Posts made by barliman2001

@tjcombo Why should it?

Mike, all the best for a speedy recovery!

I've just traded in my Olds Studio for a Recording. When I got the Studio about four years ago, it was a true closet queen, still in the original cellophane wrapping... I liked it very much, being an unusually responsive horn; but when I happened upon a 1954 Recording, that one blew me away. The Studio now is with VOTRUBA in Vienna, to be seen here: https://www.votruba-musik.at/musikinstrumente/gebrauchte-instrumente/trompeten-fluegelhoerner
99.5% original lacquer, all valves like new, no dings or dents. Original case, original Olds #3 mouthpiece, original paperwork including factory check card.

Two trumpet players, in a nicely lit-up state, talking about their fears...
Player 1: "I've got that constant fear of death."
Player 2: "Don't we all; what's so special about yours?"
Player 1: "That my wife, after I'm gone, will sell all the trumpets for the price I told her I paid..."

@dale-proctor Niiiice... and don't worry about the lacquer... that's something Bach have never mastered...

@ssmith1226
A young electrician dies suddenly and ends up at the Pearly Gates before St. Peter. He is somewhat annoyed and vents his anger: "To die at 35 is no joke, you old Saint!" - "35? By the number of hours you had yourself paid for you're 98!"

@bigdub Good on you to give away musical ability that way. A few months back, I donated three instruments and a heap of mouthpieces to a school in Bulgaria in a disadvantaged district... only last week, they sent me pics and videos of their founding a band at the school and their first performance at the End of School Year ceremony... with an official thank you document and an icon blessed by their local Orthodox priest... I can't tell you the joy I had from that. May you be similarly blessed.

@dr-go Interestingly enough, I somehow cannot connect with modern or new horns. I've played two Monettes, several Schilkes, tons of Bach and B&S, a couple of Yammies, three Yammies, two Inderbinens; at one time, I owned a full set of Stomvi Elites (Bb, C, Eb/D, Picc); I had Gerd Dowids of Munich build me a custom Bb, and I once had two brand-new Votrubas. ut all of these have gone on. What I kept, is in my list below...

Ok, had a longish - four and a half hours - Big Band rehearsal (www.bbmf.de) yesterday evening. Had the Recording with me for the first time.
What an experience! A horn that can sing almost like a flugel, whisper, and strip paint at the slightest provocation in that direction. Just what I wanted... only one horn has ever done that to me, and that was another Balanced model - a 1950s Courtois. But that one is in such bad shape, with silver plating almost completely gone, huge areas of red rot and the brass worn paper-thin in patches that Votruba did not want to try a restoration for fear of the horn crumbling in their hands... the Recording, being almost 70 years old now, is good for another 70.

@tjcombo Two English gentlemen are sitting beside a river, fishing. Suddenly, one rod twitches, and the relevant gentleman pulls a beautiful mermaid from the waters. He regards her for a long time, then throws her back into the river.
Some time later, his companion asks, "Why?"
The answer? "How?"

@tjveloce Just looked at yours. Nice, but mine is an even better bargain. Rose brass, and no wear signs whatsoever on the valves... comes from a collector who rarely played it... he preferred his Keilwerth Tone King (don't know why!). Previous owner now down with dementia, and his carers had to sell the collection to pay for the care home. The whole collection went to Votruba's who did a full service on every horn, but somehow did not recognize the Recording for what it was (Olds horns being very rare occurrences in Austria). I told them what kind of a gem they were selling - after I had paid their price and got the horn in my hands... btw, I did not pay their asking price of 1100 Euros, but exchanged an UMI Benge 7 for it...

@tjveloce Too late, my friend... Already got one...

@ssmith1226 We cut short the holiday by 12 hours... I admit... and it was her who needed to be back at a rehearsal...

FINALLY... after more or less seven years of searching, I found one. A 1954 Olds Recording, in superb state; Votruba of Vienna, being rotary specialists, did not even know the collectability of this horn and let it go for a mere 800 Euros... with 99% original lacquer, no red rot, clean, nicely popping valves... a large bore with a rose brass bell... it went onto their website on a Friday afternoon, and I cut short a holiday in Italy to be in their shop on Saturday morning... happy!
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yes, will post pics!

Selling my stepson's Benge 7 which he hasn't played for six years (I have, but it just isn't my horn). See https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/533895751132122/?media_id=0&ref=share_attachment

Not quite blasphemous, but definitely out of the ordinary...

I've had my fill of Cs... I started off with a Bach C/Bb combo which was out of tune as a Bb and even more out of tune as a C. It only started working when I added an A and even an Ab slide... Fortunately, a friend of mine borrowed it for a theatre job and managed to get it stolen. The insurance paid up ande that pqaid for a Bach rotary C. Nice horn, but not universally useable and rather a hard blow. I had a couple of Besson Mehas afterwards - the Bbs are good, on the verge of fantastic, but the Cs are quirky and extremely mouthpiece sensitive. I then went for a Couesnon C/Bb combo: Easy for the C, with a nice sound, but almost a peashooter on Bb. Anything below the stave is sharp. Another C rotary crossed my path when a friend asked me to advise him as to a rotary C with all the trimmings, NOT a Lechner (he had a colleague who always flaunted his gold-plated Lechner), with a budget of $ 6,000. I had Votruba of Vienna build him a gold-plated, three Vienna keys rotary C, with four different leadpipes - the works - and supervised the build for him. It turned out "the best C I ever played, and it easily outplays the Lechner", at a final price tag of $ 5,400 including shipping. resulting in the other guy selling his Lechner and ordering another Votruba... Another friend of mine has an Inderbinen Alpha C - costly, but not for me. and recently I came upon a Gaudet C. Thiw was the "second choice" brand of Antoine Courtois, horns that had some kind of optical glitch like missed bits of lacquering or an unaligned water key - things like that. The valve block is correctly stamped "Courtois". And that has been m go-to C for the last five years. Nice, mellow tone, yet caqn strip paint if you want to do so; perfectly in tune; and an easy, precise blow. One of the few horns that will only come on the market if you shoot me first - But I've always been a fast draw...

When I was still playing the piano - my mother's instrument of choice, and before I luckily cut one of the nerves in my right hand and was unable to continue - this marking was explained to me as portato, meaning "staccato, but not quite so short", separate notes, but not hacked into the keyboard quite so hard as in staccato proper.

Specialised opticians who themselves are musicians: allegro optical in the UK www.allegrooptical.co.uk The Chief Boss is a conductor and trombonist with a history in the Royal Trumpets, the Real Boss (his wife) is a brass band cornetist and pianist, and only recently got the UK Optician of the Year award, and all their employees are musicians. I got specialized music glasses from them which are seven-fold multifocals - great not only for music, but for everything else.

A Mom goes into a toy shop to pick a doll for her daughter. Sees two identical looking Barbies, one at $ 15 and one at $ 299. She asks the salesperson, "Why?" - "well, Ma'am, the cheap one is "single Barbie" and the other is "divorced Barbie"." - "Ah-hem?" - ""Divorced Barbie" comes with Ken's house, Ken's automobile and Ken's boat."