It is sobering that in this high-tech world where even your washing machine is computerized, an unknown event for one person can take down an entire community that evolved over a lengthy period of time.

I remember Doc saying in an interview somewhere that he was able to hire all of the top studio musicians for the Tonight Show Band, because it was a great job. It was steady work every weekday with every weekend off, so they could play freelance gigs on the weekend. And there were no exhausting road trips full of one-nighters. That doesn't take away from their terrific musicianship, but it does help explain how he got the top players.

@j-jericho The text says Eb.

@administrator If the valves are good, the dents are fixable. That's a good buy.

https://www.classicfm.com/artists/alison-balsom/covid-19-study-brass-woodwind-droplets/

1. Chemical cleaning. Soak the pistons for a limited time in a mild acid solution. Details are discussed elsewhere in TM.
2. Mild hand lapping with very fine abrasive lapping compound. Also discussed elsewhere in TM. Lapping can also improve the sticky slides.

Do not try these things at home on any instrument of any real value, unless you have training in how they are best done. If it is a mostly worthless "project horn" for experimenting and fooling around, have at it.

Just in case you missed the movie version, here is an actual recording.

If you are already a musician, get a copy of the old Mitchell on Trumpet series. Start with Book 1. It's kind of boring, but it systematically progresses through everything you need to know and develop as a cornetist.

I've never had much luck with penetrating oils for this. The fit between the tubes is too tight and the corrosion can be too far away from the point where the penetrating oil is applied.

I had one that was really stuck one time where I filled the slide with crushed dry ice. (I had some in the shop for a different kind of thing related to my day job.) I let it sit for a while and then hit the outside of the tube with a heat gun, of the type used for a number of things in construction. (Sort of like a very high temperature hair dryer.) That, combined with wiggling, tapping, and flexing, finally got it loose.

You need to be very careful with both the dry ice and the heat gun, since one is extremely cold and the other extremely hot.

1. Fill the slide/leadpipe with ice water.
2. Let it sit for about 10 minutes.
3. Pour out the ice water and heat the outer part of the slide with a hair dryer. (You want the inner part to shrink and the outer part to expand.)
4. Just keep wiggling and flexing the slide until it moves.

BTW, Monster Oil makes a really good slide lube that seems to stay flexible in storage for a long time. I have horns that stay in storage for a year or two, and the slides always move freely after storage when I use the Monster Oil slide lube.

@tornado1957 Think of it as a treadmill for the lips.