An exercise in futility?
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A friend gave me his piccolo trumpet to see what I could do with it. (Oswal India, nuff sed)
Pulled stuck slides, easy enough, removed valves, casings numbered 1 2 3 4, Valves 2of numbered 1, other 2 no number,fun to sort out on reassembly, valves appear to have been greased, very sluggish.
2 leadpipes, assume Bb and A, both receivers just parallel tubing, Bb the mouthpiece goes into the start of the leadpipe and is firm, in A pipe does not reach leadpipe and wobbles.
This is as far as I have gone, the next step is to give it a good cleaning and then reassemble paying particular attention to valve alignment. I have Blackburn Bb and A pipes that will fit.
More to come.
Regards, Stuart.
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"Oswal India, nuff sed", I agree! But, they've only about $100 invested!
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@stumac said in An exercise in futility?:
A friend gave me his piccolo trumpet to see what I could do with it. (Oswal India, nuff sed)
Pulled stuck slides, easy enough, removed valves, casings numbered 1 2 3 4, Valves 2of numbered 1, other 2 no number,fun to sort out on reassembly, valves appear to have been greased, very sluggish.
2 leadpipes, assume Bb and A, both receivers just parallel tubing, Bb the mouthpiece goes into the start of the leadpipe and is firm, in A pipe does not reach leadpipe and wobbles.
This is as far as I have gone, the next step is to give it a good cleaning and then reassemble paying particular attention to valve alignment. I have Blackburn Bb and A pipes that will fit.
More to come.
Regards, Stuart.
Maybe add a lampshade?
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@tjcombo If you could get this small enough, it would be cool. But it's a picc, so it's probably only good for a nightlight!!
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@stumac If you cannot make it work, then no one can. They are so hard to play when they are a good horn, so I would try to recover my cost, by melting it down or breaking it up, and using as Fishing Sinkers. You can recover $100 of fish at market prices fairly easily, then write it off.
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For those that may not know what a write off is,
http://seinfeldlaw.com/2018/03/12/the-package-write-offs/ -
Spent about an hour on the beast today, washed the valves and swabbed the casings with solvent and removed the lapping compound, washed and brushed the inside.
Oiled the valves, greased the slides and reassembled, checked valve alignment, not bad, have seen much more costly horns worse. Valves quite smooth in operation, springs stronger than I like but ok.
Playing, with Blackburn leadpipes from behind not much different from my old Selmer, supplied Bb leadpipe ok, A pipe no. would suggest new leadpipes, perhaps this is a new project.
Supplied mouthpiece a strange double cup design, similar to old Selmer, does work but not my choice.
Was this an exercise in futility? I will see when I return it to its owner on Saturday.
Regards, Stuart.
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He'll need some wire and a switch also.
Stuart you undoubtedly did it some good but........
I know someone who could make it work. If the payer is lucky he might be able to do it for around $400
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Trying to turn a crappy horn into a good one is a waste of time and money. Usually, the higher pitched the trumpet, the worse the cheap ones are.
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Sometimes its a fun stress reliever though.....
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Toby, with today's LED bulbs, you can get a lot of light out of small bulbs;)
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The owner was very happy with it when returned, at least it was now playable, he never bought it to be a performance instrument, only to play about with.
Regards, Stuart.
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I have considered buying a cheap Piccolo myself just to piddle with. Real ones are very expensive.....$100 gets you an Injun Special;)
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@N1684T said in An exercise in futility?:
I have considered buying a cheap Piccolo myself just to piddle with. Real ones are very expensive.....$100 gets you an Injun Special;)
If you do, I recommend fitting proper tapered receivers to the leadpipes so the mouthpiece fits properly.
Regards, Stuart.
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Like a hack like myself would know the difference? LOL!
