We have started working on the tone holes and they are truly in terrible shape. The way they are right now they are not level, will never be level, and will never have a pad seal. We had a lot of work to do!
The tone holes have liners installed in them, which reduce their diameter. In the pictures they look like thick tone holes, but they are actually tone holes with brass rings soldered in.
The tone holes have liners installed in them, which reduce their diameter. In the pictures they look like thick tone holes, but they are actually tone holes with brass rings soldered in.
As we discussed here, we are going to restore this instrument back to the time that Buescher liked it and gave it to Mr. Rascher, only playing a lot better. This will be quite a job: Remove the tone holes, repair each one separately, then replace the tone hole liners.
We had to make a decision: Should we replace the tone holes and the liners? Should we work with what is there? Or should we repair the tone holes and replace the liners? We chose to go with the latter, because this way we can keep the original parts while still restoring the horn to a functional state.
