The finishing stages. Here in the background you can see the « unfinished » parts of another solid wood 16a. In the foreground is, after some « intense work », the patina I aim for. Not all clients go for this finish but when I make horns for my personal use I only do this finish. It’s a long process and a far fetch from any spray-gun job. It’s all by hand with good old rollers, paint brushes, many coats after shellac primer and yes the final elbow grease!

Needless to say that the paint used is as close as anyone will ever get to the very one used back in the late 1920s. Lucky for me I have the specifications of the paint in my western electric documentation, see here https://13audio.com/2020/06/17/true-blue-original-drawings/

If you see any images of the solid wood western electric horns that date back close to 100 years, then this is pretty much what they actually looked like. Today, reproduced in the 21st century.

All fun….