Ok, so the title for this post is pretty melodramatic, but there is more than a little about it that is fitting. Two days ago my long-forgotten favorite trumpet came back into my hands after an overhaul by Charlie Melk. To say I was excited to see her again is an understatement. I unwrapped her with some serious nervousness. And then, there she was... After marveling at how amazing she looked from various angles for a few minutes, I went about my routine of checking all valves and slides in preparation for a test playing. Man, the slides were immaculate and slid so smoothly! I noted that the 1st valve slide was no longer out of round and the 3rd slide had been appropriately tightened a bit as I'd requested. I think the valves looked better than when I'd first bought the trumpet from the original owner back in 1983. Charlie had mentioned that he'd replaced the springs with a stronger batch, and indeed the valves felt quick and sure. If you've never played a set of G...

After a thorough examination of my old Getzen Eterna Severinsen Large Bore Model trumpet, Charlie Melk, of Charlie's Brass Works in Georgia, provided me with two options: partial restoration with spot-plating as necessary, or complete restoration and re-plating. Both options were about what I expected for a job of this nature. Charlie said the horn was in good shape for its age and it only had plating wear in a few places. All of the rest of the work was going to be pretty ordinary repair work with the exception of the leadpipe since those of that era have not been made in a long time, and current Getzen replacement leadpipes are simply not the same. He mentioned mine was probably one of the last of that particular style, as well, even though the Severinsen Model was manufactured quite a few more years after mine. Given all of this information, it really boiled down to going the extra mile to have it look like a new trumpet with a complete re-plating job or just clean it thoro...