Posts made by barliman2001

Welcome in the Club!

For the last few years, my main axe has been a Recording...
combined here with a Swiss Brand Turbo mouthpiece in 1 1/2 C size

Good flugelhorny sound, yes; but he is playing that Kuhlohorn with an inappropriate mouthpiece. They were intended - just as all rotary flugelhorns to this day - to be played with a trumpet mouthpiece. The original Kuhlohorn sound is something like a straight cornet with a proper cornet mouthpiece.

@administrator Indeed it is. The inventor, a pastor Kuhlo, wanted something more mellow in tone than the peashooter trumpets ubiquituous in his day, to better fit in with trombones and helicons (cornets were almost unheard-of in Germany at the time)

@Newell-Post It's the same as with my Garreis tenor trombone - how in all the world got it fitted with a very small and narrow trumpet mouthpiece before sale??

@administrator It's just an alto horn in French horn shape with a trumpet shank receiver and right-handed.

@administrator That is not an oddity - these things are still played in many European wind bands when they don't have French horn players...

Theory is a nice thing. With embouchure, I can only say - "what works, works." I've seen too many excellent players with weird to absurd embouchures...

@Vulgano-Brother You are perfectly right.

The main distinction of the Wagner tuba is that it is in effect a bass French horn. Therefore, it is usually played by French horn players who need to use the valves as with a French horn, i.e. their left hand. The shape roughly resembles a rotary tenor horn except for he fact that it is a mirrored tenor horn. So anything that is played right-handed is a standard rotary alto or tenor horn (tenor horns are by far more frequent, as the Eb alto parts in Continental wind bands tend to be played by Eb bass trumpets), and anything left-handed (apart from very rare tenor horns custom-built for left-handed players) therefore almost certainly is a Wagner tuba.

As I said - rotary tenor horn.

@administrator The item was sold before I could look at the ad; but IF I saw the right picture, it would be a straightforward rotary tenor horn. Wagner tubas have their valves oriented left-handed.

@Bb-Brass Arnold & Sons are also good clones of good Bach pieces... and they ave the additional advantage that they are readily available in Europe (whereas Blessings aren't).

Do you use proper valve oil, and not a creeping oil like WD-40?

Strange instruments seem to find me... my first trombone was inherited from a friend who departed this life some twenty years ago. Fifteen years later, his daughter called me and was rather embarrassed... they had only now for th first time since his demise, opened up her father's music room and inspected the contents... and his #1 trombone, a 609 B&H Sovereign, bore a hand-written label that it was to go to me... this horn...

First thing I did was to visit my friend's grave and play Amazing Grace... and then happened onto a newly-formed big band with lots of trumpets and no trombones...
A couple of years later I was in a Vienna antiques store looking for a comfy seat with ears when I noticed a trombone hanging from the ceiling. Asked the seller "how much" and got a gruff answer, "two hundred". Replied, "here's a hundred - ok?" - "ok". It's a 1940s Willi Garreis tenor with valve, originally built of a member of the Munich Philharmonic, with a "long water key" feature... quite nice, all original and still in quite good shape. Came with a 12C generic trumpet mouthpiece...

And a couple of years back, found a Besson International baritone horn on e-bay for a whopping € 65..., got it, played it in a couple of brass band gigs
and then thought something might be wrong with the horn... brought it to Ivan Hunter who diagnosed that the horn had at some time suffered a catastrophic accident, been dismantled and somehow reassembled wrong way round... too costly to repair back to original condition, so he got it to convert into art...
and then, on e-bay again, found a Weltklang euphonium "for collection". Went to England for it (had some other things to do there anyway) and heard a remarkable story... the euph was owned by a long-time brass bander who had been given an ultimatum by his wife to either lose the horn or lose the wife. Chose wrong, the poor fellow... and his wife insisted that she should get the use of any money he would make out of the sale, so he gave it away for free...

@TrumpetSweden A pro trumpet, albeit it will need a bit of Tender Loving Care. I am no knowledgeable about Yamahas, but I know that the higher the first number of the type number, the better. A 2 would indicate a beginners' instrument, a 4 a good intermediate, and a 6 a pro instrument (albeit at the lower end of the pro scale). But there are people around here who will know the back history of every screw on your trumpet.

@administrator It's always on the first full weekend of July - see you then.

@ROWUK That Round Stamp Sovereign has enough room to up to A=450... but many of these instrumentsare not consistent in themselves.

So far, my B&H Sovereign Round Stamp has done everything I ever asked it for... I know that these instruments are reviled for wonky intonation, but mine so far has behaved perfectly. And a friend of mine has just - after a long search! - found another one that ain't misbehavin', and has chosen it as his primary sop over the band's 4xxx Yammie...

@administrator You coming? Splendid. Contact Nick Jones directly, will you? He is in charge of reserving accommodation - always the same 3* hotel in the centre of town, and all gigs are within easy walking distance. Most important is a good music stand - you can borrow one of mine if necessary - and a good music light: Some of the gigs are open air at night.