Posts made by barliman2001

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."

@georgeb Specially for you:

Not trumpet, but French horn, but still unbelievable...

https://www.facebook.com/FelixKlieser/videos/515111756293870

Another clip from the same movie...

@georgeb It's a whole movie with that cast... I think the most expensive thing must have been the exemption fees (at that time, there were still fines in place if white and coloured musicians appeared in the same scene).

Just happened on this snippet... a truly all-star cast!

Vienna, Austria
Traffic lights beside the Opera.
A tourist in a hired car is so entranced by the sight he misses the green light.
A Viennese stops by, winds down the window and calls out, "Your colour didn't come up, did it?"

@joelf Welcome to TB! You've come to the right place to find company and advice. There are three No-Nos here:

1. No politics
2. No woodwinds
3. No shirking

And there are three Musts:

1. Must check in regularly (even if only once a month) because there's so much new stuff coming in
2. Must always be ready for a joke to be flung around
3. Must always keep track of the number of instruments you have (incurable n+1 syndrome)

Oh, and one final obligation:

HAVE FUN!

Thank you for all your helpful ideas. As it turns out, I'll have enough time toget the horns to a tech because the orchestra workshop I wanted to attend has been cancelled due to lack of participants. I'll close this thread.

@oldpete Unfortunately I can't use anything commercially sold in the US because the stuff is not available under those trade names here...

well, it's not only Corona that is to blame. Due to several medical issues, I haven't handled a trumpet for almost a year, and even was forbidden to buzz on a mouthpiece. However, for the last eight weeks, I have been allowed to start again - gently. Been quite successful, and now that I'be been allowed back on the horn, all my three go-to horns - the Buescher 264, the Olds Studio and my Benge 3 - have decided to seize up the main slides. Can't tune any of them any more.
Under normal circumstances, I would go to Votruba's in Vienna and have them fix the problem; but they have been closed due to COVID-19 and will remain closed for the general public for some more weeks. But I need at least one horn - preferably the Olds - working as I am due to attend an orchestra workshop in Italy fairly soon... so, what can I do myself to get at least one horn back into shape? (Yes, I know I have a few more horns; but the Courtois Balanced is not the type of horn to take for Tchaikovskij 6th Symphony, nor is my blue lacquer CONN International (i.e. Amati stencil) fun horn.

@kehaulani Still not comparable.

A famous psychiatrist unexpectedly passes away and is met at the pearly gates by an agitated St. Peter: "Doctor, sorry, we had to hasten your way here a bit - but we've got a very bad case of megalomania up here and need your help..." - "Megalomania? In Heaven?" - "Yes, Doctor... the Good Lord has started waving His arms about and is convinced he is a conductor...!"

@administrator Guessed correctly.

@georgeb Of course. You are quite right. But a bit of fun is never out of place...

Trumpet player to antiques dealer: "Can you really tell me the value of scales?" - "Of course. They are not rare - though rarer as they should be. They are usually not in perfect condition - and nobody really, really wants them. No value at all."