I am a total believer in putting it on your face and not thinking about it - let it work where it’s naturally meant to work. If we were all the same, than the same formula for placement or equipment would work for everyone. I have seen people destroy themselves by overthinking and changing for no real reason other than to see if “maybe it works better over here”, or trying to get some textbook formula of placement. I have seen students struggle because teachers told them their teeth had to align perfectly before they could play, so the student spent several minutes trying to line up teeth and embouchure every time they tried to play, and all sorts of other foolishness. Unless your embouchure is truly messed up and weird, it’s better not to mess with it, especially over the internet where no one can really see what you’re doing. A couple of lessons to make sure you’re not damaging yourself with a good teacher would be the way to go.

Here’s one I took for work - that’s our mascot, Primo! Head tech made him out of old mutes and woodwind mouthpieces and caps. I’ve started taking yearly holiday photos of him

Range building should be a long term goal, not a short term goal. Musical Directors can hope all they want, but you can only build what you can build, and we’re all different. Don’t hurt yourself to force out some unreliable pitches that aren’t part of your regular daily ability. Build what you can and find a musical way around the rest - your audience will thank you, and so will your chops!

I figured I would add to this discussion by posting a link to my shop’s page - I do fairly regular blog posts there, usually about the more interesting horns that cross my bench. I’ve had a few that belong in this category because even though they might be in perfect shape, they don’t function properly in a modern playing situation. This one is a prime example - perfect and beautiful but not a good player, probably why they didn’t make it for long! It sold easily to a collector, though.
https://www.brassandwinds.com/blogs/news/1921-conn-20a-flugelhorn

Funny how no one is shaming fat old men in speedos.......
Really, though - what’s the problem with old ladies with tattoos? I intend to be one eventually, and feel zero shame about it.

I thought you all might enjoy my latest bench post - I do certainly get to work on some fun stuff!
https://www.brassandwinds.com/blogs/news/what-s-on-my-bench-a-1904-conn-connquerer-cornet

It’s fine to say “buy the best”, but then we have many other arguments on what is the best and why. When you get into professional trumpets, you don’t necessarily get into better quality for every dollar spent. You do get to the point of buying one instrument over another because it suits you better. A prime argument is that I could spend $1k more for a Bach or Yamaha than I did for my Adams A1, but they don’t suit me as well. Then we get into the vintage horn argument - is it really a bang for your buck if it’s a pro model and costs you less, but is worn to the point of being unplayable. There is a Connstellation on my bench that I would never think of gigging on, but I could grab any one of those Jupiter 1100s and have a successful gig tomorrow. In 5 years my chances would still be better on that Jupiter than on some of the worn out Bach Strads we’ve had that badly need a valve job, though the Jupiter may not have the same resale value as either of those horns. Are we looking for resale value or playability? Good questions to consider!
I also agree with comments about Manchester Brass and Carolbrass - nice players at their price point.

Finally found that on iPad, if I resize to square the pics will upload!! 1939 King Silver Tone Master cornet, silver finish with gold accents. Love how this one plays!! All it needed was a clean, and even came with original case and case candy.

I find most of the synthetics to leave a lot of residue over time, especially with horns that don’t get cleaned. If you don’t like to clean regularly, Hetman is not for you. It will degrade into a sticky yellow residue that is not fun to clean up! Yamaha synthetic likes to become a green cement in horns that sit too long, even new ones. It works great until you let it sit a few months, and then is best cleaned out in a chem clean. I like the Berp products because they stay very clean, tend not to react with other oils, and I have not had a horn freeze up in storage in over 10yrs. There’s nothing wrong with using synthetics, but for any you use, clean regularly, and be sure to clean out all old oil before switching brands - this includes brand new horns! Many synthetics will react badly when mixed with other synthetics or petroleum products - I have had customers return instruments only to find out they mixed two brands of valve oil and there are beads of goo in all the pistons - really annoying, especially when the customer has caused damage I have to fix when they cannot get the pistons out! This happened recently with a brand new Yamaha. Customer had applied Ultra Pure without cleaning out the Yamaha, let the horn sit for two days, and then freaked out when the pistons were frozen. Swore up and down they “did nothing to it - it works on all my other new Yamahas!” Got it back withbadly scratched pistons from being forced out improperly, and big balls of goo where the oils had reacted. Brand new horn that had to be repaired and sold as used because someone couldn’t be bothered to clean out the old oil.

