Best posts made by barliman2001

An old Austrian farmer - the kind who's still wearing leather trousers every day - gets a talking to by his wife. "You really should start wearing underpants at your age," she says. "It's much warmer and cleaner. I bought you a pair for your first trial." - "Ok" he says and puts them on before setting out for the fields. At midday, he feels the need for some relief and retires behind a hedge, lowering his leathers but forgetting the new underpants. After finishing what he came to do, he grudgingly concedes that his wife was right. "It's much warmer," he says to himself, and, looking behind him,"it's much cleaner, too!"

@barliman2001
And that is how the orchestra looked like, in the Teatro Civico Salvatore Cicero in Cefalu... (here with Brahms' Double Concerto)

Welcome to TB, Leonardo! The trumpet on the pics has some rather intriguing features - a pinky hook reminding me of early Selmers, but of some Markneukirchen instruments as well, and the octagonal valve caps bring to mind some Buescher instruments as well as the Art Déco instruments of Arigra and the like.
It certainly is neither of these.
You might look up the brand name in www.horn-u-copia.net.
But it is my opinion (fwiw) that it is some sort of stencil instrument and possibly somewhere in the intermediate class - if you are lucky.

@BigDub I once had a spate of piccs... starting off with an old Selmer, then changing to a Besson Kanstul, then adding a Stomvi Elite, then a Votruba Pro... another, younger Selmer... and then I happened upon a Scherzer high G. And that one very soon told me that for me and my kind of playing, A/Bb picc was simply wasted effort. All the Baroque pieces that I was playing on A picc suddenly became much more manageable when I switched to the Scherzer high G... no more sharps anywhere... and then I got my claws on an old Selmer high G out of the estate of Maurice André... and that was one revelation. It beat the Scherzer and all the other piccs by such a margin that I sold every single one of them.

Bit of talking at the beginning, about how seriously they take music... and then...

On a serious basis: Fighting is another way of expressing interest, even sometimes of feeling within a family. For me at least, the lack of impassioned discussion with all its proliferations means that so far, there is no feeling "I'm at home here". It's like being in the entrance hall of a posh hotel - not even a rock star would seriously misbehave there. The damage is done in the privacy of the room...

Living in Austria means that I have some experience of playing outside in cold weather...
several hints as to survive and produce something that is not horrible to hear...

1. Dress warmly, in several layers, keeping care that you remain mobile

2. Outermost layer should be water- and oil-proof.

3. Double gloves are useful - finger gloves with no fingertips, then a nice mitten all over to keep warm during long intervals

4. The Swiss "Brand" turbo mouthpieces are just as warm as Delrin, but produce a nicer sound.
   https://www.thomann.de/gb/cat_GK_blbmbt.html?shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1&manufacturer[]=Brand&gk=BLBMBT&cme=false&filter=true

5. Zip-tie a hand-warmer to the valve block (not a coal-burning one - if they come undone, they will set fire to your gig-bag):

And one more clip of the weird and rare...

@BigDub It's the high G FOR ME. Other players may have other needs. But for my kind of playing, it's perfect. And it's slightly easier to control than a full picc.

@fels I've been using a Stork Vacchiano 3 for my Selmer high-G picc, but recently I've fallen in love with Ivan Hunter's Jaegerbrass 3M for the purpose. And as a constant go-to I've got the Stomvi Mouthpiece System (one rim, two stems, eight different cups, and you can get a separate extra-lightweight picc stem - either trp or cornet - as well as any number of additional rims and cups...)

As regards "Knock knock..."
An old lady had a parrot and a TV. One day, the TV broke down, so the old lady called an engineer to repair the TV. However, shortly before the engineer came, the old lady had forgotten the appointment and went out shopping, leaving the parrot in charge.
A very few minutes later, the TV engineer rang the bell. From inside, he heard a voice calling, "Who's there?"
He replied, "The TV engineer."
Again, a voice from within, "Who's there?"
Slightly exasperated, the caller replied, "The TV engineer..." -
"Who's there?" - "THE TV ENGINEER!!" - "Who's there?" - Yelling at the top of his voice, "THE TV ENGINEER!!" - "Who's there?" (engineer has a heart attack and faints in front of the door)
A few minutes later, the old lady returns, sees the unconscious man in her front garden and exclaims, "Who's that?" - "The TV engineer, the TV engineer..."

Thank you; for me, being trained in the Maurice André way of playing #4 valve with the left index finger, this horn is not suitable, lacking the mechanism to operate # 4 this way. It was difficult enough with my Scherzer G (lovely horn, loved playing it until I inherited a Selmer G from Maurice André)...

Me playing my Scherzer G in Händel's Messiah...

