I have worn-out valves, pitted casings, a GOOD mouthpipe, some pitting on slides old raggedy Strad...
...BUT, I ALSO have an upper intermediate Bach trumpet ("BACH" - and not "Stradivarius" on the bell) with a PERFECT Strad-style .459" bore valve block, which features some other same-as-Stradivarius parts, and plenty of other GOOD Stradivarius parts in "bloke's junk boxes".
...so I've begun work.
The #37 Stradivarius bell was "good", but the flare was creased, the stem was dented, and - at the small .459" bore end, there was a badly pitted area in the bell section - right where it slips into the valve block.
OK...I've done 20 minutes of work on the bell, I need to do a little bit more work on the flare - and a tiny bit on the bell bow, and (after making sure there were no actual dents in the small end - via chasing it very gently with an expander) I filled up the eaten-into area with silver brazing wire.
This should end up being a really good trumpet (particularly considering how picky I am with slide tubing alignment, and how much EASIER it is to align TRUMPET slide tubes than TUBA slide tubes).
Of course, it's going to be slicked out, and sent off to Anderson...
...There's a nice Stradivarius CASE here, but it belongs to someone else...and - though they were told THREE years ago to come get it - I guess that case will continue to sit.
