I bought a really old trumpet what can I use to restore it to the laquer that it

Question:trying still to use www.musiciansfriend.com but I'll look at other sites.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: trying still to use www.musiciansfriend.com but I'll look at other sites.

To re-lacquer the trumpet, you need to take it to a repair shop and have a professional do this--it is not something just anyone can do themselves unless they are experienced and have the equipment.
Or, why not just leave it the way it is? Sometimes worn lacquer can give your tone quality a great color. My university's trumpet professor has a trumpet with worn lacquer. Just clean the trumpet up thoroughly and play it for awhile--experiment to see if you like the tone color.

Note that many tenor sax players intentionally remove all lacquer from their instruments--they claim that it dampens the tone.

There are brass instrument polishes that you can buy from a good music store that will restore some of the gleam without the hundreds-of-dollars expense of having the thing prepped, chemically stripped, and re-lacquered.

Music stores also do a deep cleaning and polishing process that is a little better than do-it-yourself but less expensive than a complete re-finish.