@administrator It's relatively easy on a piston picc because you can use your left hand index finger for 4 (as Maurice André did). Difficult to do on early rotary piccs, but some now can be ordered with a left hand button or #4.
Or just change to a high-G and have done with it.
@georgeb Weddings? Coming home at 2 am? That's a tame wedding... here in Austria, a wedding starts at 6am, with a rousing fanfare played in the street in front of the groom's house; then there's the morning snack and schnaps; then the registry office wedding, afterwards the church wedding, then the reception. After that, the dance band takes over from the oompah band until midnight, when the newlyweds retire; and the dance band continues, because next morning, the wedding guests have to wake up the honeymooners... so if you are lucky enough to be in the dance band and sub in the oompah outfitm you are getting up at four am, play for more or less 24 hours flat out, and are back at home around 10am... tired, not wired!
@j-jericho If it's factory new, there should be at least three different leadpipes included. Usually, the buyer visits the factory and chooses which leadpipes they want...
@Kehaulani It's a dance band in a big band formation.
@administrator Thanks.
I've already conducted my first lesson in hospital - one of the nurses inherited a trumpet from an uncle (a rather decrepit but still functional Cerveny) and now wants to learn. Thanks to the good advice in Ivan Hunter's booklet Trumpeting 4 Fun (which, by the way, I am translating into German just now for publication sometime after Easter) she played her first note after only three minutes...
@tornado1957 If you don't play, why don't you start?
If the Blackburn is your dream horn, by all means get it. But be prepared - your dream horn may become a nightmare.
I'll just tell a few tales from my experience.
Many years back, a corno da caccia was my dream horn. And then, during a historians' conference in Leipzig, I stumbled upon Friedbert Syhre's workshop, and he had one just finished and ready for sale. Silver plated, with gold accents. I talked to my bank manager on the phone for about three hours, and bought it five minutes before the shop closed for the weekend, for something like $ 3,500. I had found my dream horn!
And then I slowly realized I would not be able to use it much. I was not good enough at that time to play the original music written for the corno da caccia, and there were literally no chances at all to use it in orchestra. I played it once or twice in local church orchestras, doubling for French horn. But for more than nine years, it lived a very quiet, secluded life in its case.
Until someone really needed one to replace one stolen during a rehearsal, and I sold it on for less than $ 1,000, just to have it played.
Then, for many years, a Scherzer G picc was my dream horn. I saved all I could for about five years to be able to get a new one, finally bought one; nice horn, loved the sound... found an orchestra that wanted me as a soloist for the Torelli concert and as an orchestral principal trumpet for the Haendelujah (me with the Scherzer) 
, and I practised like mad, only to overdo things and lapse into pneumonia two weeks before the planned concert... had to take time off to recuperate, by which time the concert had been played by a sub. I used it for some more time, sparingly, until one day, after a playing break of about two weeks, I took it out of its case and the valves were frozen and I could not do anything with them, had to get them repaired and had that reoccur several times. And when Maurice André's will left me a Selmer high-G and I found that easier to play, it went its way to a new owner.
Two or three years after getting the Scherzer, I had acquired a Besson Kanstul 920 picc. Wonderful instrument, and they tell me I sounded really good on it. No problems - except that I had set my mind on a Stomvi. So I sold the Besson in part-exchange. The Stomvi was nice, no doubt about it; but somehow, it was not the instrument for me. I needed much more lip pressure than with the BessonK, put too much hand pressure on the valve cluster and thus got the valves to stick... !
Pic shows me with the BessonK.
I can tell stories like this about many of my dream horns. All of the horns I play now are horns that happened upon me somehow, without me really planning to get them, like my Courtois 154R flugel which I acquired at a trade fair when the Courtois people had a few instruments left over which they did not want to take back with them; so my advice is, don't search for a specific horn, but look around for anything that drifts your way; try, try and try again, and at some time, your dream horn will find you.
Well, there are still a few good personal touch music stores around in Europe. Vienna has Votruba's, which is an old-established family business; Salzburg has the "Brasswerkstatt". In Munich, age-old competitors Hieber and Lindberg amalgamated into a single company, but their services have improved. And smallish family stores are spreading all over, selling ecological and local produce. All is not lost.
@dr-go Only just this thread which is highly interesting to me, seeing that I'm to be released from hospital tomorrow after two weeks of treatment for pneumonia... but as regards the tin woodwinds, I think that their higher mortality rate is just due to sax and violins...
Just happened onto this clip... Maurice André with a very different repertoire!
