Hi all,
I've been much more involved with lacquer for many years than any sane
person would ever want to be, both removing lacquer and putting it on.
The protection issue. Well, yes and maybe no. Lacquer is basically
clear paint. Once the horn is polished to a beautiful shine, applying
lacquer keeps it from tarnishing again. For most people it will do a nice
job of protecting the shiny finsh for several years. If you have excessive
acid in your sweat as some people do, I think lacquer can be problematic.
Any place you touch that has a small scratch in the lacquer, the acid will
concentrate and dig into that spot creating a "pit". After awhile, when the
pits get deeper, you have a hole. I've convinced my customers with the worst
acid hands to have their lacquer removed, that way they still get wear to the
metal, but it's spread more smoothly and doesn't bore those pits so it takes
longer to actually wear a hole. Sure they get green hands but hey, nobody
said horn playing was for sissies!
If you're considering lacquering or re-lacquering an older horn - DON'T.
There are virtually no shops that would be as stupid as me to take the time
to do it without removing way too much metal. Here's the problem, if you
have scratches or pits as all older horns do, the way to make the scratch or
pit disappear is to sand and buff the surrounding metal down to the same
depth as the scratch. If you have a deep pit, you're going to have some very
thin metal where it used to be. Actually the pit will still be there but all
the metal that used to be near it won't be! Most shops do this work with a
belt sander (!!!!!!!). I have watched a very experienced workman at a highly
respected shop going over an entire bell with a file (a LOT of filing)
followed by belt sanding (to get out the file marks) followed by buffing (to
get out the sanding marks). - I don't have enough exclamation marks for that
one. I have to shake my head sadly when I hear somebody say they've had
their bell silver plated or lacquered to make it thicker and stronger because
of course, the first step is the sanding and buffing. If you remove 20% then
add 1/10%, that's not stronger.
You often hear people talk about how a horn has "thinned out" because of
age or from dent work but proper dent work won't thin the metal and age
doesn't do it either. It's sanding and buffing that thin the metal! I've
seen many many shiny, beautiful, perfect looking newly relacquered horns fold
up like tinfoil the first time they get bumped because they've been buffed so
thin, only because they're so thin, a dent is likely to rip a hole.
All shops that do re-lacquering claim that they never over-buff or thin
the metal. I say HA!!
Does it change the sound? (sorry this is getting a little long). Yes.
Interestingly, I think in the Lawson experiments, the overtone measurements
were taken after the attack, but it's largely the attack that makes the sound
of an instrument identifiable. In college, one of our projects was to carry
around tape recorders and record different instruments, turning the record
function on after the attack. Most instruments were difficult or impossible
to identify without their attack, for instance a piano sounds something like
an organ. Another factor is that a machine can measure all the overtones
being produced by an instrument and their relative strengths but, that is not
what human beings actually hear. The ear is a creative organ in its own
right and it will create its own overtones and "undertones"(for lack of a
better word). These can be clearly heard but will not show on any machine
because they are not present in the room, only in the person's ear. For
instance, Telemann wrote trios for TWO flutes. When the two parts are played
in tune, human beings clearly hear a bass line in addition to the two played
notes. Dogs probably hear 8 part harmony! The cadenza in the Weber
Concertino works the same way.
Well, all that to say that there are some other possibilities beyond what
can be measured. Suffice it to say that I have played many horns before and
after de-lacquering and it makes a difference. Enough to make it worth doing
just to make that difference? I don't think so. I've done it to several of
my own horns over the years and I have to admit it didn't improve my playing
one bit! But, as a colleague noted recently, "you know, there's nothing
wrong with my equipment that some practicing wouldn't fix!" There are a lot
of things you could do to make your horn play a little different, but very
few things that would make it play better.
Don't get me started! - Steve Mumford
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