Redoing the Bell

[opus37]

The bell of my silver Helicon has some wear issues. I don't know how this happened because the wear was there when I got the horn. Anyway, I was thinking of replating the bell with that Medellion wipe on stuff or painting it in some way to make it interesting. Any suggestions on what and how to do something to help this bell?

[tofu]

The wipe on stuff won't last and painting it won't look good for long IMHO. All the ones I've seen painted always look like crap a short time later. It kind of looks like when people brush paint on a car. You could have Lee S. take the bell stack off and get it silver plated but that won't be cheap. What I would do (and I had Lee do this to another helicon I have that had a worn gold wash interior) is strip off the remaining silver inside the bell, buff/prep and then lacquer it. It is inexpensive, looks good and will last.

BTW, the loss of silver is from decomposing of the rotting dead possums that were inside the horn and the resulting acid decay leaking down and out the bell. That also caused the need for the big patch on the bow area.

[opus37]

I figured the possum had something to do with the wear of the bell. Thanks for confirming the cause. I have been playing this horn in 3 bands these last few weeks because the concerts have been outdoors. It plays rather well with a Sellsmanberger Solo #2 and 2 tuning bits. YOu previously mentioned that this horn has so intonation issues. There are a few oddities, but most things seem to be able to lip in tune. I'm rather happy with it. Thanks for your suggestion for cleaning up the inside of the bell. I might to what you suggest. Do you think I can do it myself?

[royjohn]

I don't know what the outside of this bell looks like and you will have to consider that. As far as what we can see, you have about 90% or more of the area of the bell in pretty good repair. While it's a fairly large area, I still think that spot plating your bare areas with a pen plater would work fine and cost a lot less than replating the entire bell. Spot plating requires cleaning the brass area and adjacent silver plate really, really well and then plating with the pen. Properly done, you will not see any seams and it will be identical to what you have. It is something a really good DIY person can do, but you should be able to find someone who will do it for about $100 or so. The thickness of the plate depends on how much time someone spends on doing it---how many coats are put on. While you may not equal the thickness of the original plate, the bell is not an area that will take a lot of wear, so the repair should last a long time. The last pen plater I bought cost about $60 and would certainly last long enough to do your bell. I used it with a 6 volt wall wart which I found in my junk box. You should be able to find one in any thrift store if you decide to do it yourself.

I would certainly NOT remove all the very good silver which covers most of this bell. It might need some polishing to take out scratches, but it should be very serviceable once patched. Unless you just have to have raw brass, leave the silver and patch it. It will look new. If you were local to me, I'd tackle it for you.

If you don't find a brass repair person who'll do this, I'd check with some jewelers who might know how to do this.

[tofu]

I figured the possum had something to do with the wear of the bell. Thanks for confirming the cause. I have been playing this horn in 3 bands these last few weeks because the concerts have been outdoors. It plays rather well with a Sellsmanberger Solo #2 and 2 tuning bits. YOu previously mentioned that this horn has so intonation issues. There are a few oddities, but most things seem to be able to lip in tune. I'm rather happy with it. Thanks for your suggestion for cleaning up the inside of the bell. I might to what you suggest. Do you think I can do it myself?

Yeah it had a few quirks - but I always thought it could be easily tweaked and had great potential. Nice big fat sound. I would have tweaked it if it wasn't a spare helicon and that was why I traded it to Lee. I'm really happy to see that it's back in action and making music. If I hadn't saved it somebody non-musical would have bought it at that yard sale and made a lawn ornament out of it. For those that asked the outside of the horn in question is in very nice shape as is the majority of the silver plate. You might be able to do it yourself but it is no easy task on a curved surface like the inside of the bell to keep from getting runs in the lacquer. Somebody with experience and the knack like Lee can do it with ease. Surface prep is really important. On such a high visibility area like the inside of the bell I personally would have him do it. One of these days I have to take photos of mine and post them - the lacquer really comes close to the old gold wash and looks great against the silver outside of the horn - plus it's less surface to keep polished!

[opus37]

Load a side-view picture of this instrument.

As Tofu said the rest of the horn is in really good shape. This photo was taken when I picked it up from Lee. He adjusted the main tuning slide so it tunes to 440.