King Conn: To do or not to do, that is the question

[deholder]

Ok I have a question for the Monks of Tuba,
My daughter made all district band, and some knot head stepped on her French Horn. Anyway, I am at the repair shop and I am always looking for an excuse to hang out (I just love the place), That is when I stumble across and old King Alto Horn and an Old Conn 4v Baritone. The king is very repairable, but the Conn is sketchy as it is in pieces. These were some restore projects started by the previous owner that were inherited when Matt Bought the shop. I looked them up and they do not seem to go for a lot of money. Therefore he has no real interest in restoring them. However, I have a personal interest, especially the King as I already have an 'Altonium' from the '50's.


Both of these horns are around 100 years old, and I just hate to them see them lost. However, I hated to see my old Buick Regal '76 'lost' as well. but the mechanic goes "Why would you restore THIS car" and after I thought about it, I let it go to the junk yard. Is this the case with the King and Conn horns? Are they not worth restoring? He is willing to take on any project. It gets a little odd as he stated he would sell them to me at 'fair market restored price' But I also got the feeling he might just sell them to me 'as is' and I can get them restored by one of you guys. If their is no real market or money to be made in restoring them I do not think he will do it unless I just pay up front for the initial bid for restoration.
While I would never play the Alto Horn, my daughter might. But I would play the 4v Conn.

So Monks of Tuba is it worth / reasonable to restore these horns? Or is it just trying to polish a . . . well you know.


The King Alto Horn




The Conn 4v Baritone:

Sorry, I didn't realize that I did not have a pic of the whole Bell.



We fished around and I found the Bottom Bow, it is in good repair, better than the top loop's inner bow. I also did not find the lead pipe but he has a whole box of stuff and it may be in there.

[The Big Ben]

There is a difference between "repairing" and "restoring". Repairing puts an instrument in good enough condition that it can be used in the way that the manufacturer intended. Restoring makes an instrument look as if it has just left the factory or as close as possible. Restoring costs more than repairing and neither is cheap. If a shop charges $75/hr. bench time, how much work do you think will be done in 10 hours or $750?

If there was something really special about these horns, it might be worth it to get one or both of them up and running. Otherwise, it might be better to find a horn that was good to go right out of the box.

[Donn]

I think restoring the alto is not quite as laughable as restoring the Buick Regal, if that helps. Is it together? (Your pictures don't show the hole thing, and the bell seems to have moved pretty far from the braces that used to be attached to it.)

[Dan Schultz]

The first horn that's pictured in actually a convertible Eb/F alto horn with the F slide in place. These are sort of fun to play if you have both slides to avoid having to transpose 'peck horn' parts on the old public domain marches.

As someone who does this sort of thing every day... I would consider only the four-valved horn in terms of recouping any investment.

[deholder]

Yes, the King Alto horn has been 'prepped' I think for work. All the braces have been partially removed (at least one side) so the horn is just literally stuck together. The Conn is in similar shape, but only the bottom bow, lead pipe (missing) and the Bell. The valve cluster and slides seem to all be intact. The 1 & 2 valves do move, but I could not unscrew them.

I am tending to agree that the restoration of these, to even be playable, would not really warrant it based on the quality of the horn. Matt did tell me that he believed the valves would need to be sent off to be re plated and that is expensive.

Maybe we just solder them back together and have them turned into folk art. . .