Welcome! I totally understand the frustration of starting a new instrument, though my journey is the opposite of yours! I started ukulele a month ago, but have been getting paid to play the trumpet for 35yrs, and they are nothing alike! What is the same, though, is understanding how to practice efficiently and fit it in your schedule. I hope you have a lot of fun! I certainly am having fun with uke, even though I’m still kind of terrible! 
@Rapier232 Note I said “most”. I am American, but have worked with European, Canadian, and South American Military bands. Out of all those, only a Royal British Marine used a bugle. I’ve seen occasional use by US Army or Marines, but it depends on the unit whether they are supplied by the band or the member was using their own.
@tjveloce it had its pictures taken Thursday - I expect it will be up early next week.
@Trumpetb wow, you really escalated on that one! Just giving some info appropriate to the thread. Ice hotels are not a common thing in the US, but this movie was pretty popular when it came out. A lot of people in their 50s or older are going to remember it and the theme song, just like I did. I remember playing the song in my piano lessons as a kid. If you asked me about Young Man with a Horn, I remember the 40s dance arrangement that I’ve played a zillion times. If I ever saw the movie I’ve forgotten it. Not sure why you immediately jumped to the thought that I’m here to make fun of you all, just dropped some extremely relevant info!
@Doodlin It’s probably a long shank cornet mouthpiece. Some Ambassador cornets take a very specific shank - anything else will go in pretty far. I’m trying to find one of those that isn’t too beat up or too small for me to play on just for play testing purposes, since I have had so many Olds cornets with that receiver on my bench. I would suggest taking it to your local shop - they will probably pull it for free and suggest a chem clean. Any horn with a stuck mouthpiece most certainly needs a chem clean - you don’t want to know what will probably come out of that leadpipe....
@Dr-GO even though it’s a radio broadcast, it is in conjunction with a local school group. Whether their district will shut down or not we will see, as they are a bit outside the area that is currently shut down. I’m hoping that the radio session date of April 20th will stay on track but there’s always the possibility of delay.
My day job is covering the slack as well - people like to shop online when they are stuck at home, so our sales are increasing. I just may end up having to chem clean more horns that get returned!
I’ve been playing my P5-4 for 20 yrs, the only horn I have kept for that long. I also play a 1971 C5L I picked up in a trade from a friend a few years ago. I used to play Schilke Bbs, but that was about 12 yrs and 3 horns ago....
I’ve been making money playing gigs for 33 years, since I was 15 years old. I made my entire living playing trumpet for 22 years, 20 of those for the Navy. While I was in the Navy I made plenty of extra money playing civilian gigs as well. I’ve opened for MCoy Tyner, REO Speedwagon, and Weird Al just to name a few, have performed on Prairie Home Companion, and have played on recordings for Kings of Swing and Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra. I decided to go to the repair field partly because I’ve always been fascinated with it, and I also don’t want to have to say yes to every gig that calls. I enjoy the work, and also get to answer a lot of player questions and match them up with new horns. While I do play with a couple of regular groups, the majority of my playing income is as a sub right now. I sightread well, so I get hired by both professional and amateur groups to sightread their shows when someone is missing or they need to beef up their sections. I do a lot of big band work as soloist/relief lead, and also do a fair bit of classical work in quintets. I’ll occasionally take a free gig if it’s fun for me, like subbing on cornet or flugel in the local BBB, but 99% of my gigs are paid. I’ve also been hired as a featured artist and Jazz coach for some local educational programs, which is a lot of fun. I hate teaching privately, which is another reason I went to repair, but it’s fun to work with kids on a short term basis.
@Richard-III It’s a mellophone - quite an old one from the looks of it. In case you ever wonder about the difference between a marching French horn an mellophone, a mellophone takes a trumpet or cornet type shank while a marching French horn takes a French horn mpc. Some are left handed and some right, but most are in f or Bb.
Great horns - we just got a bunch in. I wouldn’t really call them Strad clones as they have their own playing characteristics. I’m rather fond of the Challenger II models we have - excellent all-around horns that would work in about any situation.
So, as I work from my home shop cleaning up some nasty, dirty horns from our most recent estate buy, this seems like a great time to send out this message. Just a little PSA from your friendly neighborhood brass tech, your horns are probably overdue for a cleaning, and this down time is a perfect time to take care of that! Even if you don’t have to worry about virus exposure right now, your horn and mouthpiece are probably carrying more gunk and germs than you realize. If you happen to be one of those people who buys a horn off Shopgoodwill or Ebay or such and plays them before you clean them, you may want to quit that practice. Trumpets are so easy to clean at home, and not only will you end up with a better playing instrument that will give you more years of service, but also keep yourself safe from any germs they may be harboring. I’m really glad I’ve stuck to my policy of not playing anything that comes into the shop until it’s clean - in these times I hope you’ll adopt that policy, too. I also hope that if your finances are intact when this is over that you’ll visit your local shop for a chem clean if you’re due for one. Lots of techs are struggling financially right now and will need your support to keep their businesses open! If you like using your local techs, help them be there to help you.
Back to work - stay safe and healthy!
BAC bought the tooling for their own operations, I believe
There’s definitely a place for both online and brick and mortar. A few brick and mortar have closed in this area due to ever-increasing rent, unfortunately. While we are not a brick and mortar, we do offer appointments to play test and pickup for local customers, but we can’t fill that need for the emergency bottle of valve oil or reed before the concert and don’t provide rentals. We only provide repair to customers who have purchased their instrument from us - with the backlog waiting for repair before sale, we just don’t have time for it. We might be online, but are still a small business, with 3 techs, 2 office personnel, 1 in shipping, a photographer, and a part time kid who helps wherever needed, and of course the boss who still does plenty of sales and customer communication, and still will help pull horns for shipping. It’s a super fun family to be a part of, and a great addition to brick and mortar but not a replacement for it.
@Richard-III Not yet, but I do have one waiting for me at work. It will be waiting a while longer as there are a lot more high priority horns ahead of it, but I’ll let you know when I get to it. It has a sterling bell and looks identical to a Silver Tone Master model.
Is it a B&S? Maybe - not sure. Did you pay too much? No idea - don’t know what you paid! One sign that it could be a B&S is if it has a serial under the mouthpipe- that’s the true serial and not the number on the valve block. Between that and your model number you may have more to research with. Hope it plays well for you!
@Kehaulani that’s just not healthy. One other great benefit of regular cleaning is that it doesn’t entirely change the way your horn plays. There is very little difference in the way my old A1 plays to your new one because I’ve been so good about regular maintenance!
@Tobylou8 From what I have heard, what pushed Kanstul over the edge was a family dispute after Zig died. I don’t think the business was doing badly.
@Kehaulani I do brass only, Carlo does woodwinds only, and our head tech Brad mixes it up, but does all the flute overhauls. Carlo will occasionally help me with an issue he might have more experience with, but there are things he isn’t trained for that I am and vice versa. I do guitars as well, but we have only had one come in since I have been there so most of my guitar work is done at home.
I love my Adams F2 with gold brass bell - it has been everything I wanted a flugel to be! I started out with a Getzen Capri I got in 7th grade, played it for 17 yrs. it was a great horn, but I could never quite get the sound I hear in my head. Went to a Marcinkiewicz Rembrandt which gave me the sound, but it was a lot of work to play. The F3 gives me that sound without the extra work, and I love it. I also own a Martin Committee flugel, but wouldn’t gig with it unless the F3 was out of commission.
