Dry instrument vs Wet instrument

Dale Proctor

Have any of you noticed that when you pick up a horn you haven’t played in months, it doesn’t seem to play as well as it should? Sort of unresponsive, maybe the tone is a little lacking, etc.? After you play it a bit, it seems to improve, and then if you keep playing another day or two, it seems back to “normal”? Does moisture have anything to do with it, or do you think it’s just a lack of recent familiarity with the horn (even though you’ve played it a lot in the past) that makes it seem sub par?

J. Jericho

A good test would be to swab out the accumulated moisture from a horn you play on a daily basis, and try to detect a difference. Play. Swab. Play again.

Dale Proctor

@J-Jericho said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:

A good test would be to swab out the accumulated moisture from a horn you play on a daily basis, and try to detect a difference. Play. Swab. Play again.

I don’t think swabbing it would make it dry enough. It has to set up a while and really dry out.

Kehaulani

If it were me, I'd guess I was overthinking it. If you've been playing another horn and adopting to it's idiosyncracies (sp?), I would expect to feel a difference if I picked up a horn I hadn't been playing for a while.

stumac

This morning I played my1931 King Silver Tone trumpet for the first time in over 12months, the valves were free and smooth, I did not oil them (shame) and found as Dale the tone was dull and lifeless, after about 10 minutes of playing the tone was much improved and sounded more like me. I will try it again tomorrow after playing my usual horns.

I have not noticed this on any of my other horns that get played on a regular basis.

Regards,Stuart.

J. Jericho

@Dale-Proctor said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:

@J-Jericho said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:

A good test would be to swab out the accumulated moisture from a horn you play on a daily basis, and try to detect a difference. Play. Swab. Play again.

I don’t think swabbing it would make it dry enough. It has to set up a while and really dry out.

I use rolled-up paper towels to dry the insides after cleaning; they're dry when I'm done. To dry the bell crook, judicious use of a hair blow dryer so as not to cook the horn would take no more than a few minutes.

GeorgeB

I only have 7 horns and each one gets played ( for 3 days ) on a rotation basis so I guess they don't sit unused long enough to affect how they play because they all perform just fine.

ROWUK

Moisture! The speed of sound in moist air is different than in dry and in the microcosmos of the trumpet, that is a big deal. Intonation and targets change.
Granted, if one has minimal chops, other issues may mask the effect.
A „moist“ instrument is different than just running water through it first (although that does help some).

This is such a fundamental thing for me that I will not risk playing a gig on a dry trumpet (even although it is only dry for the first 10 minutes or so). When testing trumpets, the first 10 minutes do not count.

Dale Proctor

@stumac said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:

This morning I played my1931 King Silver Tone trumpet for the first time in over 12months, the valves were free and smooth, I did not oil them (shame) and found as Dale the tone was dull and lifeless, after about 10 minutes of playing the tone was much improved and sounded more like me. I will try it again tomorrow after playing my usual horns.

I have not noticed this on any of my other horns that get played on a regular basis.

Regards,Stuart.

Thanks for the confirmation, Stuart.

@ROWUK said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:

Moisture! The speed of sound in moist air is different than in dry and in the microcosmos of the trumpet, that is a big deal. Intonation and targets change.
Granted, if one has minimal chops, other issues may mask the effect.
A „moist“ instrument is different than just running water through it first (although that does help some).

This is such a fundamental thing for me that I will not risk playing a gig on a dry trumpet (even although it is only dry for the first 10 minutes or so). When testing trumpets, the first 10 minutes do not count.

Thank you for the info and confirmation, sir!

stumac

I did notice this when I blew a few notes on a 1941 York Custom that I had not played for some time, thinking I do not remember it being this bad I put it down intending to investigate later. Mystery solved.

Regards, Stuart.