Good relacquer shop

The lacquer on the body of my 1956 MK VI alto was in excellent condition when I bought it, with the exception of the neck, which was pretty badly tarnished. I removed the lacquer from the neck, removed the tarnish, and polished it, and now that it looks as good as the rest of the horn, I'd like to keep it that way. Does anyone know a good relacquer shop where I can send the neck to have it relacquered? Does WW & BW do relacquer work?

By far, the absolute best relacquer shop (IMNSHO) is Badger State Repair. They are located at:

204 W Centralia Street Elkhorn, WI 53121 (262) 723-4062.

Bob Fowler

The problem with having the neck relacquered is at least twofold:

First, all shops are now using two part epoxy, which is different from the nitro-cellulose lacquer that Selmer and other companies used. Epoxy lacquer *may* affect the tone and response of your horn. As you know, the mouthpiece and neck strongly influence the playing characteristics of the instrument, and there is a good chance that you will notice some change after the neck is lacquered. It could even change for the better!

The other thing to consider is how closely you want the lacquer to match the body of you instrument. The older VI's generally had a fairly dark lacquer, and after a number of years it acquires a certain patina that cannot be duplicated. If you do decide to have your neck relacquered, I would strongly suggest sending the entire horn so there is a chance that the lacquer can be matched.

I have a small repair shop in Ashland, Oregon, and I do quite a bit of business with Badger and other companies. I don't know if Badger takes instruments from private parties, but they do a good job. The owner, Ed Strege, is a good guy, but he is very busy. If you can get him on the phone, you might be able to discuss with him what you want done.

Good Luck.

Doug MacDonell

I will never again trust a repair shop to re-lacquer a horn. I would be particularly wary with a 'five digit' Mark VI. You'll damage the re-sale value, if nothing else. A long-established repair shop in Oakland ruined a real nice Selmer SBA tenor of mine when they re-lacquered it. It came back egg shell thin, despite the solemn promises that they would not over-buff it. After the massacre, it had a tone like a cheap student horn.

I re-lacquered the neck on my Mark VI tenor myself, so I knew for sure I wasn't buffing of enough metal to affect the sound. I used spot lacquer in spray cans from Ferree's. It took a number of attempts to get the color match just so. What I finally did was to let the neck stand and darken for a couple of days after polishing it with Brasso. Then I applied two coats of gold and five coats of clear, lightly polishing with Number 7 brand polishing compound between coats. It turned out real nice. That horn has the French lacquer, which is quite a bit lighter in color than the lacquer used on the horns that were assembled in the US. Ferree's sells a darker lacquer that's supposed to match the old US assembled Selmers better, but I don't think they sell it in spray cans.

Jive, A lot of the older Selmers, mine included and I've had it from day 1, had/have a terrible tendency to pit. Do you know of any remedy for this?