robmassive

Heya all,
I know it's a bit superficial, but I'm kind of wanting to strip the silver polish off my Yamaha Xeno C - simply for aesthetic purposes. I hear that this could darken the sound a little bit - which would be nice - but I really just like the look of it. I want to know if people have any experience in doing this, and whether it would have bad effects on the instrument. Also, what is the best way to do it?
Let me know!

Pete

I wouldn't mess with it. The change that you may notice is minimal. If the finish is good, and you want to spend money, gold plating will darken the sound a bit, but again minimally for the money you are spending. I haven't played a lot of C trumpet, but it will be brighter than a Bb anyway, no matter what finish you have, so keep that in mind.

You don't see a lot of Xeno trumpets that aren't silver plated, but you could always buy an older lacquered Bach for example, and have that stripped. Silver is electroplated onto the horn, and I would imagine much more difficult to remove by a professional technician.

Pete

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Pete Grimaldi

eisprl

I'm no stripping expert but I would imagine that the bare, raw brass would not be healthy for you. It might open up the possibility of brass poisoning? (does that make sense?) or it might just turn your hand green. I thought that most of the raw brass horns have a protective coating on them.

Again, I could be wrong, just my assumptions

E.

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Eric Sproul
Practice is like filling a leaky bucket

Bb: Yamaha Xeno 8335
C: Bach Stadivarious 239L and 25A leadpipe (Owned by Eric Sholtz)
Flugel: Yamaha Bobby Shew 6310Z
Mouthpieces: GR tech
www.stadband.ca

uapiper

Raw brass horns are just that...raw. There is no coating, just brass. Come on Eric, you knew that. The theory is that a lacquered horn free of it's protective coating will resonate better and sound brighter that one of a lacquered disposition.

I own :1960 ish Conn 18B Director cornet with a coprion bell.
1947 Conn 22B New York Symphony ( in repair).
1960 King Tempo cornet.
1960ish Conn Director coprion bell tenor trombone.

The coprions have their bells stripped and the others are completely stripped of lacquer.

They sound better to me that way, my hands don't stink too bad. They definately don't turn green. Copper will do that.

When I had my King stripped it cost me $200, the reason I went through with it is my brass tech had already paid for the chemicals and removed a test patch. He has offered a free cryo treatment on whichever horn I would want to do. That is a trumpetgeek level I have not ascended to as of yet.

The fact of your trumpet being silverplate, would be impossible to reverse. Electroplating a trumpet bonds the silver to it. You might be able to shotblast it off, you would be taking a risk with a $2000 instrument.

You are right about silverplate making a trumpet sound brighter but isn't that why you bought it. Anyway the amount of time and work and possible demise of your trumpet isn't worth the hassle, It would be in the several hundreds of dollars to even try this.

Play your xeno, love your xeno.

eisprl

haha, I thought that maybe some of the horns made with no finish on it had some kind of protective coating on it.

__________________
Eric Sproul
Practice is like filling a leaky bucket

Bb: Yamaha Xeno 8335
C: Bach Stadivarious 239L and 25A leadpipe (Owned by Eric Sholtz)
Flugel: Yamaha Bobby Shew 6310Z
Mouthpieces: GR tech
www.stadband.ca

rowuk

The silver can be removed by electrolysis, but why? It will not sound darker (that is a myth from many, many years ago that keeps coming back. Laquer sounder duller than raw brass or silver, nothing else!). It will be much harder to keep clean and you will have spent money for no audible reason, the horn may even sound worse with the loss of mass. If you think that raw brass is cool, buy a laquered trumpet and have the laquer removed, cheaper and much less damaging!

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

brem

I have a raw brass horn and would trade it for a silver coated one any second. My horn was lacquered but so badly scratched that I decided to go raw brass...

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brem
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NYTC Stage 1 California Light - Wedge 3C cup w/ Warburton 7 backbore mpc
Bach Stradivarius Bb Model 37 * #124xxx (circa 1975) - Schilke 15B mpc
Yamaha YFH-731 Flugelhorn #000xxx - Yamaha 14F4-GP mpc

Vulgano Brother

Raw brass does look kind of cool, and the while electorlysis is the quickest, the coolest way to remove silver plating is through friction and chemicals--in other words keep the trumpet in your hands and play the heck out of it. The silver plate will aquire a beautiful patina over time, and the bare spots lend a badge of honor.

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