At Balu Musik we strive to provide the best parts at good prices. We love technicians and horn makers and believe that anyone should be able to try to do it if they want to. You want to install your own water key, or a duck foot, or maybe cut a bell? We have the right parts for you.
As a technician or enthusiast amateur sometimes you need to go thru the hoops and loops of registering with a provider of replacement parts and that sometimes is a challenging part. Maybe you don’t have an established shop, maybe just want to tinkle in your garage knowing that you would like to try to cut your bell.
We got you covered with the right parts.
Please email us at [email protected] for bulk orders and dealer prices. Minimum orders are any of your chose of: 3 Adjustable Pinky hooks, 3 duck foots/Flippers, 2 rings, 4 Amado type water keys. The rings MUST be properly fitted on the tail, you have to have the right equipment for this.
From the word of Mr. Balu:
“I vividly remember when I cut the first bell in our garage. At the time I was playing with Memphis Symphony and it was in the spring of 2005, maybe 2006 (it sure feels more like 720A.D. by now) and it was on a Tuesday early afternoon. How do I remember it was on a Tuesday? Because we had Mondays off and Tuesday was the first day of work for the week. I had rehearsal that evening at 7:30 and remember getting some rings from Houser and I thought, “I bet I can cut the bell on my horn by rehearsal time”. Wasting no time I took the horn apart and figured out how to cut it right. This is not a feat for the weak heart as one wrong stroke with the saw and the whole bell has to be replaced. Once the male ring was positioned properly on the tail, I soldered it in location, turned around the bell a few times to ensure proper alignment and here we go, I cut the bell. So far this was the easy part as now one has to match the female ring perfectly on the tail and since I already cut the flare, that was pushing tight against the female ring; there was a strong probability that the solder would seep into threads of the male ring thus soldering the whole ring together. Of course I found the solution in minutes and the ring was installed on the tail. All that remained now was to put the horn back together. One of the problems with factory made horns is that all braces are placed in the position indicated by the jig. Since not all parts are fitting together perfectly, most of the time braces are forced in location and then just soldered. We are not talking here 2-3 mm, even 1 mm gap on a brace would put pressure on tubing when strapped together to eliminate the said gap. On high end custom horns this requires many hours of work, manufacturing custom braces, dry positioning all of them, before soldering. This work is not seen when looking at a horn but is definitely felt by pro musicians. Braces should be the exact size for the space and not under pressure. On this horn that was not the case, so I installed only a few of the total braces and then put the leadpipe back on without the tail to leapipe brace. Time flew by that afternoon as I marveled at this “achievement” and then I had to leave for rehearsal. The horn was working fine, it was just not looking good as solder has not been cleaned around the braces, but that was just fine for the night. I spent a whole next day making custom braces and finally finishing the horn. Voila, first cut bell was under my belt”. I cut so far around 300+ bells with 100% accuracy and customer satisfaction.
