whwright

You all did such a great job enlightening me about my old Holton, I decided to subject upon you my old King Liberty. (I still haven't done anything about the Holton, but at least I'm enlightened.)

This is a King Liberty from 1946 that I've had since high school:



It's fairly straight, especially considering that I used it as my "marching horn" in high school ('79 graduate), my nephew used it for four years as his "beginner horn," and my son used it for two years as his "jazz band horn." That means it's been used about nine of the last thirty years.

Prior to me, it sat in somebody's attic from about 1950 to 1976, when I got it as a birthday present.

It's not really very apparent in the pictures, but most of the lacquer has an almost brown tone to it. The lead pipe is noticably lighter than the rest of the horn, and the mouthpiece receiver is "bronzer" (for lack of a better word).

Is this coloring the result of the lacquer aging, or does it have something to do with the brass?

Thanks!

Wayne.

Cornet1

I know very little about specific American made instruments but since nobody with the exact experience has yet replied I'll try to give you something to be going on with.......

The colour differences are almost certainly due to the actual metals in the various parts of the trumpet.

We tend to think of 'brass' as simply a metal of clear character, being much the same in whatever guise it appears in. In fact, brass is an alloy of copper, tin and Zinc, and one of a large family of such alloys. Most brass 'recipes' are mixed up according to the particular needs for that brass. In most cases this is to give the right working characteristics during manufacture or for a particular quality which the finished item will require when it is in use etc. As well as all of the 'recipes' in the cookbook, there are many designer brasses which are computed for specific qualities.

For brass instruments the tonal characteristics of particular alloys when they vibrate is very important to bear in mind when designing the playing characteristics.

Essentially, alloys with more copper will be softer, darker and redder in colour and have a warmer tonal quality,...thus bell and leadpipe section are frequently of 'rose brass' or 'red brass'. Parts for valves need to be somewhat harder to give good machining qualities when the parts are turned.

In good quality English made instruments, you can often see upwards of 5 different brasses when laqueur or plating are removed.

whwright

The bell is much darker than most lacquered instruments I come across. That might explain why this horn doesn't have the bright tone that my silver-plated Benge has (which is why I never played the King as much).

djm6701

Vintage lacquer (nitrocellulose) is darker (and thicker and a lot less durable) than modern lacquer.

__________________
Dave M.
Richmond Hill (Toronto), Ontario, CANADA

Kanstul WB1600
1952 L.A. Olds Recording, 1975 L.A. Benge 3x, Yamaha 631 Flugel, Olds Flugel

GR 65.6 Mouthpieces

rdnkbkr

I believe that some lacquers get darker with age. I'm not an expert though.

whwright

Thanks for the responses.

Ever since I was a kid I've wondered why this horn is colored so differently than any other horn I've seen. Does anyone else on this forum have a similarly colored instrument?

Wayne.

Dale Proctor

I've owned a couple of late 40's/early 50's Olds horns that had a similar tint to the old lacquer - almost a brown color. I think it's just a function of the age and type of lacquer used back then.

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Olde Towne Brass
www.otbrass.com

Brass Band of Huntsville
www.brassbandofhuntsville.org

"Hit it hard and wish it well." - Claude Gordon