[Dixielandjazz] Brass poisoning

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Although my mother wasn't a brass player she couldn't tolerate anything next to her skin except gold and not just any gold.  Cheap gold jewelry broke her out and anything with a so so plating job.  The gold had to be pure or very high quality gold.  I think that this is why flute players like to have the area that touches their lips gold plated.

I would take the mouthpiece to a plating shop who would put a heavy coat on.  Heavy enough so that no microscopic voids would be present.  Depending on the shop but I don't think that it would be much more expensive than buying a new mouthpiece.

Pure gold wears easily and plating is pure gold so it would have to be redone sometime depending on how heavy the plate was.

The lacquer probably just sealed up the bad plating job.  My mother would paint the back of her watch with clear fingernail polish.  She had some problems with stainless steel too.