide:

1. It is so early in Edwards history that there is no Edwards labeling on it.

2. The slide crook is gold brass (about .589 bore).....I never saw that before on an Edwards.

3. The player admitted that he wrapped up the holes with packing tape and kept playing on it for about 2 or 3 years!

<LINK_TEXT text="https://trombonechat.com/download/file. ... ew&id=5931">https://trombonechat.com/download/file.php?mode=view&id=5931</LINK_TEXT>[/quote]

Wait, this is an outer tube?!?! It got mangled by the owner.
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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.
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Anonymous
Posts: 184
Joined: Mar 22, 2026

by Anonymous »

[quote="Crazy4Tbone86"]Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.[/quote]

Wow!
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Elow
Posts: 1924
Joined: Mar 02, 2020

by Elow »

[quote="Crazy4Tbone86"]Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.[/quote]

Is there any way to find out you have acidic hands before it’s too late?
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Anonymous
Posts: 184
Joined: Mar 22, 2026

by Anonymous »

[quote="Elow"]<QUOTE author="Crazy4Tbone86" post_id="122842" time="1597539254" user_id="8392">
Nothing got mangled by intention or brute force. There was never any abuse of the instrument. The slide action of this tube was actually still pretty good!

This is just an example of how a person's skin chemistry combined with repeated use can wear through metal at the contact points. The entire area around the big hole is paper thin because the musician used the instrument so much.[/quote]

Is there any way to find out you have acidic hands before it’s too late?
</QUOTE>

Lacquer wearing off too quick? I have no clue, I do remember something about a test for sweat pH somewhere though...
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BGuttman
Posts: 7368
Joined: Mar 22, 2018

by BGuttman »

You can check the acidity of your sweat using the pH paper available in the Chemistry lab. Just touch the paper when you are sweaty (it won't hurt you). If your sweat is under pH 5 it's pretty acidic. If it's around 6-8 that's pretty neutral.

Note that some salts can also be corrosive to metals. If you sweat a lot of sodium chloride and that sits on the horn you can start to eat through the metal. That's one reason to wipe your horn down after playing it.
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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

The acidity and corrosive strength of your perspiration can change with a person's age as well. When I was in college, my perspiration chewed through lacquer and silver plating (on my euphonium) very quickly. I even had a hole in the braces on a couple of my inner slides from contact with my left hand.

Now.....35 years later, it takes me a long time to even chew through lacquer. I still play every day, so it is not a matter of how much time my hands are spending on the horn.
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tbonesullivan
Posts: 1959
Joined: Jul 02, 2019

by tbonesullivan »

I remember that the Saxophone Professor at Rutgers when I was there, Ralph Bowen, had acidic sweat. He ended up with holes in his horns where he held them. Some people just are that way. I have friend who plays guitar, and his strings are black after about half an hour of playing. For me it takes a month.
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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

[quote="tbonesullivan"]I remember that the Saxophone Professor at Rutgers when I was there, Ralph Bowen, had acidic sweat. He ended up with holes in his horns where he held them. Some people just are that way. I have friend who plays guitar, and his strings are black after about half an hour of playing. For me it takes a month.[/quote]

That would be a bummer to be a saxophonist and own a Selmer Mark VI, only to have your hands chew holes through it! What does he do? Buy a student-level saxophone and just expect to get a new one every few years?
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cmcslide
Posts: 130
Joined: Apr 01, 2018

by cmcslide »

[quote="tbonesullivan"]

That would be a bummer to be a saxophonist and own a Selmer Mark VI, only to have your hands chew holes through it! What does he do? Buy a student-level saxophone and just expect to get a new one every few years?[/quote]

Salt air will do it too. I know saxophone players who do exactly this for playing gigs at the beach.
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Elow
Posts: 1924
Joined: Mar 02, 2020

by Elow »

[quote="Crazy4Tbone86"]<QUOTE author="tbonesullivan" post_id="122985" time="1597672775" user_id="7063">
I remember that the Saxophone Professor at Rutgers when I was there, Ralph Bowen, had acidic sweat. He ended up with holes in his horns where he held them. Some people just are that way. I have friend who plays guitar, and his strings are black after about half an hour of playing. For me it takes a month.[/quote]

That would be a bummer to be a saxophonist and own a Selmer Mark VI, only to have your hands chew holes through it! What does he do? Buy a student-level saxophone and just expect to get a new one every few years?
</QUOTE>

Would gloves work? For our school silver plated horns we always wear gloves and our 30 year old yamahas and kong’s still have no wear. There’s plenty of dents and scratches and such but no plating wear.
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ArbanRubank
Posts: 424
Joined: Feb 23, 2019

by ArbanRubank »

Keith Hilson of the Schmidt Music Trombone Shop wears what looks like latex exam gloves when he is testing a horn that must stay as minty as possible to sell.

<FACEBOOK id="1208044666205261" type="v" user="tromboneshop"><LINK_TEXT text="https://www.facebook.com/tromboneshop/v ... 666205261/">https://www.facebook.com/tromboneshop/videos/1208044666205261/</LINK_TEXT></FACEBOOK>