Repair Shop
This new section will document the repair and restoration of some very sad vintage cornets, which were deserving of a new lease on life.  These projects represent both amateur and professional work, and are credited below.  For professional repair and restoration, I highly recommend Rich Ita's Brass Instrument Workshop.  Check back often for new projects.
(click on thumbnails for additional shots at larger size)

Here, a rare 1920s Couturier Eb cornet is prepared for gold plating.  While the little cornet didn't require a great deal of repair, such plating can be very unforgiving if the dentwork and polishing aren't flawless.  Note the crispness of the engraving in the final results.  (resoration by Rich Ita)
Note: Many other restored cornets on this site are Rich's work, and are so credited.

This 1903 Buescher C/Bb/A cornet was an ebay purchase.  Unfortunately, it wasn't apparent to me that it was missing the shank receiver and brace.  It had it's share of dents, and some of the most severely stuck slides I've come across.  This project is shown step-by-step with captions.  (restoration by Nick DeCarlis)

This Distin Eb cornet underwent a major transfomation.   In addition to general repair, it also required the fabrication of a mouthpiece shank, main tuning slide, and water key assembly.  (restoration by Jeff Stockham)

This 1913 Meredith Open Tone Cornet was described by the seller as a "junker" and was purchased in hopes of salvaging parts.  But as bad as it looked, it still played amazingly well, and a project was born.  The greatest challenges: both leadpipe braces were missing, as well as the main water key assembly.  Respectively, these were reproduced, and modified from similar vintage parts.  (restoration by Nick DeCarlis)

I've wanted a Conn Wonderphone for some time, and was happy to get even this 1908 example which has seen better days.  The worst damage was to the second slide which was nearly flattened and missing its pull knob & flange which had to be reproduced.
(restoration by Nick DeCarlis)

This Lyon & Healy "Champion" cornet was an inexpensive import sold by the Chicago company in the 1890's.  This example wasn't badly worn, and had its original "coffin case."  That was the good news.  The bad: it was purchased in pieces, with some tubes still stuck inside others; it had some moderate denting; and worst of all, it was missing the shank and shank receiver.  The missing parts were fabricated from brass tubing, a section of a junker "Ambassador" cornet leadpipe, part of a no-name trumpet mouthpiece, and some other scrap parts.   (restoration by Nick DeCarlis)

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