| Strange thing...
The other day a gentleman came in with a 50's Conn Connstellation coronet for a cleaning and dent work. As I was taking the dents out of the back turn of the bell, I went to use my magnet to find the dent ball and the magnet stuck to the horn. I then proceeded to try and stick the magnet elsewhere on the horn. To my surprise I could. This to me was quite odd since the entire horn with the exception of bell wire and valve guide retaining screws, was made from non-ferrous metals. After many phone calls to other technicians and craftsman around the world none of which had ever heard of a thing I called Anderson plating, who back in the 50's plated the horn. According to them sometimes nickel can be magnetic, hence the magnet sticking. I then tried this on several other Connstellations from the same period and could not get a magnet to stick.
If any of you have a Connstellation and a magnet laying around I would be curious to see your results.
Josh |