I had another rehearsal last night for a July 4 patriotic concert. About a 2 hour rehearsal, and I was a little spent by the end, having barely touched a horn for the last 14 months. I used my new Curry 3C on the old Bach 184 cornet again, and am really happy with its playability and my endurance on it. If I’d thought about it, I would have had Mark make me one years ago.
What about that spray made to disinfect mouthpieces? Label says 70% propanol, plus water and flavoring. Is it harmful? Effective?
@J-Jericho said in Doubling on tenor sax:
@Dale-Proctor The mouthpieces in your Bach Mercedes case look fairly deep... or is that an illusion?
They are what I’d call a medium C-cup depth. The gold one (top one) is a Connstellation 9C-W, and the silver one is a Curry 3C.
@Mike-Ansberry said in Vintage Horn Eye Candy:
@Dale-Proctor You are the famous Bob Pixley! Wow, I am impressed.
No, I just used his name instead of my own on this site for a while.
"Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away ." - Sir Thomas Beecham
@rowuk said in $800 Box of Mouthpieces!:
We are creatures of habit and I firmly believe that THIS is the #1 reason for mouthpiece safaris not working.
I believe that we need MONTHS to determine if a mouthpiece is good for us. The process is called acclimation. We must practice, adapt and perform to cover our use cases.My personal practice is, and has always been to cold turkey switch and stick with the "new" for at least 2 months - no switching back to the original. After that two - three months, I retry the original and note the differences. My last switch was in 1996.
I can generally tell within a day or two (sometimes much sooner) if I don’t like a mouthpiece, but yes, it takes quite a bit of playing one in different situations to tell if I REALLY like one. I’ve played a 3C on trumpet since the early 1980s, but I did switch from a Bach 3C to a Curry 3C. about 6 years ago, and haven’t looked back. It was familiar to me, so the transition was easy, and it was so much better! I generally play a Curry 3BBC. on cornet, too. I accumulated all those cornet mouthpieces over the years partly due to curiosity, and partly due to keeping some of the mouthpieces that came with horns I bought and sold.
Here’s a picture of one on a 1960s model Holton cornet.
As OSE said, you can make a functioning one from a long stainless steel screw from the hardware store. I did that for an old Reynolds cornet that was missing one.
Well, of course air is needed to play the trumpet. I see this as a fairly useless discussion, since the video was concerned with how much air was needed for a person to play the trumpet, not IF any air was needed. Let’s see someone play a trumpet without blowing any air through their lips. Something has to initiate a sound wave, and for a human to “play” the trumpet, air is the initiator.
@grune said in Vintage Bach Club:
vintage
noun
1: a season's yield of wine from a vineyard
2: the oldness of wineseach year is a vintage. how is this related to trumpets?
You left one out...
3 a : a period of origin or manufacture : a piano of 1845 vintage
__b : length of existence : AGE
@Dr-GO
You’re too late - I’ve already autographed at least 3 or 4 CDs...lol
@tptguy said in 40's Holton info:
What I have to work with, note, there where 2 gaskets, they are leather, don't know if they are originally suplied on this..one disingrated in the initial bath. Also I assume I reinstall one nut in the wrong place, but it was to keep the screw tight.
That reminds me a little of the old Conn stop rod setup. One bumper to cushion the throw and another to cushion the return.
I have a ca. 1870 Henry Lehnert cornet, and looked 15+ years for a Lehnert small shank mouthpiece to fit it. I finally found one about 10 months ago, and the old horn plays great with it.
About a week ago another one (gold plated) turned up on eBay, and although I didn’t need it, I bought it anyway. It’s slightly different from the silver one I previously found, about 2 mm longer, a slightly smaller throat, and the cup feels slightly wider. Anyway, now I have two!…lol
Thanks, George. Yep, I’m a pretty good sight reader, and you nailed it - if it’s printed out, I can make a good stab at playing it, but music with nothing but chord changes written are beyond my ability. When a solo like that crops up, all I can do is some basic ornamentation of the main theme of the song. Playing by ear is a definite no-go, too. I suppose it has to do with all my past “legit” musical experience and never really being involved much with any kind of improv (and I don’t think my brain is wired correctly to do it, anyway). I’m just happy to do what I can and hopefully contribute to music making wherever I’m playing. It’s been an interesting ride so far...
Man, that’s a beauty! I bet it plays like a dream, too - congratulations. 
Welcome! Our local concert band sponsors a New Horizons program, and a few folks have already “graduated” to the concert band. Glad to hear you’re playing again and hope you have fun with it.
Have any of you noticed that when you pick up a horn you haven’t played in months, it doesn’t seem to play as well as it should? Sort of unresponsive, maybe the tone is a little lacking, etc.? After you play it a bit, it seems to improve, and then if you keep playing another day or two, it seems back to “normal”? Does moisture have anything to do with it, or do you think it’s just a lack of recent familiarity with the horn (even though you’ve played it a lot in the past) that makes it seem sub par?
If you have a round, tapered punch, just stick it in the end and gently press it in (using hand pressure only) until the end is round again. Do not tap it with a hammer, or you will flare the end and it won’t fit correctly any more.
