The slide on the Schmelzer feels like a dream; it's honestly the best slide I've ever played. With that said, there are two ~1mm diameter spots of plating wear on opposite sides one of the inners, the other inner is 100%. I don't feel any bumps at all and I've used both SuperSlick and Yamaha lube (at seperate times). I had the slide aligned and adjusted by Freddy at Dillon Music maybe four months ago. There are a few tiny little dings in the bell but you can barely notice them. The tuning slide is free of dents. I think the previous owner used a silver polishing cloth on the gold at one point, because there are some swirl marks, but as you can see it still glistens. Because these horns are custom, they typically don't have serial numbers, but since mine is an early model it has one. I actually emailed Manfred about it and he was able to tell me that the horn was made in 1993. The whole thing is gold plated unlike some of the modern ones where the slides, braces, or some small parts weren't plated. The only places with plating loss are where your thumb rests on the bell brace, and on the hand grip for the slide, other than that it's totally intact.
For trades, I'd be interested in a small bore Shires (.500/.508), a 3B Silver Sonic, or a 2B Silver Sonic/Silver Tone. We could always discuss cash on either end depending on what you have.
If you don't want to trade but have cash, send me an offer, the worst I can say is no.
I prefer a local-ish meetup, so if you're anywhere between NYC and DC we can probably figure something out, as I'm in Philly.
More pictures are available if you want them, I just don't have the time to post them right now. The one below is me playing the Schmelzer about a month ago.
