Posted by Daniel C. Oberloh on May 18, 2001 at 20:59:59:
In Reply to: What's so hard about bow guards? posted by John Swensen on May 18, 2001 at 11:35:20:
I have had a lot of experience with all types of moldings and these are my views for what it is worth.
Moldings are tricky, once they have been dented up they have been stretched. Same with the bow it self. This adds surface area that has to go somewhere. I will take the "bow cap" off if removing serious dents that require doing so. The tough part is getting them back on with out making a total pigs ear out of the job. The perimeter of the molding is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. This is where they are soldered and when they have been straightened the edge is where the problem begins. What you find is a big gap. In order to close the gap you must bowl out the guard even more than it was. At this point I would say "If you don't know what you are doing, don't start ". This gets to
be a mess and is why many Repair Technicians will avoid this kind of work. They live lives that have much less stress and for that I envy them. In many cases, where replacement parts are available, I will take advantage of the option and replace the molding. German model components like Mirafone are relatively easy to acquire. Installation is not
difficult provided you have decent soldering skillsand can do good dent work on the bows with out distorting them to much. For this you need the proper tooling which is expensive and difficult for many shops to justify making the investment. When working on bottom bow caps for the old Martins, York's etc., I will make a new molding by hand because the new one looks nicer and due to the fact that most of the old ones have cracks and corrosion that can be more time consuming to repair than reproducing a new part.
I myself would not do this but if all else fails, you can put a sousaphone guard wire on it like Art Pasco use to do. As you can see there are a number of reasons bow caps or moldings can be presented as difficult if not down right impossible.
(Sorry if I am a little wordy)
Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
www.oberloh.com