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Hello all, after about three years of owning this horn I am finally taking her in to get some work done to it. What I was going to have done to it was a chem clean, valves vented, a thumb ring removal, trimming up the compensating slide by about 5/8" of an inch and repositioning of the leadpipe to factory settings (the guy who had it before me had it leveled, where im a serious downstreamer and need the mouthpiece to be at an angle).

My concerns are that the horn might end up stripped of its laqueur and that could impact the value of the horn, already my valve slides are slowly being stripped from my sweaty hands as well as my tuning slide and other parts of the horn where my hands happen to be. More often than not it will just sort of "peel off", revealing a really smooth surface that will soon be raw because of my hands. I think its from the questionable build quality as well as the work of a questionable tech who did some bad work. I wanted to figure out if this is normal, just in case i end up being one of those guys with a raw horn.

The other major concern I had is with the leadpipe, since its already been bent it could break when worked on (it's yellow brass so it could be super corroded from somebody blowing pepsi into it) and I may be ignorant but I do know that ordering a part like that from Buffet is going to take months and months, considering they read the email. (the only thing I want to buy new from them are some silver plated valve slides for comp, 1 and 3).

The tech I am taking it to is very experienced, and he gives me super fair prices since my old tuba teacher told him about me. He does great work, however I just wanted to ask the geniuses of tubenet for their input, maybe there's some weird trick that I don't know about that could be helpful for this particular horn (since there are weird design choices on it, like giant globs of solder instead of braces and all of that.. Groovy stuff. Thank you for your time.

For the leadpipe: The trick is to make sure it is clean, by snaking it and and running hot water and dish soap, and then well lubed by squirting oil through the leadpipe to ensure it doesn't corrode.

For you tech: I know you said you have a guy, but there's not a person on tubenet who wouldn't recommend Dan Oberloh's work (He also probably won't reply to an email...) That said, he's close enough to you.

I am sure he can recommend ways that would prevent you from having to buy new slides from Buffet, as those will probably cost you an arm and a leg.

There are several topics about hand guards that could be useful for you if you have acidic sweat.
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As for value, the market fluctuates a lot, and no ones knows how well horns will age. The invasion of clones in the market has certainly calmed down the sale of used horns. While the price of horns has crept up in the new market, in the used market I've found that used horns haven't kept up with inflation. YMMV.

I wouldn't strip the horn, a good tech should be able to spot lacquer for you.

I have talked to Dan actually, right after he fixed Dr. Peacock's 983. His quote was $350 with the promise that it will play as well as my former professor's. I'll gladly think that over though because he does the best work out there, and is familiar enough with that model to know what to do to it. Maybe i'll just get the valve slides replated since I don't have a spare arm and leg.

Very informative, this is more of what I was looking for. I haven't been watching the market but that is some very good information to have, thank you!