Fall 2026 Bean Hill Brass Blog
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2026 9:54 am
Wrapping up a few projects here and there. I've mostly been getting small brass work from local folks who have begun to hear that I can do some repair stuff. Lots of trumpets! A few horns, too; getting better at the whole restringing thing.
As I mentioned in the Update Update thread, someone brought me their vintage Courtois cornet, one of the old ones that requires a tuning bit/shank:
It's a beautiful instrument, I should take some photos. I was asked to clean it and to see if I could do anything about the main tuning slide, which is all warbled out and very thin metal. It's a somewhat high pitch instrument and requires the slide to be pulled almost all the way out, but it's pretty loose when all the way out where it needs to be. The slide tubing metal is so thin that I did not want to destroy it trying to expand it a little, and I guess I could source a small piece of tubing of the proper diameter and replace it, but didn't feel like hunting around all my little boxes of tubing. I have several vintage cornet bits like this and was able to just make a longer one from two junked ones, which allows the instrument to play in tune without an epic main slide pull. The one that was trashed had a crack, and I didn't realize that the previous person tried to seal the crack with clear nail polish. I put the torch to it and it immediately burst into flames. So, that's how I found out nail polish is flammable.
Been steadily plugging along with @Casca Grossa's Cerveny Eb project, getting the fifth valve tubing installed, braced up, and soldered together. I am so excited to see how this turns out. Just waiting to hear back from Cerveny for a paddle assembly, and after some minor dent work/polishing and building the fifth valve lever, this thing will be done!
Took my big 6/4 York BBb and my 5/4 Rudolf Meinl CC to New England Brassworks to have them do a valve job on the York and some minor things to the Rudi including a good chem cleaning.
There's the Willson/DEG contra that I'm working on as detailed in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=15298
I have several other tubas that are just kind of waiting for me to get busy on them or sell. Lots of folks interested in the Eastman 832 and York Master since I put them on FB. Not so much with the ophicleide...
I also have in the wings David B.'s old Bohm & Meinl 5520 4v CC, Buescher 3v Eb, King 1240 3v upright BBb frankentuba with silver fixed bell from a King 1141 contra, and a King 1240 3v BBb with recording bell. Smaller brass, I have a nice Conn Connstellation cornet that needs a little bit of love, and a Holton Super Collegiate cornet that needs a lot of love.
Other projects, in no order:
- Miraphone 184/Bach (Olds)/Conn 4v BBb
- Conn 4v franken-euph is almost ready. The bell and valveset are from a silver 1940s Conn. The body and some extra tubing is from a 1950s "Elkhart" front-bell euph. Right hand placement will be a little odd due to the fourth valve wrap but I think it'll work.
- Martin Medium 3v top action Eb to 5v (4 piston + 1 rotor) front action conversion -- I've rethought this one a bit and think I might go a little different direction with it. I have a lead on a 4v compensating valveset being sent from the UK.
- York (Grand Rapids Band Inst. Co.) 4/4 body plus 4v King 1241 valveset BBb -- trying to strip the last of the stubborn Eastlake Orange off of that 1241 valveset
Should be nice when done, and I have a fifth rotor to add if I feel like it. Might even go the @bloke route and make it a long half step length.
- Buescher Eb helicon is SO close to being a playable instrument. It needs some valve work. Originally I was going to replace the whole valve block but I think it's repairable... still pretty worn, so may not be worth it.
- Old Italian helicon needs slides unstuck and a new bell (have a donor Bach bell from a trashed 3v BBb)
- The very first frankentuba thing I tried to make is still in pieces -- a piston F tuba project. I could haul it over the finish line if I ever got the gumption and a free couple of weeks.
- That Yamaha 103 BBb that I picked up in Indiana with a janky horrible fourth valve added... yeah, I'll be sitting on that one for a while. Or, it'll be sitting in a box in pieces for a while.
That's it for now. My life outside of tubadom has gotten a bit busier than usual, so progress is slow. I do this stuff in my free time away from my day job, and free time is in short supply lately.
As I mentioned in the Update Update thread, someone brought me their vintage Courtois cornet, one of the old ones that requires a tuning bit/shank:
It's a beautiful instrument, I should take some photos. I was asked to clean it and to see if I could do anything about the main tuning slide, which is all warbled out and very thin metal. It's a somewhat high pitch instrument and requires the slide to be pulled almost all the way out, but it's pretty loose when all the way out where it needs to be. The slide tubing metal is so thin that I did not want to destroy it trying to expand it a little, and I guess I could source a small piece of tubing of the proper diameter and replace it, but didn't feel like hunting around all my little boxes of tubing. I have several vintage cornet bits like this and was able to just make a longer one from two junked ones, which allows the instrument to play in tune without an epic main slide pull. The one that was trashed had a crack, and I didn't realize that the previous person tried to seal the crack with clear nail polish. I put the torch to it and it immediately burst into flames. So, that's how I found out nail polish is flammable.
Been steadily plugging along with @Casca Grossa's Cerveny Eb project, getting the fifth valve tubing installed, braced up, and soldered together. I am so excited to see how this turns out. Just waiting to hear back from Cerveny for a paddle assembly, and after some minor dent work/polishing and building the fifth valve lever, this thing will be done!
Took my big 6/4 York BBb and my 5/4 Rudolf Meinl CC to New England Brassworks to have them do a valve job on the York and some minor things to the Rudi including a good chem cleaning.
There's the Willson/DEG contra that I'm working on as detailed in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=15298
I have several other tubas that are just kind of waiting for me to get busy on them or sell. Lots of folks interested in the Eastman 832 and York Master since I put them on FB. Not so much with the ophicleide...
I also have in the wings David B.'s old Bohm & Meinl 5520 4v CC, Buescher 3v Eb, King 1240 3v upright BBb frankentuba with silver fixed bell from a King 1141 contra, and a King 1240 3v BBb with recording bell. Smaller brass, I have a nice Conn Connstellation cornet that needs a little bit of love, and a Holton Super Collegiate cornet that needs a lot of love.
Other projects, in no order:
- Miraphone 184/Bach (Olds)/Conn 4v BBb
- Conn 4v franken-euph is almost ready. The bell and valveset are from a silver 1940s Conn. The body and some extra tubing is from a 1950s "Elkhart" front-bell euph. Right hand placement will be a little odd due to the fourth valve wrap but I think it'll work.
- Martin Medium 3v top action Eb to 5v (4 piston + 1 rotor) front action conversion -- I've rethought this one a bit and think I might go a little different direction with it. I have a lead on a 4v compensating valveset being sent from the UK.
- York (Grand Rapids Band Inst. Co.) 4/4 body plus 4v King 1241 valveset BBb -- trying to strip the last of the stubborn Eastlake Orange off of that 1241 valveset
Should be nice when done, and I have a fifth rotor to add if I feel like it. Might even go the @bloke route and make it a long half step length.- Buescher Eb helicon is SO close to being a playable instrument. It needs some valve work. Originally I was going to replace the whole valve block but I think it's repairable... still pretty worn, so may not be worth it.
- Old Italian helicon needs slides unstuck and a new bell (have a donor Bach bell from a trashed 3v BBb)
- The very first frankentuba thing I tried to make is still in pieces -- a piston F tuba project. I could haul it over the finish line if I ever got the gumption and a free couple of weeks.
- That Yamaha 103 BBb that I picked up in Indiana with a janky horrible fourth valve added... yeah, I'll be sitting on that one for a while. Or, it'll be sitting in a box in pieces for a while.
That's it for now. My life outside of tubadom has gotten a bit busier than usual, so progress is slow. I do this stuff in my free time away from my day job, and free time is in short supply lately.