- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
A quick story with a moral: Years ago I had a customer who was using Spray ‘N Wash® as a rotor lubricant. He was using it on the strength of his belief that a certain very well-known horn player was using it and recommending it. I asked him how it was working, and he told me his valves never moved so fast! I tried them and indeed they moved smoothly and fast.
He was leaving his horn for a few weeks while he went on a Christmas holiday break, during which time I was to clean it for him. So, having other work to do that was promised out I set his horn aside for a while, knowing I had plenty of time to get to it.
When I finally opened the case, pulled out the horn, and tried to remove the rotors I had one of the hardest times I’ve ever had disassembling a horn! Not only were the rotors frozen, they were stuck. Lots of penetrating oil and elbow grease later, I busted the rotors out and cleaned the horn. Afterwards I used a standard rotor oil and the valves worked like new, again.
The “cheap” lubricant worked as long it was kept wet on the valves. As soon as it evaporated, the rotors froze as hard as could be.
Moral of the story: a cheap solution can lead to expensive repairs.
p.s.: I had a conversation with the afore-mentioned famous horn player some years later and asked him if he had ever recommended this treatment? He had not only not recommended it, he had never heard of it.
Moral of the postscript: beware of the fallacy of the “appeal to authority.”
