Need advice on emergency bent trumpet horn repair

The kid can take it to school and get another one. Problem solved.

. Christ> >

Tony, I always knew you were a blow hard.

Christ>> My grandchild dropped the trumpet, denting the horn:

Yea, the motorcycle shop could even put some flame decals on the horn. ^_^

TDD

Then, the kid can eat beans and shove the trumpet. Strike a match.

. Christ> >>> My grandchild dropped the trumpet, denting the horn:

He should study the technique of this guy. ^_^

TDD

Toss it in the garbage and buy an identical one at a music store.

If you cant find a replacement, just wrap it with duct tape and tell the parents a drunken redneck in a rolled over pickup truck, stole it, and you had to beat the guy over the head with it to get it back.

Take or send the trumpet to a professional trumpet-repair place and only to a professional trumpet-repair place. Check with the band department at your local high-school to find out where they take or send their mangled trumpets. A way to work within your two-day time frame might be to flop down a couple of hundred bucks for a replacement instrument. Maybe you'll be able to fool the kid's mother. Best of luck to you and to your grandchild.

I googled for "trumpet bell repair" and got lots of hits.

Hi, If it's not an expensive one, just chuck it and get another. You can even buy new one for ~100.00, made in China or India. But then El Cheapo instrument can hinder learning process. They are very stuffy and tonal quality is minimal.

I once asked Dizzy Gillespie if he wanted me, a metalworker, to fix his bent horn. He said, "no, I've gotten used to it."

David

Just an opinion, but that wasn't just dropped - it either fell from a great height or was thrown with some vigor.

She still has to be told - it'll go easier on both you and the kid if he just fesses up to it now, versus if she finds out after the fact.

If this trumpet is School Property, they have to be told too - because when the repair shop sees the School Property tag they are going to get a call anyway.

And unless you're sending it back to the OEM Factory for repairs, they probably have their own repair connections. Los Angeles Unified runs their own complete instrument repair shops.

Problem is they need to anneal the metal with a torch flame or a stint in a heat-treat oven to soften it up first, and that means the whole thing needs to be stripped of the old lacquer, buffed out, and clear coated again when it's all done. You can't just hammer it back in shape, the metal will stretch and distort.

The best way would be to unsolder the bell, anneal it, stick it back on the spinning lathe on the original form, and gently spin it back into shape - possibly with a torch shrinking or two, where they heat it up then hit it with a wet cloth to suck in the stretch. That's going to be either the original trumpet maker's factory or someone who has an exact duplicate of the bell form.

Then they solder it back onto the rest of the trumpet, and do the usual strip buff and lacquer on the whole instrument.

Then again, if this is a $99 (No Name) Indonesia Special you toss it out - or give it to the instrument repair guys for spare parts.

Then help the kid into a good Conn or Selmer. They sound a whole lot better, and are far more easily repairable when stuff like this happens again. And it will.

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Fill it with gun powder, add a long fuse. Place it outdoors far from any buildings, light the fuse, and run like hell. When it blows, the dent will be gone. Of course the whole trumpet may be gone too, but that's the risk you take.

Bad news is that this needs to go to a repair shop. It'll probably take a refinishing after the dents are removed. They may be able to use the set o f magnets I saw for doing this sort of thing, has graduated sizes of RE bal l magnets and one padded and curved magnet for moving them around. They co st more than a new trumpet, so not something for a one-off fix. It also lo oked like it would take a skilled hand to do it and not end up with a stret ched-out mess.

Stan

Just to update - I haven't done anything on this (nobody asked for it yet) ... but I will update when there is action.