Posted by Rick Denney on September 05, 2001 at 15:39:09:
In Reply to: horn relacquering? posted by Black Jack Shellac on September 05, 2001 at 09:16:19:
I think most studies have shown that the usual air-dried cellulose lacquer has not much effect on the sound. And for tubas, I would say that it would take extremely sensitive ears to hear the differene even with the thicker epoxy lacquers (far more sensitive than mine).
But that is probably not the reason why relacquered instruments are looked at with care. Before an instrument can be relacquered, it has to be made shiny, which means buffing. Some instrument have been buffed so much that there isn't much left of them. This is a particular problem with saxophones, because incompetent buffers sometimes buff across the tone holes and ruin their flatness.
When I had my Miraphone overhauled, I specifically told him to leave off the lacquer and to buff as lightly as possible. He buffed just enough to make it shiny, not enough to hide dent-removal and other "character" marks. Lacquer makes the horn stay shiny, which exposes every flaw in the brass. I wanted to remove the temptation to perfectionism (and therefore overbuffing) from the repair dude.
Rick "overbuffed" Denney