Buescher material composition, differs from the rest???

[tomobari]

Hi all,

I wonder whether the metal composition of Buescher instruments differs a lot from the rest? It looks quite reddish to me which could point to a high amount of copper in the alloy. Maybe this explains the "Buescher sound"...

Anyone else noticed this?

Thanks,
Marc

[Hurling Frootmig]

I've got a couple of basically bare brass Aristocrats from the early 1950's but I really couldn't tell you if they have more copper or not. I wouldn't call them red.

[usda]

No idea if this is true or a fantasy...but was told by someone who was told, that after WW1 brass casings of artillary and I guess rifles were sold to music foundries...

Brass is tin and copper anyway....a bit more copper, I believe will be found in the older horns...they appear slightly brownish brick red when the laquor wears.

Extra Copper could make a big difference in sound.

[Talldog]

Bronze is copper and tin. Brass is copper and zinc. Wish I knew the percentages in the alloy for major saxes.

[usda]

Thanks for the correction....I used to know stuff like that...nowadays????

Stilll I think there has to be copper in the old horns...will try a search on that.

[paulwl]

Of course there's copper. Without copper, it's not brass. What %ages the various makers used would have been of the utmost secrecy back in the day. When and if they changed it, the old info was probably destroyed.

I went to some engineering web site and looked up brass alloys. They ranged from about 60/40 copper/zinc to about 70/30 copper/zinc to "member login" (you get to look at ±5 pages before they demand you subscribe.)

Another (musical) data point: Bell bronze is 85/15 copper/tin. (What this might have to do with Otto Link's "Bell Metal", who knows.)