Posts made by Dale Proctor

I have a couple…a 1969 L-12 flugelhorn with a GR/Melk leadpipe and a 1977 A-11E Eb/D trumpet.

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.

@Newell-Post said in Odd Mouthpice:

Well, according to my trusty micrometer, it mics out at 0.419" at the receiver and 0.363" at the tip, which doesn't match any of the dimensions Dale kindly provided. It's probably something made for some antiquated brand of mellophone that doesn't exist any more.

I’d say you truly have an odd mouthpiece, then…

@Newell-Post
According to the chart, the end of the alto horn shank is larger than a trumpet shank, and you previously said the mystery mouthpiece shank is smaller than a trumpet shank.

My guess is that it’s a mellophone mouthpiece. Although the Bach cup diameter measurements don’t agree with yours, the Bach literature indicates the 7 mellophone mouthpiece cup diameter is 2.5 mm wider than the Bach 3C cornet mouthpiece.

@Bb-Brass said in $800 Box of Mouthpieces!:

I like the plastic box you use. Did you upcycle something? Looks like an organizer for nuts and bolts.

I bought a 2-pack of them in the craft area of the local Wal-Mart. Perfect size for trumpet and cornet mouthpieces, but I haven’t seen any there in a couple years.

Bach flugelhorn mouthpieces do have a slightly smaller shank than a Yamaha, but the size would typically be marked 7FL. Could it be a cornet mouthpiece? A Bach 7 cornet piece would have a really deep cup.

Do you store the horns at any angle that would cause the valve oil to run toward the stems?

@ROWUK said in Student trumpet:

@Trumpetb, I report my first hand experience. I did not say that the importer dictated price. I said that the manufacturers have a catalog of options and that the importer can put instruments together from junk to great. The assumption that there must be a moral obligation in commerce is simply naive on your part. That is why there are laws to protect the end customer…

There’s a similar perception about Lucas electronics produced in England years ago for the automotive and motorcycle industry. The popular joke was “Lucas, prince of darkness”, because they were notoriously unreliable. However, the electronics were built to the price point required by the companies using them in their products. Lucas also built electronics for the aircraft industry, and had a reputation for high quality with those, because they were built to a much higher standard and price point. So, Lucas built products that were “just good enough” and products that were world class at the same time. The various markets dictated the quality level the factory produced.

Thanks for your concern. It sits on a shelf in the spare bedroom, and I’m not overly concerned about any health hazards or deterioration of the bugle itself. It’s probably 80 years old and still looks fine, I don’t handle it, and it will probably still be on the shelf for my daughter to dispose of when I’m gone…

Typically when a trumpet is new, it’s best to oil the valves frequently because of the tighter fit in the bore, and wiping them down before re-oiling is a good idea, too. After they wear in a bit, I don’t think they will need oiling quite as much, but oiling a little too much is better than not enough.

As for the “before and after” comment, if you oil them after you play, that would seem to take care of the before when you pick it up again. Most oil evaporates a bit over time, but if you play every day, I wouldn’t think it would need oiling again if you oiled them after playing just the day before.

Still playing the Mercedes, and tired of the awkward 3rd slide ring assembly. I took the horn to Southeastern Musical Services and asked them to replace it with a fixed ring I had bought on eBay. About a week later I picked it up - old adjustable ring assembly removed, new ring soldered on, slide polished and relacquered, all for $50.

Years ago, I received a frantic call from a choir director asking if I could fill in on 2nd part for a big, multi-performance Christmas extravaganza that was at its mid point. The 2nd trumpet had a meltdown the night before and quit. I said yes, and showed up the next day and sight read the book, which luckily wasn’t too complicated. I played 2 more performances after that, and received the same stipend as those who played the entire run of the show.

@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.

@barliman2001

Here are a few of my finds over the years:

1977 Bach Stradivarius at a junk store for $150. Just needed polishing.

1983 Bach Stradivarius C trumpet, almost new trade-in at a music store, $500.

1890 Besson (London) A/Bb/C cornet on eBay, $65. I did have to pay a shop $50 to unstick everything.

1976 Bach Mercedes on eBay (my most recent find), $175. It plays as well as my Strad, and BTW, it’s not a Mercedes II.

@Richard-III said in Old vintage maintenance.Conn:

In 60 years of playing, I've never seen red rot. Some of my horns are well over a hundred years old. I don't swab or put oil down the lead pipe. I rarely give my horns a bath. If they get gunky, I'll then do the bath thing.

So that brings up a question, how common really is it for those of you that have had the problem?

I’ve never owned an instrument that developed red rot, and I’ve played a couple of them for 40 years now, and a third one for 20 years. And, I am pretty lax about cleaning them as often as I should. Maybe the brass used was resistant to it, but I suspect a large part of the red rot problem is just a high level of acidity in the owner’s saliva, with a lack of horn cleanliness just being a contributing factor. We’ve all seen people whose hands quickly eat through the exterior finish on a trumpet and then attack the brass underneath, while other people don’t have that problem. I’d guess it’s the same thing with saliva - some peoples’ saliva corrodes brass, and others’ saliva doesn’t.

I own a couple instruments that do have red rot, but they already had it when I bought them. The rot is an aesthetic blemish right now, but I’ll probably be 6 feet under before there are actually any holes in the leadpipes.

Those old Conn trumpets have a sleeve over the leadpipe, so you’ll never see red rot on the outside of one. The only way to see it is by pulling the tuning slide out and looking inside the leadpipe for hard, crusty spots that are slightly elevated.

Jack should have told Merv that he would play Cottontail if Faddis would sing Conjunction Junction…lol