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?
Best posts made by Dale Proctor
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Dry instrument vs Wet instrument
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RE: Vintage Horn Eye Candy
I would for the right price. It also has a D slide, and actually plays better in D than in Eb.
I suppose I should own up to previously being known as Bob Pixley on this site...
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RE: Olds Ambassador Eb Trumpet
No, I still have it. I’ve flirted a few times with selling it, but no takers…
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RE: Valve Alignment Tool
@Kehaulani
If I remember correctly (it’s been a year or two since I did it), I noticed more of a difference in response than anything else. I left it that way for a few weeks and never warmed up to the change. I did the alignment on 4 or 5 instruments - one was perfect the way it was so I didn’t change anything, one or two seemed to play better, and one or two played worse to me. -
RE: Dry instrument vs Wet instrument
@stumac said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:
This morning I played my1931 King Silver Tone trumpet for the first time in over 12months, the valves were free and smooth, I did not oil them (shame) and found as Dale the tone was dull and lifeless, after about 10 minutes of playing the tone was much improved and sounded more like me. I will try it again tomorrow after playing my usual horns.
I have not noticed this on any of my other horns that get played on a regular basis.
Regards,Stuart.
Thanks for the confirmation, Stuart.
@ROWUK said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:
Moisture! The speed of sound in moist air is different than in dry and in the microcosmos of the trumpet, that is a big deal. Intonation and targets change.
Granted, if one has minimal chops, other issues may mask the effect.
A „moist“ instrument is different than just running water through it first (although that does help some).This is such a fundamental thing for me that I will not risk playing a gig on a dry trumpet (even although it is only dry for the first 10 minutes or so). When testing trumpets, the first 10 minutes do not count.
Thank you for the info and confirmation, sir!
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RE: Vintage Horn Eye Candy
@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.
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RE: Olds Ambassador Eb Trumpet
@administrator said in Olds Ambassador Eb Trumpet:
What a strange instrument. I would be curious to see how such a thing plays. If it's anything like my Super Recording...
I can state with certainty that it doesn’t even play as well as a Bb Olds Ambassador…lol
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RE: Valve Alignment Tool
@tmd
Yeah, my homegrown valve alignments weren’t PVA, in the sense that I didn’t use rubber “felts”. I just used an assortment of regular felts to do mine. I wasn’t worried about any long term felt compression - I could tell right away if I liked the result, and kept the old felts in the correct order in case I needed to undo the new alignment. -
RE: Horn Collection
I kept the Olds flugelhorn and Eb/D trumpet, the 3 Bachs (Bb, C, and cornet), the Conn 6B trumpet, and the 150 year old Henry Lehnert cornet. In addition to those, I now have an 1890 English Besson A/Bb/C cornet and a 1962 Conn 9A Victor cornet. I suppose that makes 9 cornets & trumpets total, plus the 3 bugles. Two of the bugles are just bookcase ornaments in the den, though - the Kanstul is the only one I ever play, and that’s just for the occasional sounding of Taps.
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RE: Vintage Bach Club
@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 -
RE: Trumpet Board Remote Performance
@GeorgeB said in Trumpet Board Remote Performance:
@Dale-Proctor
Quite a feat, Dale. You have my deep, deep respect.Thank you, George, for the kind remarks. It really wasn’t that difficult a thing to do, though. The music, while interesting, wasn’t that difficult to play once we were familiar with it. As I said before, the piece we played at the specified breakneck speed, with a relentless click track, was somewhat of a challenge and as I told a few others, you have to get tunnel vision on the chart and pay attention to nothing but the click track. There were no retards, holds, or anything else in that piece to watch the conductor for, so it was pedal to the metal.
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Curry Mouthpieces
Is anyone here a Curry mouthpiece fan? I currently have 4 that I use, and sold 3 in the past that I didn’t care for. Left to right - 3B., 3C., 3M., and 3BBC.
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RE: Horn Collection
@neal085 said in Horn Collection:
For our edification, can you identify each of them?
Ok, to the best of my recollection:
Top to bottom first column - Kanstul Bb field trumpet, circa 2000, U.S. Regulation field trumpet, Indian copy of a British duty bugle, circa late 1970s, Olds L-12 flugelhorn, early 1970s.
Second column - 1976 Bach Strad Bb ML 43 trumpet, 1982 Bach Strad C ML 239 trumpet, 1960 Conn 6B Victor Bb trumpet, 1925 Conn 22B Bb/A trumpet, early 1970s Olds Ambassador Eb/D trumpet.
Third column - 1993 Bach Strad L 184G Bb cornet, 1969 Conn 76A Connquest Bb cornet, 1965 Conn 5A Victor Bb cornet, circa 1870 Henry Lehnert SARV Bb cornet.
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Henry Lehnert Cornet Mouthpiece
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
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RE: Here's something I recorded
Quite an undertaking! I probably don’t have the patience to try something like that, but good job on it. As an aside, when I played in a brass quintet, we decided to add a percussionist after a few years. What a difference! He was a percussionist for the local symphony and could make up the percussion parts to fit anything from medieval music to Dixieland. It really added to our performances and set us apart from the other quintets in the city.
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RE: Curry Mouthpieces
@thirkieldh said in Curry Mouthpieces:
I cannot figure out their specs. I am used to the Bach nomenclature such as 3C, 5C, 7C, etc. When I tried to contact them, I got no response.
The ones I have are from his Standard Series, which use the Bach sizing numbers. Read over this...
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RE: A little humour
@bigdub said in A little humour:
I always wanted to express my feel for these civil servants we owe so much respect to....”THE BUILDING INSPECTOR”
By me....until you have to deal with one who’s a little Napoleon. I knew the codes better than he did, but it took a call to his supervisor to get him to see it my way.
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RE: This is in the mail
Man, that’s a beauty! I bet it plays like a dream, too - congratulations.
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RE: Here's something I recorded
@georgeb said in Here's something I recorded:
@dale-proctor
I've done some playing with a brass quintet. Unfortunately it broke up due to Covid. If we start up again I will suggest adding a percussionist. Sounds interesting.The only drawback is the gig money becomes a 6-way split…lol
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RE: Henry Lehnert Mouthpiece
@richard-iii said in Henry Lehnert Mouthpiece:
I missed it if you said, what do you think the diameter is?
I have an unmarked cornet mouthpiece. Construction looks like late 1800's. Perfectly fits my 1903 Conn Wonder. Sounds great. Small diameter makes it more of a challenge. Working to get acclimated. Have you had any issues with yours and playability?
I took out the calipers this morning and measured it as best I could. All dimensions are in millimeters, most rounded off insignificantly, and the 13mm dimension is the cup depth. Comparatively, the cup width is somewhere in the Bach 7 to 9 range, throat is about a 22.
To answer your second question, my initial playing impression was that it suits the cornet very well and seems to be very playable for me, even though I normally play slightly wider cups (Curry 3C. on trumpet). I’m currently preparing for some slightly difficult Easter playing, so I’m not messing with the new cornet mouthpiece until after Easter.