Improved P56 Dent Ball
    Driver/Retriever for French Horn
     & Marching Brass Instruments  

     Making things better is harder when it is improving on something that has been working very well for over 15 years.

        Why?   Well, many of the tools we invent, develop and manufacture are no longer being used for the jobs or in the ways that they were intended.  From the Z60 Dent Machine on down; ALL the tools are being asked to do jobs they just weren't intended for back when they were originally designed.  The Dent Machine went from being used exclusively for full-blown silver-stripped overhauls on Sousaphones to being used for 'nearly undetectable' playing condition on silver plated Stradivarius Cornets.
     The P56 French Horn Dent Ball Driver/Retriever is another case making the point.  Originally brought out to SNEAK into a nice orchestral French horn and remove a dent without unsoldering or disturbing the lacquer and leaving no evidence of having been there.  Now, the old warhorse has been pressed into service to DRIVE out smashes and dents in school and marching instruments without regard for the looks necessarily.  "Just get the dents out and cheap." are the orders.  So the tool gets jammed in EXTRA HARD to push up and out the dent, gouge or crease.
     This brought about a compromise in results.  When you jamb something into a delicate instrument like a French horn, the outer skin or the tubing isn't thick enough or strong enough to maintain it's shape.  The smaller inner more tubing is thicker relative to its size making it stronger in proportion.  This gives the dent ball more resistance and that extra force is absorbed by the outer wall of the bell curve, which when jammed hard enough GIVES UP and yields to the back up balls, even the ones covered with thick felt.

     After analyzing this process a while and recalling all the theories of dent removal we have been exposed to through a lifetime of experience;  we re-designed the balls on the handle with a new profile that has come about through these experiments and some of our other research.  This re-design was started after this tool was in a backorder condition for two months.  It took another 6 weeks to perfect the new design and they should be starting to ship in about 2-3 weeks.  If you have one on backorder it will be shipped  the new way at the old price.  Presently it is looking like we will be able to keep to old price if effect as we have done with several other tools subjected to "Volkswagen Changes".  As usual, all the new ones will come this way from now on and there will be an update kit or a service unit available for those who wish to mis-use the tool, like we all do.     

          Price for P56 Dent Ball Driver/Retriever $595.50+s/h

          Price of P56U is $99.50;  Done to your P56 handle.