Moving to a much cooler climate .
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I am moving next week from Houston Texas to Youngstown Ohio ..Driving with my Wife , my little yorkie dog Max in front seat of course and 5 of my horns in my car trunk .3 trumpets 2 cornets .So I was concerned about cold weather .Can very cold weather do some damage to the horns.They are all in hard cases .Thank you Anthony
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Have no problems with my horns in the cold Midwest. I live in Metro Detroit.
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I'd be more concerned about theft than freezing; local thieves are attracted to cars with out-of-state license tags. Marching bands perform in sub-freezing weather, so having brass instruments in cold storage shouldn't be a problem. If you're still concerned, many sedans have a pass-thru to the trunk; see if you can use that to allow at least a few molecules of warm air access to its contents. An extreme precaution would be to have the horns in the cabin, and put your wife in the trunk. This might cool your relationship with her, however.
'62 Olds Studio Trumpet
'67 Olds Special Trumpet
2013 Dillon Pocket Trumpet
'83 Yamaha YFH-731 Flugelhorn
1919 York Perfec-Tone Cornet
'50 Olds Studio Trombone
Shofar"If it was just up to me, I'd only have trumpet players on my show." - Jackie Gleason
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It's not the cold that gets you, but rather the lake effect snow. I lived in that region 6 years. Now in Dayton Ohio with my 3 Schnauzers. Work, not whether took to Southern Ohio. I loved the years I lived in Northern Ohio.
The metal will contract in the cold, but keep warm breathe in the horn or have Max cuddle up to it and all should be fine.
Allora Pocket Trumpet 2014
Harrelson Summit 2017
Kanstul 1526 2012
Getzen Power Bore 1961
Getzen Eterna 4-Valve Fulgelhorn 1974
Martin Committee 1946
Olds Super Recording 1940
Olds Recording (LA) 1953
Olds Recording (Fullerton) 1967
Olds Ambassador 1965 -
@Dr-GO thank you does Youngstown Ohio get a lot of snow ...I was originally from Brooklyn we always got hit with snow.thanks for your info.
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@J-Jericho my wife might get angry if I put her in the trunk lol
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About the only thing the cold affects is the viscosity of the valve oil and slide grease. The valves and slides may be a little sluggish till the horn warms up. If there’s any moisture in the horn, it could freeze, but I wouldn’t think there would be enough of it to damage anything.
1977 Bach Strad ML 43 trumpet
1960 Conn 6B Victor trumpet
1982 Bach Strad ML 239 C trumpet
1970 Olds Ambassador Eb/D trumpet
1993 Bach Strad L 184G cornet
1962 Conn 9A Victor cornet
1890 Besson A/Bb/C cornet
1870? Henry Lehnert SARV cornet -
@Dale-Proctor thanks Dale
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Cold is of no importance when transporting instruments - only when playing...
I remember one Christmas gig in Austria, with temperatures nicely below zero for several weeks... and then we were supposed to play a Christmas service in a church that rarely if ever is used (secondary Catholic church lent to Protestants on occasion). When we arrived through about one foot of snow, the caretaker informed us that he "had switched the heating on ten minutes ago".... in a frozen-through Baroque church!!We were seven - two trumpets, one flugelhorn, one French horn, one baritone, one trombone and a 5/4 Kaiser tuba... when tuning at the beginning, everything was fine. But with having to wait in between pieces for the service to continue... intonation went haywire, and we ended up being more or less halt a tone apart...
horrible... and in the final piece, the rotary valves of the tuba and the french horn suddenly froze... luckily, we were seated near the door and were able to escape with our lives before the service ended... -
Cold, hot, humid, dry...this will make exactly 0.0001% of a difference to your horns....in the short-term. If you are moving to a very humid climate (think, Florida), you may want to consider storing your trumpets in a relativity dry area. Eventually (after a long period of time), the leadpipe can start to wear (red-rot). However, these things are literally brass pipes. What could possibly happen?
Regular maintenance will nullify any climatic effects. However, playing is a different story. Cold & hot make a tremendous difference on intonation.
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@Dale-Proctor Yeah, I took a trumpet up in the mountains once on a winter ski trip, and the horn had been in the car's truck in below zero temperatures. When I brought it inside my ski cabin to practice on it, the valves were completely frozen, as it was apparently cold enough to freeze the valve oil. But after the horn warmed up, helped with blowing slow, warm air through it, it was fine, and the valves were moving again. (Was no longer limited to playing just bugle calls!)
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@LegendaryConnMan. Bugle calls lol that's funny lol
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A poem I just found that puts into perspective, Ohio in the winter:
A WINTER POEM
It's winter in OHIO
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At five below.
Oh, how I love OHIO
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes,
The weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave OHIO
Cuz I'm frozen to the ground!
