For anyone with a damaged brass instrument, I highly recommend Ryan Boone who works at Palen Music Center in Broken Arrow. I took an 118 year old US cavalry bugle to him for restoration. Since the US military supplied only a canvass bag for protection, understandably, the bugle was showing it's age and years of hard use. Being the master craftsman that he is, over time, he patiently disassembled the bugle, removed all of the dents, reshaped the bell, reassembled and polished the whole instrument. I wish that I had "before" and "after" pictures to show his high degree of skill that it took to restore this antique to it's "as issued" condition.
The bugle is now in Sandy, Oregon where my nephew, who is the troop bugler for his Boy Scout Troop is learning to play it as it is quite different from his trumpet. Hopefully. he will soon be able to play at veterans funerals for the VFW and American Legion as they must occasionally use recorded music due to a shortage of live buglers.
Again, kudos to Ryan Boone and Palen Music Center for an outstanding job. read more