Restoring antique wind instruments
01/10/2014
The other day my mother gave me a couple of old wind instruments that would have belonged to my Grandfather, and been in use around the Thirties and Forties. He was a band leader, and held regular dances at a city venue. It is no mystery where my interest in music originated.
I have an old violin of his; it is in poor condition, but it's not something an amateur like me should tackIe.
However, I thought I would spruce up these two, a plain metal whistle, and a Piccolo Swanee Whistle. Like most things then, and as was still the case when I was young in the Fifties, they are both Made In England. I have found a few identical Swanee whistles on the Net, some are described as from the 1920's, but the plain whistle seems to be uncommon, no matches for an image search. These would, I guess, be used to add incidental sounds in numbers harking back to the early Jazz sound, when the idea was to throw in as many crazy sounds a possible, or maybe just as colour, or for novelty items. (p.s. 21/08/16 Example video added below. And 20/10/20 Louis Armstrong added as well) The whistle is chrome plated and quite large, 10.5 x 3.3 cm. The Swanee is 16 x 3 cm, made of Bakelite, and badly discoloured. It would have been a glossy black, as I found it to be under the end cap, which looks like nickel-plated brass. |
All I did for the whistle was a cautious polish with good old Brasso.
The Swanee was a different proposition. There is a sliding stopper inside, and the pull rod had come loose from it. The internal barrel was rather dirty and the slide action was more of a jump-and-stick action. The end-cap was easily removed as it is simply a friction fit. I gave that a polish with Brasso.
I gave the barrel a good soak, then a wipe clean. I cleaned off the internal end of the pull rod, filed it to expose bright metal, and re-tinned it with solder. Then I heated the slide on the stove element until the solder filling melted, and re-inserted the pull rod.
I carefully levered out the brass pin under the mouth-piece, which allowed removal of the insert which directs the blown air past the top hole. This allowed access right through the inner brass tube. I filed an old toothbrush to narrow it enough to insert and give the interior a good scrub. (The mouth-piece, insert, and top hole together are rather charmingly called a "fipple".)
Then the exterior was given a light cut with an abrasive bath cleaner, then a finer finish with Brasso. This was just to bring back a shine as it would have originally had. I felt that it would have been risking damage to try to cut it back to the original black material underneath.
When it was reassembled, the slide did not slide too well. With bit of research on the Net I found a trombone player suggesting that plain old cold-cream is OK as a lubricant. I found it necessary to work the stopper a bit and clean off the dirty lubricant , then repeat several times, but ended up with a pretty smooth action once the internal dirt was was cleared away.
Here are the (visible) results: -
The Swanee was a different proposition. There is a sliding stopper inside, and the pull rod had come loose from it. The internal barrel was rather dirty and the slide action was more of a jump-and-stick action. The end-cap was easily removed as it is simply a friction fit. I gave that a polish with Brasso.
I gave the barrel a good soak, then a wipe clean. I cleaned off the internal end of the pull rod, filed it to expose bright metal, and re-tinned it with solder. Then I heated the slide on the stove element until the solder filling melted, and re-inserted the pull rod.
I carefully levered out the brass pin under the mouth-piece, which allowed removal of the insert which directs the blown air past the top hole. This allowed access right through the inner brass tube. I filed an old toothbrush to narrow it enough to insert and give the interior a good scrub. (The mouth-piece, insert, and top hole together are rather charmingly called a "fipple".)
Then the exterior was given a light cut with an abrasive bath cleaner, then a finer finish with Brasso. This was just to bring back a shine as it would have originally had. I felt that it would have been risking damage to try to cut it back to the original black material underneath.
When it was reassembled, the slide did not slide too well. With bit of research on the Net I found a trombone player suggesting that plain old cold-cream is OK as a lubricant. I found it necessary to work the stopper a bit and clean off the dirty lubricant , then repeat several times, but ended up with a pretty smooth action once the internal dirt was was cleared away.
Here are the (visible) results: -
Below from 1923, Louis Armstrong abandons the trumpet he is known for, to take up the swanee whistle.
Then Lucky Millinder & his Orchestra in 1951 take a more novelty approach.
Then Lucky Millinder & his Orchestra in 1951 take a more novelty approach.