@tptguy The Besson International cornet models were the first instruments Besson made after the change in the Brass Band world from High Pitch to Low Pitch (i.e. normal concert pitch). They followed the dual pitch Imperial models and were the direct predecessors of the Round Stamp Sovereigns. At the time, they were Besson's (or B&Hs) top of the line. Even today, Internationals are sought after instruments, and some first-class players in the brass band world still stick to them despite Sovereigns and Prestiges. And I know why... in 1990, I fished one out of a Scottish band's bin (put there after what they thought was irreparable damage - the connection between first and second valve had a big hole from being gripped there too often), had it restored by Hermann Ganter, and I've been playing it ever since. Tried to find a more modern one to have a back-up in case the International had a fatal accident, spent a fortune on Yammies, Stomvi, new Sovereign and such... and finally, after re-selling all of those, ended up with a second International (which is now in the market because I found a 1955 Courtois at an Ukrainian dealer). A friend of mine played in the same brass band all his life, for an incredible 71 years, 55 of them as Principal Cornet. Every ten years or so, the band bought a new set of instruments and handed him a new and shiny Sovereign, which he duly held when the appropriate pictures were taken. And at the next rehearsal or gig, he played the old International... his best friend and former band mate, Phil McCann, did the same...
@dr-go Regular spitballs are stored in an alcoholic cleaning liquid that can do the job as well, if you use three or four new spitballs each time.
I don't think his playing in this rather well-hidden French TV programme is robotic...
From 23:01 onwards, he is playing the G picc he left to me at his passing...
My experiences with Bach instruments... somehow, fate was very unkind to me in that respect...
My first ever "proper" trumpet was a Bach Strad 239 C, with additional slides for Bb, which I - as a total beginner - used as my primary horn. The C configuration was something I never used, and was the downfall of this instrument. My teacher at the time was a rotaries-only player, and then had to jump in at some musical production requiring a piston C. So he asked if he could borrow it for one day. No problem, except...
the horn was stolen from his greenroom in the theatre.
He was admirably insured, and I received the value of both a Bb and a C. I had caught the rotary bug and got myself a Ganter G5 and a Bach rotary C. That was a wonderful instrument, but still a bit too "pro" for me at the time. But - I did use it for a time, usually for Mozart masses.
Until my house in Ireland was burgled and that rotary Bach C was stolen.
My next Bach was a 37. Had it for about three months, and then, it was stolen from me in a tram... I was sitting next to the exit, with the case right beside me, and at a stop, a guy exiting the tram just grabbed the case and jumped off.
And my last attempt at Bach was a high-F that I wanted just to have the alphabet complete. One of those whims one gets. Had it ordered specially, paid through the nose, waited an ungodly time for it - almost a year! - and then it ended up in a freight aircraft that crash-landed in Frankfurt and burst into flames. Got my money back after more than a year's haggling with insurance but I never even saw that horn.
Decided that Bach somehow was not for me. Never had another mishap with any of my other horns... All other horns of my collection were not taken in that Irish burglary... even though they were on display in an unlocked, glass-fronted cabinet... the Bach rotary was half-hidden in its case...
@Tobylou8 said in A little humour:
A woman who is 3 months pregnant falls into a coma. 6 months later she awakes and asks the doctor about her baby.
Doctor: You had twins, a boy an a girl, and they are both fine. Luckily, your brother named them for you!
Woman: Oh no, not my brother, he's an idiot! What did he name the girl?
Doctor: Denise.
Woman: Well, that isn't so bad. What did he name the boy?
Doctor: Denephew!
Imagine it would have been quintuplets.. one Denise and four Denemanies...
A guy has massive problems with bed-wetting at night. He's been through several courses of medication - no solution. Finally, he's sent to a psychotherapist. A few days later, he meets an old friend who is surprised to find his bed-wetting friend not despondent, but radiant. "Why are you looking so happy?" he asks. "It's because of that psychotherapist." the other one explains. - "It really worked?" - "No, but now I'm enjoying it!"
@rowuk Trumpet players have done a lot in Ukraine already... a friend of mine (professional flutist in Lviv opera, by choice second trumpet in the local fire brigade orchestra, lingerie model due to her exceptional... assets...) volunteered for the National Guard and on her first day of duty, destroyed a Russian APC... she unbuttoned her uniform to the belt, played Kalinka on her trumpet and minced her way to that APC... the crew opened all hatches to applaud her... and at that moment, she chucked in what in WWII would have been called a "geballte Ladung" - five hand grenades wired together...
After the explosion, she played the Ukrainian Anthem...
She plays drums as well:
I've found a few hints...
www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1344869
www.brasshistory.net/Lockie History.pdf
www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/metro-lockie-music-exchange-trumpet-246893226
www.robbstewart.com/strucel-alto-trumpet
http://wwwtemp.rogerbobo.com/instruments/f_trumpet.shtml
It's a start, anyhow.
