Flattened French Horn- Wes Lee Music Repair

Repair and restoration of a flattened and damaged French Horn.

[@jeevespreston]

As an obviously ignorant youth, I played trombone for 6 years in jr and high school. Now at 65 yo, I can truly appreciate the craftsmanship required to build/maintain these instruments! I am in awe, well done fine sir!

[@striveforfreedom]

Thank you Wes. Nobody really shows how those crumpled bows on horns are smoothed out in this detail. Looks great!

[@wesleemusicrepair9820]

Thanks for watching

[@MyFairbanks]

Can not hardly believe before and afterwards.

[@marcoscesar3050]

Fui reparador por 16 anos hj não mais . Seus vídeos me deram muitas recordações. O senhor mestre estar de parabéns.

[@michaelcarlos2064]

Wow, that's extraordinary Wes. You achieve the seemingly impossible with only very simple tools and your gentle but powerful hands.

[@wilsonrawlin8547]

Popeye arms and hands. ;D

[@kristimiller-lee2338]

Another great refurbish. 8 hours of work, wow!

[@Zire83]

I will never understand how an instrument can be brought to this state.

[@stefanfilipov7254]

This Horn is been given to kids and it's property of the school I guess. The most important question here is who gives a dumb kid 5k$ instrument in the first place. I am Guitarist from since I remember and my most expensive guitar costs like 2k or something....

[@Icedmanta]

@@stefanfilipov7254 Giving kids nice instruments can help them establish fundamentals without worrying about problems they can't control coming from an inferior quality instrument. In the case of a french horn, a lot of middle/high schools with better music programs tend to have french horns worth the $2.5k-5k range, usually Holtons, Conn 8Ds, or Yamaha Kruspe (as shown in the video). As someone who started out on a french horn that had a hole in it, slides that didn't move and valves that hardly worked - it's worth the potential damage from mishandling to give kids opportunities. This horn wasn't even in terrible shape! The valves looked solid and the slides looked to be all moving, which is more than can be said for a lot of school horns.

[@David-hm9ic]

Our school provided the same instruments that the horn players in the Houston Symphony used. I took care of "mine" like I had paid for it. When it was issued to me it was a new instrument at a new school and I did my best to return it to them four years later in nearly new condition. That was decades ago. I went to an auction last year hoping to buy a French horn and it was unbelievable how badly beat up they were and they were not terribly old instruments. They had big dents all over, damaged keys, broken solder joints and missing parts.

[@woollysammothscoins]

i have a Conn 8D that I got from my school and when I opened it, that part was almost pinched, just sent it off hopefully they can fix it

[@Sojourning_]

I think what is more amazing to me, is how you work the bell, I only seen a couple of others You Tube is put up, hands down< Your the man...... crumpled up metal, trenched, deformed, wrinkled and all the rest that goes along with defacing formed metal. You work your magic,,,

[@OmaBike]

Did some kid get tired of music lessons and run over his horn with his bicycle multiple times? You get a lot of beat up brass there.

[@snrnsjd]

Amazing work! Thank you for sharing with us this video!

[@mosssss3513]

i like this but i am not in approval of the way you removed the slides lol

[@kathleenkirkness4409]

I love watching those dents come out on such a beautiful instrument!

[@AbelPereiraLima-e1i]

Bom dia, ele é muito bom no que faz. Parabéns.

[@michaelireland7239]

he even bangs in tune iwonder if he plays love to hear it after all that work

[@kristimiller-lee2338]

I just watched this again. Your before and after are amazing. Love the hammer sounds too.

[@philipsheie702]

Very cool. Love this video. Say, what would you do if one of those dents had blown through (pre-existing hole)?

[@philipsheie702]

And, what is the size of the curving rod that the tool you are pushing out the dents with is made from? can you change ball sizes?

[@michaelireland7239]

this job should b called a musical plumber

[@aragon1253]

Beaten by an angry Ex-Wife?

[@microreniassance2929]

Wes, I doubt you get paid what it looks to be worth. You must love it. Absolutely amazing. I'll bet you can bench 300lbs.

[@cmcer1995]

I would have called this a totaled French Horn, but you were able to really restore it to where it actually looks very good. Is it possible to restore the finish on horn such as this with so much damage, or do you just restore to where it looks really good and is totally functional? Just amazing work.

[@richardflowers8073]

Enjoy your channel

[@ms-mac521]

👍👍👍

[@jamesburnett7085]

I know there is not a simple answer to this question, but... I know good musical instruments are very expensive. And I also know that an expert technician, such as yourself, deserves some serious money for your work. At some point, inevitably, the cost of repair would exceed the value of the instrument once restored. So I will frame the question this way: Is it difficult to tell when an instrument is beyond hope?

[@wesleemusicrepair9820]

The most important thing is a horn in a kids hand. So we have to come to compromises on making that happen, so that is what we do. But I am told every day I don’t charge enough. This horn looks terrible, BUT, the bell was not cracked, was not rotten, so it was really a no brained to me to fix it. The rotors were tight, the slides were solid so it had more going for it than against. And since this horn new is around 5K new, spending a few hundred on this made sense to the director. And there is a kid that really needed an activity to be a part of and excelling on it, we made the right call.

[@beatesetzer2441]

I would love to hear it played!

[@DocBree13]

@@wesleemusicrepair9820 ❤️

[@tuniox8914]

can you not throw tuning slides like an bag off potatoes it hurts my

[@valkhorn]

Never hammer the bearing plates into the valves that way. You put extra stress on the bell and could damage it in the process. If that were a more expensive horn and a hand hammered bell, it would have severely dented. It’s better to leave the bell off the table if it’s not detachable.

[@wesleemusicrepair9820]

28 years and I have never damaged anyone’s instrument, but more to your point, 10 times out of 10 the instrument is in my lap. The way I showed here was to get camera angle.

[@associatedblacksheepandmisfits]

Def the cleanest workshop floor ever !