[honkytone]

I was told today, by someone who ought to know, that vintage Selmer horns (not entirely sure which range of instruments he meant, but let's just say '50s) had glued on—rather than soldered—keyguards. I thought maybe HE was on glue when he said it but what do I know? So what's the REAL story?

 

[sideC]

Never heard of that one before.

Kind of bizarre....

 

[tdeane]

I don't think so. I've worked on thousands of vintage Selmers and I've never seen one with glued guards. I've seen plenty of horns where the guard had come unsoldered so the owner of the horn glued the guard.

 

[stevesklar]

next time you see him ask him what kind of glue they used in the 50s as a permanent mount. I'd be interested in that answer.

 

[honkytone]

That's what I was wondering. Says he RE-applies them with epoxy now which, of course (or at least I think), they didn't really have then. Epoxy really is a nice alternative to re-attaching some parts. Had an octave thumbrest pop off recently and thought, why burn lacquer, so I epoxied it. Probably as strong as solder.

next time you see him ask him what kind of glue they used in the 50s as a permanent mount. I'd be interested in that answer.

 

[saxtek]

Glued-on keyguards

Older Selmers (pre-Mark VI) had some keyguards with only 2 "legs", and it was almost impossible to keep them from getting loose and "sagging" one way or the other. More often than not someone would solder the keyguard/keyguard holder/screw assembly together to keep the guards secure, but soldering had its own drawbacks - by the time you heated the screw enough to get it out, the keyguard holder might come loose from the body.

More recently, some repairmen have epoxied or superglued the guard, holder, and screw together. It works pretty well, and epoxy breaks loose with less heat than solder.

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