Posts made by Newell Post

Note how the third valve appears to have two slides coming off of it? That is why the horn looks short.

With no valves depressed, the air probably goes through the slide with the water key, but not the other slide. (The slide with the water key is probably the main tuning slide.) With the third valve depressed, the air probably loops through both slides.

I'm not a Conn person, but it seems like Conn experimented with some strange valve slide configurations like that. It might be a "house brand" Conn of some kind, but I will defer to the Conn experts present.

I'm a DIY-er also. But I'm fortunate enough to be able to take the more valuable horns to the pros when necessary. I only try major things on "project" horns of little value and I only do simple, routine things on the more valuable horns. This guy was mentioned above, but he has a very good series of videos on YouTube.....

There are also many other good tutorials on YouTube.

My most recent project has been lapping the valves on my Bach Mercedes. Before I started, that horn had the stickiest, balkiest valves of any horn I ever played. If that was really a Strad valve block before it went into the Mercedes, it must have been a "second" or reject block. I still don't have the valves the way I want, but they are much better than when I started. To avoid over-lapping, I only do a little hand-lapping and then clean it out thoroughly, play for a few days, and repeat. Nothing appears to be bent or warped. A pro could probably have gotten it right in one operation instead of several trial-end-error sessions, like me. But what the heck. I enjoy it and the horn is only a backup and practice instrument.

BTW, if something blocks air when valves are not depressed, how do you know for sure it is the third valve? Does the horn block air with the third valve up and pass air OK with the third valve down? That would be really weird.

Some might think this brutal, but here goes....

When I have an old horn that has been stored for a long time or one of uncertain provenance, I flush it out -- and I mean flush it out -- with one of these plumbing things hooked to the garden hose. But MAKE SURE all of the slides are held firmly in place somehow. It can blow out even loose-ish slides. Hold the horn firmly -- really firmly -- and press the valves one at a time. That will circulate water under pressure through all tubes and flush out almost anything smaller than a small dog. Then make sure all of the pistons are installed in the right casing and with the right orientation. If that doesn't work, abandon all hope.

...at my Mom's house in Kansas City for the holidays. (She's 99.) I leave my old Getzen Severinsen here at Mom's house and use it for practice when I am here. Bach Strad is my daily driver, but every time I come to Mom's and play the old Severinsen for a few days, I remember how good those Getzen valves are and how facile that old thing feels.

It's easy to install Bach valves backwards. Not so with Getzen. That was one of the things I always liked about Getzen.

@_mark_ Try.... https://www.ferreestoolsinc.com/ But the items you are seeking are pretty esoteric.

@j-jericho Our band did that one right before COVID. What great fun. English tunes tend to be tasty and elegant while American ones tend to be more exuberant. Both are great as long as the two different styles don't get commingled.

@tjveloce said in In search of “my horn.”:

I’m basically looking for a horn which in a blind sound test might make the listener think “is he playing a trumpet or a flugelhorn?”

OK. So try this..... Put a flugel mouthpiece on a cornet. My Yamaha flugel mouthpieces fit on my Schilke cornet just fine, and that combination produces a vaguely "flumpet-ish" tone. It plays in tune and is easier to control than the flugelhorn. I don't do it very often, but it works in some situations. The flugel mouthpieces are much deeper than cornet mouthpieces and they make a big difference to the sound.

@dr-go Yes, but it would have been better if they were plastic donkeys. You know......... like.......... wait for it...... asses.

Please note that "Spam" is a trademarked brand name and the fine folks at Hormel have only requested that the internet scourge be denominated as "spam".

Sorry. I used to love cars. Now I hate cars. They are a necessary evil, but I just want ones that start and run reliably and drive comfortably.

@masterwannabe Print out (or link to) this thread, send it to the parent, and ask him/her to send it to the teacher. Everyone here is an experienced trumpet player. Some are professional, semi-pro, or music teachers. I think it is fair to say the consensus of this group is that a like-new 1971 Ambassador is far better for a middle school student than a worn out Bach Mercedes II or equivalent Yamaha. Furthermore, a like-new 1971 Ambassador can be acquired for a very small fraction of the cost of a new Bach TR300 or Yamaha YTR-2330 and, if taken care of, can probably be re-sold at break-even later on.

I liked it, too. I saw it the night it opened. They gave out souvenirs on opening night: old-timey fans like they used to use in theaters and churches before air conditioning. I still have mine lying around....

@bigdub The real Florence Foster Jenkins was so bad that they had to make the movie version a little less bad than real life to make the movie tolerable.

I'll try it one time. It will be interesting to see how many other cornetists show up with this restriction in place...

Yeah, one of my other bands practices outdoors in a church parking lot. Nobody has died, yet.

Well, so one of my bands starts up again on Monday evening after a year-and-a-half hiatus. Since we meet in the band room of a local high school, THIS is required (in addition to bell covers). Not sure if I can tolerate this or not......

Why not a Recording?

I remember Doc saying in an interview somewhere that he was able to hire all of the top studio musicians for the Tonight Show Band, because it was a great job. It was steady work every weekday with every weekend off, so they could play freelance gigs on the weekend. And there were no exhausting road trips full of one-nighters. That doesn't take away from their terrific musicianship, but it does help explain how he got the top players.