IMHO, most Martin Committees are way overpriced due to demand from players who want one even if their playing capabilities don't warrant such an investment...
I don't deny that there are wonderful instruments amongst those remaining with us; but it is a fact (as with all instruments) that there are some played-outs and duds amongst them and what's even more important, an instrument needs to be suited to a player's charactristics and typical repertoire. You would not play a Mozart Mass on a Committee, just the same as you would have your work cut out playing swing solos on a Selmer piccolo.
So, as with all instruments, only buy "into the dark" if you cannot really miss due to proven quality, known fittingness of instrument or good price.
I have several times bought "into the dark" because something seemed desirable at the time... with the result that afterwards, I either could not get to grips with the instrument, or it had some hidden defect, or it failed to fit a need I had. Result?
Neither of these instruments is with me now.
I'll explain:
As a relatively inexperienced players, I had a lot of recordings of music for the corno da caccia - and I had money to burn. So, when on a business trip to Leipzig, I casually wandered into Friedbert Syhre's workshdp because there was a beautiful silver-plated corno in the window, and bought it for cash (a whopping € 4,000). I practised on it once a week, perhaps, for about five years, never played a single gig with it, and then sold it to a guy who really could use it, for half the price.
A couple of years later, I found a Clemens Glier Kuhlohorn on e-bay; really wanted it as a rotary flugelhorn to complement my piston Courtois. Bid on it till the cows came home, got it, used it for about ten rehearsals and two gigs and then found that as a flugelhorn, it was unsatisfactory compared to my Courtois, and sold it on to a player in Vermont who can really use it in church music.

At one time, I was so completely kitted out that I virtually had a trumpet for every possible pitch (A, Bb, C, D, E - for Hummel Original [which I never played] - Eb, G). The only thing I lacked was a trumpet in F. So I, young fool that I was, ordered one from Vinceent Bach, silver plated. Took about six months to get to me; played beautifully; but then, again, I was lacking opportunities of using it. So after a year, I re-sold it at half price.
One more instance: I had a beautiful Besson Kanstul Bb/A picc that I really liked and which I sounded nice on. But I was dead set on having a Stomvi picc, due to the Maurice André connection, and sold the Besson Kanstul for a Stomvi Elite. Nice horn; but the valve block was built a bit lighter than the Besson, and it did not fit my hand so nicely which forced me to exert too much pressure on the valve block with the result that valve #1 regularly got stuck... something I had never experienced with the Besson I am using in this pic...

I'll continue with my success stories...
Found an oldish, almost worn-out Courtois Balanced Bb at Votruba's in Vienna for a price tag of € 300, had it refurbed for another € 150 and been playing it successfully in symphonic settings ever since all over Europe...
About a year later, in 2018, Votruba's called me to see a nice horn that just had come into their shop out of a trumpet player's estate... turned out to be a nicely preserved Olds Recording, for a mere € 450... has been my main big band axe ever since...

Hope you can make some sense out of my rambling!

@trickg Unfortunately, I don't play it as well. The case is hand-signed as well.

@Vulgano-Brother said in Which picc?:

The Selmer G trumpets are way better in tune than the Bb/A Selmers. Meinl/Lauber makes an excellent Scherzer Bb/A knock off.

I agree with you about the Selmer G - that's why I sold all my piccs, including the Selmer, when I inherited that G from Maurice André... But I'm not into rotaries any more - I've sold off all of my rotaries just recently because I was not playing them enough to keep in shape. You know, a piston trumpet you can have lying about for a year or two, and you can put some oil in and it will work (if necessary, after a sharp blow to the valves. You can't do that with a rotary. My Ganter kept on seizing up if I did not play it at least twice a week, and each time involved a trip to Votruba's to get it going again (I'm no mechanical wizard to fix a rotary myself). So the Ganter went, and the Dowids Eb/D, and a Kuhlohorn by Glier.

At any rate, gone are the days when anything went through... I remember flying from Ireland to London Heathrow using an expired German target shooting club membership card as ID...

I can confirm that that iceberg is huge, and in pristine condition. Steve Smith has been hoarding treasures for years... now it is for you all to say "Open Sesame" and get at the treasure...

Several reasons come to mind...

1. Many professionals have been contracted as Signature Artists - they get paid (sometimes huge sums) to play on a certain manufacturer's horns, and endorse them. Their personal horns are then crafted to whatever specification they prefer. So it may well be that some professionals are playing Committee clones - we just don't know.
2. Many professionals in the past were playing Committees - when they were still being manufactured and readily available Nowadays, full professionals - whose livelihood depends on being able to perform very full schedules - would probably shy away from using an instrument that could not, in case of accident, be readily replaced. There are myriad stories around of professionals' horns getting lost in transit or being mislaid on airports, or being severely damaged by luggage staff (remember Dave Carroll of Sons of Maxwell fame whose valuable guitar was damaged by United Airlines staff, inspiring him to write an appropriate song...
   and several sequels...

@SSmith1226 Steve, you're too modest and underrating your own ability. I've sat beside you for many hours of rehearsing and performing, and you were the most reliable second trumpet I've ever had when playing in an orchestra with only two trumpet players in a sea of - let's be neutral and say, Others.

Just had a very disappointing experience with ACB. I had already put a John Packer picc (shop demo, at half price) into my online cart and had by e-mail declared that I wanted it and was just discussing with them how to handle the transfer of funds from Europe when they sent me an e-mail saying, sorry, the horn was just sold at a trade show, and would I want their beginners' picc, the ACB Doubler, instead?

Trent Austin, I respect you as a musician; but as a business man, this kind of going back on a sale already agreed upon would get you banned in Europe.