I got a bottle of BERP several years ago for a vintage horn with worn valves. I got the thickest formulation and it is REALLY think. (Thicker than Hetmans's #3 or Monster's thickest, IMO.) It works well, but the action is pretty slow. However, I also hear they reformulated shortly thereafter and the newer BERPs might be faster.
I have written a couple of things and have given a few talks about the Spanish flu of 1918+. COVID-19 is not influenza and I'm not a doctor. But there are some interesting historical lessons learned, since COVID-19 and influenza are both RNA viruses.
One of the mysteries of the Spanish flu is that it just sort of went away in August of 1918. In the UK it almost completely disappeared. In the US it didn't disappear, but it did die down. But both in Europe and US, it came back in a much more lethal form in September/October of 1918. Then, it died down a second time in December, before resurging in January, 1919. (The exact dates vary a little bit depending on location.) No real cause for these two "die outs" has ever been identified, but I have a theory. (And whatever you think of Trump, I think this is the basis for his statements that COVID-19 "will just go away." He gets that notion from the Spanish flu. It did eventually mutate and "go away" after infecting about half of the world's population and killing about 5% of them. Nobody really knows how many people died in many parts of the globe.)
My theory is....... air conditioning. In 1918 air conditioning existed, but almost no buildings had it. The first buildings to get air conditioning were printing plants and a few theaters. So, people didn't have a lot of large gatherings in the Summer. It was too hot indoors. If they did have Summer gatherings, those events were mostly outdoors. Also, many windows were left open all day long in many buildings to get fresh air. But after Summer ended, they went back indoors for school, church, plays, and musical performances, etc, hence the explosion of cases in September/October. The December die-down might relate to schools being in recess and other seasonal changes of that nature.
HOWEVER, today air-conditioning is nearly universal, at least in most parts of the US. In the Summer, work and events are mostly indoors in re-circulated air conditioned air, hence the current flare up in COVID-19 cases. Instead of a Summer die-down, we may see a die-down of COVID-19 in the Fall, when more things happen outdoors and more windows are open.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
Monster Oil also makes a terrific slide "grease." A little goes a very long way and lasts forever.
Hetman or Monster Oil. Both are synthetic and both come in 3 different viscosities. Monster Oil is more expensive, but claims to contain a corrosion-resisting additive. I use it on some of my "antiques" that mostly sit in the closet. Start with Hetman #2 (medium viscosity) and experiment from there.
@Dale-Proctor Wright's is good. I have used it for years. In theory, I suppose it removes a few molecules. But I haven't seen any detrimental effects.
... but that simply has got to be the last high-rise window inspection of my career. I'm just too old to do that stuff any more. I haven't been so exhausted in decades.
...HOWEVER, I had to spend every day this last week hanging off the side of a tall building in another city inspecting defective glass. I only managed to get one practice session in the hotel room with the pocket trumpet and a practice mute. Most notes were only off by a quarter-tone or a little more, but it was something. That's my longest layoff in the last 5 years. I'll get back to Mitchell On Trumpet Book 4 tonight. I don't think I'll need to fall back to Book 3, but after a week off, you never really know.
Only 41 years. Funny how time flies when you're having fun.
I really try to either practice or play (or both) 6 days per week. But that has been slipping to 5 and sometimes 4 days. The range has survived, but I know the stamina hasn't.
Does anyone know if Bach sells slightly stiffer than normal valve springs? I can find standard and "light" replacement valve springs. But I would like springs that are just a little bit stiffer, faster, and less "mushy." I know I can try to stretch the standard ones slightly, but I would like springs that come from the factory just a little more "aggressive." Thanks.
I am always reminded of the time Doc Severinsen called the flugelhorn a trumpet with a thyroid condition.
I used to have a friend named Rodney Leibold. But in the early days of spellcheck, it would always try to autocorrect his name to Rodent Libeled.
@administrator I belong to the Unitarian church, which uses the "flaming chalice" as one of its symbols. (One wag once said the flaming chalice looks kind of like a candle in a martini glass.) So, I make these chalices out of different woods and give them away to other churches or individuals. They are basically big candle holders. The photo of me at the lathe is a purpleheart chalice in the early stages. The red colored chalice is made from a tropical wood called "bloodwood." (But tropical woods are marketed under many different trade names. There's no telling what species of wood it really is.)
@Kujo20 Yep. Purpleheart. It turns beautifully, but it's slow going!
The Moon is putting on a show tonight for free. Hurry or you'll miss is.
LOL. I still have it, 53 years later. Besson Stratford cornet. Weirdly enough, it still has some of the smoothest valves and slides I have ever owned. Sound quality, not so much.
