Much excitement today, the Jerome Wiss 6/20 arrived, the fit and finish are superb, Jerome is truly a craftsman in instrument making. The $64,000 question, How does it play. With my Wedge 3CC SST mouthpiece which has been my standard for the last 9 years, it responds with the least amount of air I can give it and the tone remains uniform to the most I can raise.

The sound behind the horn is unlike any other I have played, I find it difficult to describe, full, rich, not dark nor shrill, mind this is first impressions after 1/2 hour playing, I shall have to have a lot more time on it to get fully accustomed to it. I think it is mainly a function of the bell shape which is more conical than exponential, reminds me of pictures of ancient trumpets.

I have not yet checked the tuning, first impression nothing stood out to my ear, more to come as I spend more time with it.

Regards, Stuart.

Jerome Wiss, a French maker who has completely redesigned the trumpet including the valve block with only 2 passages through the valves, in the up position the air goes through one port in one direction, in the down position the same port in the opposite direction, makes it all himself.

He came on TH three years ago announcing his new trumpet and was driven off by people who could not understand how it worked.

I ordered one beginning of April, delivery November/December.

Regards, Stuart.

Without good provenance it is just another pretty Selmer Balanced Grand Prix.

Regards, Stuart.

Such a shame he died at 28.

Regards, Stuart.

@tjcombo said in A little humour:

@SSmith1226 That was bonzer Sport! A grouse effort for a Septic!

Translation: bonzer = good, sport = mate , friend, grouse = (a small ground dwelling bird), great, excellent, Septic = cockney rhyming slang, septic tank = yank (american).

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.

25 years ago I was having trumpet lessons from a retired brass teacher whose principle instrument was horn, he did not have any horn students, in a fit of mental abberation I bought a horn and had him teach me, joined a community symphony orchestra where the horn section was a girl playing an Alto Saxophone and a friend playing an Eb Tenor horn neither fitted in.

Eventually a couple of horn players joined I convinced the Eb player to go back to trumpet that was his prime instrument. After the concert tomorrow I will change to trumpet to balance the brass a little more, we will then have 5 Horns and 4 trumpets having lost 2 in the last year.

Sunday I have a 2 hour gig playing 2nd trumpet in the Big Band I have played in for 20+ years.

Regards, Stuart.

@fels For teaching a beginner I suggest you watch on youtube Mr Bill's Trumpet First lesson. This is the best instruction I have seen.

I do not encourage lip or mouthpiece buzzing as I feel this introduces excessive chop tension. Feel free to chat if you would like to discuss further,

Regards, Stuart.

I will be 81 at the end of this month, I feel young compared to a flute player in our Orchestra who is 90 and a visitor to the Big Band a couple of weeks ago, a Clarinet and saxophone player still blowing at 98.

Regards, Stuart.

Why not just swap the caps between the 2 instruments, the bottom caps do not matter but if the top caps are of a different thickness the valve alignment will be effected.
If you are adventuress there is a great number of DIY copper plating instructions on youtube,

Regards, Stuart.

Thank you Greg for your update on Windworks, I realize it is near 20 years since my lessons with Greg, he had not been teaching long and was still developing his thoughts. I still use his book as a warmup. At 86 I don't think I will be having any more lessons. Regards, Stuart.

@SSmith1226 I had a couple of lessons with Greg some years ago when he first started teaching when he lived here in Melbourne and have his original Mystery to Mastery book. I would have had more lessons but he moved to Queensland some 1000 miles away, There is nothing way out in his teaching although he has his own nomencular for some of the concepts, Regards, Stuart

@barliman2001 Google ebay.com g.mu6 will give link to his store. Regards, Stuart.

Several years ago I purchased a Amati Eb piston valve trumpet from ebay seller g.mu6 and cut it down to F, I have only played it once in Orchestra, no complaints.

I see he has a couple of rotary valve F trumpets for sale.

Regards, Stuart.

@acb The Wiss has been my main horn for three years now, I have used it in the community symphony orchestra, big band and wind symphony, my initial impressions have not c,hanged, it is the best horn I have ever played, I have had no problems blending with a section of Bachs and other makes, I have carefully checked the tuning with an electronic tuner and found a maximum error of +- 6 cents from the even tempered scale over my range (2 1/2 octaves). AT 5500 euro it was not a cheap horn but commensurate with other hand made horns. Regards, Stuart.

I have made several sets of inlays from 1/8" black bakelite sheet, cut octagen shape. glued to end of rod with melted shellac and turned to size in the lathe, rounded top edge and polished, glued into button with Super Glue Regards, Stuart.

Sassenach, ye no ken the pipes. Regards, Stuart.

@barliman2001
Ebay seller Gmu-6 often has F alto rotary valve trumpets, some time ago I bought an Amarti piston valve alto trumpet in Eb from him. takes a standard trumpet shank, cut 150mm out of the loop in the bell tail to bring it up into F, one of these days I will shorten the valve slides to finish the job. Regards, Stuart.

I have only stretched one set of springs, I think it was a Conn 22b that belongs to a friend, the problem was the valves were not returning to the top, stretching fixed this. I have a Courtois French Besson trumpet that came from the factory when they moved out of France, I believe it was a prototype that never went into production. The valve springs were so strong it was painful for my arthritic fingers to press. Searching the stock of 2 repairers did not find suitable. The springs the original were 12mm internal diameter, I thought I might be able to expand a smaller dia one. A set of Yamaha Flugel horn springs were about 10mm id and had a lot of turns, forcing the springs over a 12mm rod and tapping all round with a small hammer until the spring released its hold on the rod gave me a spring of the right length and strength, a 100 gm weight will depress the valve 1/2 way which seems to be common on several of my horns. ( Could someone please tell me how to paragraph a post) Regards, Stuart.