Pedagogy can be a difficult topic to describe online. It’s pretty normal in these forums to see someone asking a question that would be better answered in person, and getting a lot of varied answers, most making little sense. Theory questions are easier to answer on a forum, except that I see a lot of people here posting about how they don’t think knowing it makes one a better player as soon as someone brings it up. If you are my student, you are learning theory while you play, because understanding what you are playing makes you both a more musical player and a better sight reader. If you are my student, though, you are also very lucky because I don’t take many!
As for our “former user”, I don’t miss him at all. He seemed to post a lot just to feel superior, and wasn’t always right about it. I do agree, though, that too many useful threads devolve into stupid humor, which is too bad.

Try this, from Conn-Selmer: https://www.conn-selmer.com/en-us/resources/serial-numbers/king-instrument-serial-numbers

Our garage space was sacrificed for a home shop for me and teaching space for my husband, so no cool car toys here. I sure do enjoy watching everyone else’s on the road, though! There are lots here in my neighborhood, and then sometimes I get to go out in my dad’s 64 Impala when I visit with him. He keeps saying he’s going to visit and drive a new toy home since the weather is better for old cars to survive in this area, along with no road salt. Hasn’t happened yet, though!

My regular bands have not restarted yet, but a few other gigs are starting to pop up for Dec-Feb right now. I’m book for a show in Feb, “In the Heights”, and so far they are not requiring bell covers or masks. We will see if that changes or not. The brass quintet my boss and I put together has been rehearsing regularly, and we are working on scheduling a Christmas performance or two right now. Fun group capable of playing some pretty advanced music, so we have been enjoying it. I’ve started teaching my little student in person, and she has in person band for the first time since she has started playing. She’s getting better so much faster now!

@jolter said in C. G. Conn Club:

@bigdub That's on the bell tail. It's called a microtuner, or "opera glass" tuner. Turn the screw to tune up or down in small increments.

Yup. On my 8A, it works better to tune from the micro tuner than from the main tuning slide! On my 80As, most of them it doesn’t make that much of a difference. I love the look of them and how they play, though - super fun little horns!

You see this sometimes with band directors who are woodwind players and only know two common brands. Sometimes a student can get by with something else if they show it to the band director first so they see it’s not junk. These days more teachers want to see a kid with a horn with both 1st saddle and 3rd slide, but most who are restrictive about brands are just trying to keep the kids from starting on junk horns.

@neal085 true enough. Entry level Yamaha AD line is made in China. Conn-Selmer Prelude line are also made in China. King seem to fare a bit better, though, and are made in the Eastlake factory. Jupiter are made in Taiwan, but intermediate and pro models are very nicely made and leagues above the entry level.

Ambassadors can be good players, though I don’t think they compare with most modern pro horns. I feel their playability has more to do with condition than year of production, since so many have either been played to death or have had a lot of possibly questionable repair. I have one I picked up at an estate sale for $50 that isn’t bad, and I occasionally use it as a loaner for when I’m working on a friend’s horn. The pristine barely played one I got for my niece is a better player, and they are within a couple of years of production. Those that I play tested after valve jobs when apprenticing at Dan Oberloh’s shop were night and day before and after.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive backup, Ambassadors are a great choice as long as they are in good condition.

Nothing wrong at all with a new Yamaha with warranty, but used Advantage line, especially when buying ebay, can be hit or miss. The amount of damage I’m seeing on school-owned trumpets is what makes me wary - these trumpets were about 5 years old, and though they might not look to have serious damage, all damage seems to telegraph throughout the horn since they are fairly soft. Buying new and encouraging the student to treat the instrument with respect, no problem. Used of unknown origin may mean an expensive trip to the shop for an inexpensive instrument.
My little student is currently playing a Yamaha, but it is a 2335 that my shop got as NOS, and it is far superior to the current AD line.

@neal085 Yes, the AD is for Advantage. Unfortunately I can’t tell you much about a lot of the student trombones out there since we don’t carry a lot of student instruments, but have found with Yamaha and Jupiter that the intermediate models are a big step up from the student models. Also, be prepared with trombones to invest in hand slide work at some point, as kids are often not careful about bumping into something until they get used to that slide! It takes much less to mess up a trombone than it does a trumpet, and kids are pretty good at messing them up. Hope you find what you’re looking for!

BTW, the Yamaha Advantage line tends to be very soft and thin, trumpets as well. I would steer away from used in either one, as I’ve seen what happens to the school fleets.