I visit Votruba's shop in Vienna on a regular basis. Mostly to have small things on my horns seen to - waterkey corks and springs, a new bottle of oil, perhaps some new corks to a mute. But I always keep a weather eye open on their "pre-loved" window... and today I got lucky. They had a Courtois Bb, a Balanced model, silver plated, for a mere € 300. True, about one third of the plating has been played away; but there are no dings or holes, no red rot, and the valves go plop! and move as they should. A narrow kranz on the bell, very like a Selmer K-Mod. Serial no. 10xxx. Does anyone here know more?
Posts made by barliman2001
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Courtois Balanced Model...
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RE: Elmer Churampi
Before this post, I had never heard of Elmer Churampi; but now, I consider him the legitimate heir of Maurice André. Don't misunderstand me - there are many excellent players out there, each and every one with their own personal style and area of excellence. I admire every single one of them, be it Tine Thing Helseth, Alison Balsom, Hakan Hardenberger, Guy Touvron, or Sergey Nakariakov, or... whoever. But no one after the sad demise of MA quite got that mixture of silky smoothness with technical brilliance and - from what I gather - a likeable personality. Elmer Churampi nails that. His performance of the Hummel is remarkabl near MA's style, yet is no mere copy. I raise my hat and a few celebratory glasses to the young guy!
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RE: A little humour
@SSmith1226 Steve, you're incorrigible. What about the time when you went into a hospital and posed as a surgeon?
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RE: Frustrated
@OldSchoolEuph It certainly can, my friend, but only if every member uses this forum in a civilized and orderly way. In the case of the deleted topic, there was very little fact and an enormous amount of defamation and abuse. And as there was indeed 90% abuse and only 10% content, it was easier to delete the whole topic.
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RE: Offending Topic Deleted
@administrator Deleting is a last option; but perhaps it might be a good thing to refer as to which topic was deleted - there is no means of knowing now what was deleted and why...
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RE: B&H receiver help
@tptguy Before you do anything drastic: What kind of mouthpiece are you using? Perhaps it's just the mp that does not suit the instrument. And which Bach Strad are you playing? Shepherd's Crook as well?
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RE: Best Off-brand Trumpets
As to "off-brand" horns - there are many, many good quality makers in Germany and Austria who are only known locally. Schagerl and Lechner, many have heard of. Dowids of Munich is already on the "not-so-well-known" list. Votruba of Vienna - a blank to many, even though they are at least on a par with Lechner. And in the tiny village of Künzing, in Bavaria, lives a man called Uli Pfreimbtner who really is on the forefront of research in trumpet design. He recently unveiled a trumpet and flugelhorn made entirely out of nickel silver (which makes these instruments virtually corrosion-free) with new rotary valves of his own design. Here's the link:
http://www.musikinstrumente-neusilber.de/Aktuelles.html
At the moment, that site is in German only - Uli is a bit slow in getting his site into English. -
RE: Best Off-brand Trumpets
@Dr-GO Here in Vienna, I am always eager to welcome any former TMers or TBers - as Sethoflagos, rowuk and SSmith1226 can witness.
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RE: Best Off-brand Trumpets
@L-A-Horn The Ganschhorn is $5k+ only if new. There are a spate of used, nearly new Ganschhorns out there at less than half the price. These once-loved Ganschhorns usually turn out to have some kind of problem - in many cases loose stays.
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RE: Best Off-brand Trumpets
@L-A-Horn Depends on what kind of bang you want. If it's just a metallic bang, you can buy any used Chinese junk TSO for ten bucks, throw it out of an upstairs window and wait for the bang...
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RE: A little humour
@SSmith1226
Kids at school comparing their Christmas presents.
Ed replies, a bit bored, "A football, a stone sling and an airgun. The usual." -
"Why, "the usual"?" his classmates ask.
"Well, my father's a glazier." -
RE: A little humour
Scottish gangsters were easily caught after a smash-and-grab raid.
Why?
They came back for the brick. -
RE: And who is the new moderator?
@neal085 By the way, I prefer poached. That way, the egg keeps its integrity while displaying a soft outside. And the inside is thoroughly yellow!
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RE: And who is the new moderator?
@Trumpetsplus You are welcome! The one thing I don't want is people who just don't care.
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RE: Yuck
My best buy ever was a Besson International Cornet which I watched being put into a garbage bin... pulled it out, asked the guy whether I could have it. He said, You're welcome to it, and I walked off. Had it restored for a mere 75 Deutschmarks (now approx. € 30) and have been playing it ever since. Last time someone offered to buy it I was tempted with three thousand dollars... and declined. You don't sell a good cornet.
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And who is the new moderator?
Suddenly, after a longish wait, I found "Global Moderator" beside my name... well, quite a few people here know about me from TM, but for all those who don't or who did not really care at the time, here's all about me. I don't have a fancy website - more or less because I'm busy updating my wife's website. But here's everything of interest about me:
I'm a 53-year-old Bavarian (well, German national, but I prefer my local tribe) living in Austria, near Vienna. Married to an opera singer (www.reginaschoerg.com). By trade, I am a historian.
My musical past consisted of children's choir, then the local church choir and finally, after studying voice with several renowned teachers, soloist with the Passau Cathedral Choir and the Dublin Guinness Choir. From age four, I played piano - did not really like it, but was good at it.
Until I accidentally put my hand through a glass door and cut a nerve. Fortunately, the same year I had won my first trumpet in a raffle... went on to Kinneil Band in Scotland (current British National Champions!), then back to Germany. Seven years in Ireland, playing with a number of brass bands and the Greystones Symphony, eventually conducting this orchestra. Since then, Principal Trumpet of the one and only Vienna Klezmer Orchestra (www.klezmerorchester.at) and webmaster for Munich-based Markus Fluhr Big Band (www.bbmf.de).
So far, I have performed on trumpet in twelve different countries and a total of 97 orchestras or bands (usually as a sub). I have been known to pack the car at a moment's notice and drive several days just for one interesting gig...
My finest moment in history? When I walked into a Vienna coffee house and they had a clarinet converted into a table lamp!Feel free to contact me - I'm sure to answer.
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RE: A little humour
What did the trumpet player want who continued to practice from 12 midnight to 4 am every night? -
A cheap price for the house next door!