The Bach Mercedes arrived today. I measured the bore, and it’s the .456” size, which Bach called an MP (medium plus) bore. It’s in pretty decent shape, valves are great, slides are all free, and it and seems to play well. It feels noticeably lighter than my Stradivarius. I’ll take it to a rehearsal next week to see if it plays well with others…
Best posts made by Dale Proctor
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RE: 1970s Bach Mercedes trumpet
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RE: Curry Mouthpieces
I had another rehearsal last night for a July 4 patriotic concert. About a 2 hour rehearsal, and I was a little spent by the end, having barely touched a horn for the last 14 months. I used my new Curry 3C on the old Bach 184 cornet again, and am really happy with its playability and my endurance on it. If I’d thought about it, I would have had Mark make me one years ago.
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RE: Old Photo
Frederick Fennell had just told us a funny joke right before we were to play at a band festival in Kentucky. That’s me on the far right.
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RE: 1970s Bach Mercedes trumpet
The Mercedes plays well with others! I played it in a 1 hour church orchestra rehearsal tonight, and was pretty pleased with it. The sound doesn’t have quite as much body as my Stradivarius does, but it played very well in tune and had a slightly easier upper register than my Strad. Reading some older reviews of the later Elkhart Mercedes had me worried about the possibility of a horn that wouldn’t play in tune, but this one is a good one.
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RE: $800 Box of Mouthpieces!
@rowuk said in $800 Box of Mouthpieces!:
We are creatures of habit and I firmly believe that THIS is the #1 reason for mouthpiece safaris not working.
I believe that we need MONTHS to determine if a mouthpiece is good for us. The process is called acclimation. We must practice, adapt and perform to cover our use cases.My personal practice is, and has always been to cold turkey switch and stick with the "new" for at least 2 months - no switching back to the original. After that two - three months, I retry the original and note the differences. My last switch was in 1996.
I can generally tell within a day or two (sometimes much sooner) if I don’t like a mouthpiece, but yes, it takes quite a bit of playing one in different situations to tell if I REALLY like one. I’ve played a 3C on trumpet since the early 1980s, but I did switch from a Bach 3C to a Curry 3C. about 6 years ago, and haven’t looked back. It was familiar to me, so the transition was easy, and it was so much better! I generally play a Curry 3BBC. on cornet, too. I accumulated all those cornet mouthpieces over the years partly due to curiosity, and partly due to keeping some of the mouthpieces that came with horns I bought and sold.
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RE: Moderating vs. Policing
I’m a moderator on a couple Facebook pages, and the first back and forth name calling I see gets the comment(s) deleted, and if the originator of the post is the instigator, the entire post is deleted. They are “PG” sites, and extremely foul language and/or images also gets a comment (or entire post) deleted.
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RE: German Band
I just found another photo of the Bavarian band that I haven’t seen in about 35 years. I’ll post it here for posterity. I see that I was also playing trumpet on some of the songs. I think that trumpet is the 1955 Mt. Vernon ML43 Strad that I sold about 20 years ago.
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RE: Smallest car trunk I’ve ever had
@administrator said in Smallest car trunk I’ve ever had:
Yeah, Miatas are a lot of fun, but very tiny!
Yes, in city traffic I feel like a roach who’s about to be stepped on…lol. I ride motorcycles, and it takes the same mindset to drive one of these. Here’s the view from my window at a stop light.
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RE: How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?
A nice photo I took last summer.
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RE: How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?
@BigDub said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:
@Dale-Proctor said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:
Five piece cornet de-composition, deBell Bb..
It was actually a 1920s Conn 22B trumpet that a guy bought on eBay. When he received it, he discovered it had been badly rebuilt and the valves were worn out. In a fit of rage, he beat it to pieces and posted a photo of it. I needed a 1920s 22B tuning slide and contacted him. He mailed the slide to me at no charge…lol