1918 Bohland & Fuchs C/Bb/A Cornet Advice

[mcjweller]

Good day, this is my first post on here. I hope I've parked this under the right forum...

I'm looking for advice on an old stencil cornet that was given to me recently. Presently in the "wall hanger" category, I'd really like to understand what it would take in $$$ to get it playing again. To do so would require extraction of one stuck slide, re-soldering of same said slide, and straightening out of some dents. Valves run well as-is. At least then I would have some idea as to it's playability. It wouldn't require more work than people put into high school horns all the time to get some basic playability back into it.

I've asked a couple of shops that flat out aren't interested because they say it's not worth it. They're probably right, but then the alternative is to toss a 100 year old horn. I know...old does not mean value. I paid nothing for this though, and I'm interested in the story behind it (if there is one).

I've only ever seen one other example of this, on Horn-U-Copia, listed as a "Gretsch" I'm intrigued by the plumbing effort to make this thing convertible in 3 pitches. Mine is pitched to A440 as it has a longer main tuning slide than the horn-u-copia version, and is listed as "thos. claxton Class A" who was a Toronto based musician who also imported both name brand and stencil instruments, always putting his mark on it.

So the questions are:

1) Is anyone familiar with this stencil, and can comment on it's playability (or lack thereof)
2) I won't debate that it has no real monetary or historic value, more informed people than I have already commented that it's more or less worthless. But none of them have said why...is it just not popular for collectors? Is it to do with construction/technical properties? Is there something about those B&F horns that makes them a pain to work on/straighten out?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhlbfp81b1jcopt/20190103_125442.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a564gwcbujiu3sp/20190103_125419.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u9dx1n84y0d4upd/20190103_125358.jpg?dl=0

[Dennis78]

It’s definitely not a collectors cornet but looks to be pretty nice. Not a wrap that I’m to keen about but it was popular for some time in the past. Have seen Marceau, and a few others with that wrap.
Probably less than $100 to do what you want done to it
I would assume the guys you took it to are just inexperienced in actually repairing a horn as opposed to replacing parts
If you want to play it though you could tape the slide up
Do you have a mouthpiece for it? It won’t work with a modern piece.
If you’re looking to use it in any band it probably won’t blend well
_________________
a few different ones

[mcjweller]

Thanks for the reply Dennis78

Since my original post I did connect with a shop that does restoration work, very friendly, and they gave tons of good information. The cost will be a bit more than what you suggested, but not astronomical. But more importantly they talked about specific challenges with 100-year old instruments that modern ones don't normally present, and you can tell they've done this many times, and I'll use them for the work. Now, in fairness to the other shops, if you added a valve job and silver plating to the list it would quickly exceed the value so they're not wrong.

The other night i temporarily sealed up the bad solder with electrical tape, as well as some water key issues, and put some sound through it. Blowing down the middle of the horn it's just about dead on A440, so it's low-pitched, and that makes sense as it has a longer main tuning slide than other similar ones I've seen. It produced a warm, soft sound, and was surprisingly easy to "lock in" up and down the harmonic series. Because it's missing felts valve alignment is an issue so I couldn't run scales.

The mouthpiece that came with it is a Conn Wonder which as you know has too big of a shank to properly fit in the receiver. But I was able to make it work enough for the basic blow test. Only real criticism I have is the extra tubing makes right thumb placement awkward.

I'm looking forward to getting it into shape to play properly and get a good feel for it. If this first test is any indicator it may be a real joy to play!

I'd love to hear from anyone who has one of these or has played on one for their thoughts...