Posts made by Dale Proctor

This thread has officially jumped the shark…

@kehaulani said in Dry instrument vs Wet instrument:

Let's see. You don't play your horn for a year and now ~IT~ doesn't play as well as it used to. What am I missing?

The point of this thread wasn’t meant to refer to a horn playing differently when the player hadn’t played his only horn in a long time. The cause of that is pretty obvious…lol. It was meant to address the phenomenon I perceived when playing an extra horn that had been unplayed for a long time (weeks or months) and was dry as a bone inside.

YESSSSSS (8 letter minimum post length)

Many years ago, my experience with stretching valve springs was that a large percentage of the time, they compressed a bit crooked afterward and made noise scraping the inside of the valve casing. Lesson learned, and I’ve not stretched any more springs. A short spring is inherently stiffer than a longer spring, as long as all the spring’s other basic characteristics are the same, so stretching one and then preloading it by compressing it to fit it back onto the valve does pretty much nothing to make it stiffer.

@trumpetb said in Old Photo:

@Dale-Proctor

The middle trumpet has a very distinctive brace

Is that perhaps an early Besson

It’s an early 1970s King Tempo trumpet.

How about this one! My two brothers and I performed “Ring of Fire” at my brother’s (the one playing trumpet) daughter’s wedding reception in Tennessee a few years ago. It was a surprise to everyone there, as we were the only 3 who knew about it. While the wives were at a luncheon, we put it together in one of our hotel rooms about 4 hours before the wedding…lol

Frederick Fennell had just told us a funny joke right before we were to play at a band festival in Kentucky. That’s me on the far right.

Since we’re posting old photos, here’s one from early on in the Civil War band I played in for more than 20 years.

@georgeb said in Old Photo:

@dale-proctor

As for the picture, I must say, Dale, you look like a very distinguished gentleman indeed.
George

I was trying to appear so…lol. That was about 40 years ago, but I’m still playing!

@administrator said in Old Photo:

What's the trumpet?

It’s the less popular Bach Strad 239 C trumpet, ML bore. I still have it.

I just ran across an old, dusty photo of me, taken in the mid 1980s during my 3rd chair symphony orchestra career…lol

If the horn isn’t stopped up and it’s very difficult to play, your water key(s) may be leaking badly. Of course, if you haven’t touched a horn in 60 years, it’s probably you. Taking a break from playing for that long is like starting over.

@trumpetb

Thank you for the kind comments. Wrestling with that 150 year old cornet in a band for about 25 years gave me a strong appreciation for modern instruments, for sure! I’m the guy right behind the kneeling drummer on the right.

@trumpetb

The Bb Civil War era cornets I’ve played over the years tend to be pretty dull sounding, especially with a period mouthpiece. I suppose you could call it mellow, but it’s not the same “mellow” as a good modern cornet. So, yes, it was difficult for me to make mine sing, but I don’t think the 3rd slide design had much to do with it . As far as the fixed length 3rd slide goes, yes, certain notes required lipping, and not just the ones using the 3rd valve. The Henry Lehnert cornet I own, while one of the better cornets I’ve played from that era, still has intonation problems and requires a lot of lipping to play in tune. Especially troublesome is the bottom space F, which is extremely flat. Lipping it into tune results in a really thin sound. There’s no compensating with a slide for that problem, especially since the D and F in the staff are a little sharp.

Lipping notes is fairly easy, but with a mouthpiece and a trumpet that really center/lock-in the notes, you lose some fullness of tone when lipping notes with that setup. Jazz is jazz, but playing orchestral, brass band, and concert band music, I want a mouthpiece and horn that center well, and do use the 3rd (and sometimes 1st) slide intonation aids.

@trumpetb said in C. G. Conn Club:

If my eyes do not deceive me that would be the 22b New York Symphony early model with top sprung valves.

That is a peach and very desirable.

Yes, and I believe it was close to the end of Conn’s open top-sprung valve era. That trumpet played very well and was in almost perfect condition. I asked a reasonable price for it and the buyer was very happy with it.

Here’s a nice 1929 Conn 22B I used to own. Complete kit - only thing missing was the A stop rod.

@trumpetb said in C. G. Conn Club:

For all members of the Conn club who own and play instruments with Crysteel clickless valves a word of warning.

Beware of the cork on the top of the valve moving around and causing the valve to stick or hang.

The cork should be glued on to the top of the valve for trouble free valve operation.

I’ve had a couple old Conns with those valves and I detest them. It’s almost impossible to oil a valve and get it back in quickly, and that’s just one of my complaints…lol

@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

@tmd

No, I still have it. I’ve flirted a few times with selling it, but no takers…