Best posts made by ROWUK

We should never forget Maurice Andrés Hora Legato!

@barliman2001 said in Mute Clarification?:

@j-jericho As I do have a derby mute, but no derby hat, I think I'll settle for the mute...

Playing into a "soft" mute of any kind means that there is enough damping to kill overtones. A normal "hat" or derby mute is OK but putting some additional damping material performs the conversion. Kill the overtones on a trumpet, and it sounds more flute like.

@Dr-GO you know my opinion of Jason Harrelson and his business practices. I do not consider his palette of instruments that adaptive. Sure, there is a lot to customize, I consider his approach to give a very „playable“ instrument but it locks the player into a certain shade of color. That is the bogusness of the concept. It is not what is in the players head, it is the shade injected by the maker.

This is my point. Those that buy those instruments do not „have to“, they simply can. The story comes after the fact.

I was with a student recently at a well stocked music store. The student was looking for a C trumpet. There were 6 instruments there, additionally I had my modified tuning bell Bach CL229H and my Monette Raja. For that student, a used Schilke screamed buy me! He sounded better with that instrument than with all the others. We had rehearsed auditioning instruments weeks before the trip. The student stuck to the audition procedures and was able to easily sift through the choices. We used my Monette as a reference but in the students case, it did not have that something special that the Schilke did.

I know of one manufacturer in Munich that has built „reference“ trumpets that are not sold or loaned. Potential buyers get a valve section and add parts with the goal of putting an instrument together that is better than the reference. They have a box of over 100 leadpipes -all essentially that all measure the same - but play differently. With the right audition procedure it only takes an hour to get the „best one“. Then comes the bell - much harder to zero in. At the end, braces are fitted. With another student of mine, we needed 3 hours to select the parts. This is what I was talking about. We got a horn that matched what was in the players head. It took 100 leadpipes and 10+ bells. This is NOT the Harrelson or Monette experience.

I can‘t speak for Harrelson as I have only played them but never bought one. In the case of Monette where I have 3, I can testify that the first one changed me. The second one was built on 10 years of communication with Monette and the positive experiences with the first instrument. He changed it. The third instrument is simply pick it up and play. There is no need to „think“ about color. It just happens.

The time frame needed to make musical decisions precludes „magic“.

@curlydoc Wyntons classical recordings are relatively old. I remember the Hummel on a Schilke Eb and the Picc stuff also on a Schilke.
I think that if he were to make a current recording, he probably would get a made to purpose horn from Dave Monette.

Get well soon!

Should be either notated a 4th higher or, if in concert pitch a 7th higher. The slurs are not original. No valves is the way I like to hear it, and play it. There are 3 notes that are challenging on the picc...

@stumac said in Trumpets Made ONLY by Their Maker:

Jerome Wiss, a French maker who has completely redesigned the trumpet including the valve block with only 2 passages through the valves, in the up position the air goes through one port in one direction, in the down position the same port in the opposite direction, makes it all himself.

He came on TH three years ago announcing his new trumpet and was driven off by people who could not understand how it worked.

I ordered one beginning of April, delivery November/December.

Regards, Stuart.

I am anxious to hear of your first and lasting impressions. While standard valves (rotary and piston) in many respects are really "dumb design" (in respect to geometry, wear, mass, friction), they have stood the test of time. It is great that we have some free thinkers like Wiss, Monette and others that push the envelope - in spite of the nay sayers.

I certainly need more than a week for any of the Charlier trancendental etudes. It has been on my stand for about 2 months and I get about 30 min/day with it. So much to tie together.

I can appreciate the question. Back at the old place I started at a time where the web had novelty for me. I had little or no other "social media" on my plate. My level of interest in repeating myself was certainly far different than it is today. Still today, I have essentially no motivation to start that over again. Whether it stays that way, or if something pops up to spark my interest, I simply do not know. Currently the additional time behind the horn reaps fruits - that the Internet does not. Sorry.

I do not understand the excitement. Is horn X a rip off? Well, that depends on our definition.

Most „civilized“ countries have trademark laws. If a manufacturer breaks those laws, then they pay the price. That does not make the product bad or the price point irrelevant.
What bothers me most, is the selective use of emotion. Why should anyone be pissed off when a company in China or elsewhere fills an economic need? Are we mad because the word „Stradivarius“ has been used twice? Are we mad because a band teacher should „know better“? Are we just mad because that is the current popular political vent?

I see nothing wrong with this horn. I personally have a high performance standard for my own instruments not yet filled by a cheap instrument and I discuss this issue openly with my students and their parents. If they make another decision, fine. The most important thing is that the student enjoys playing and practicing. Everything else rests on those shoulders.

In 1975 a Bach trumpet was <$500 at Giardinellis in New York. I wish that salaries had inflated this much....

Kodak learned the hard way what happens when the market and the product no longer match. The digital revolution blew them out of the water. How many manufacturers of instruments are now dead. Why are they dead?

To be honest, for many kids, it is the cheap horn or no horn. They are not interested in flea market bargains on „vintage“ instruments with 50% lacquer.

Let us not let elitism screw up something very precious. There can be value at this level.

@Kehaulani said in Seeking input on Rules:

Well, as I read it, it's not a pursuit for perfection, rather an arbitrary time frame to just meet the challenge of doing what one can do within a timef frame; something to do for fun and challenge during this virus period to beat the boredom.

Never waste a note...

@Dr-GO Can I pinch a fag?

Let's get this "higher quality made in the US" notion out of our heads. Quality has NOTHING to o with location. Quality is a function of responsible decisions in the manufacturing process. America has NOTHING that would be decisive in higher quaity instruments. Every company decides how much "quality" goes into their products. In the case of chinese manufacturers, the importers placing the order decide how much "quality should be built and they get what they pay for.

As far as Americans out of work, that is how capitalism works. Money does not care if a specific group of people are employed. It only cares if anyone is left to buy the products.

My problem is that I am not really motivated. Many threads develop in a similar way:

1. original post
2. a couple of thank yous
3. maybe a subject supporting post or two
4. Class clown attack that has nothing to do with the original content
5. Derailed post can go just about anywhere - but not without devils advocate posting

I can say that the feeling is like with certain teachers that I had - for one or 2 lessons. My general feeling here is of suffocation. Extreme efforts (in my opinion) are being made to keep it "clean", "friendly", "family". The general feeling is not digging in and accepting reality, rather a lavender painted over.

I a pretty sure that if I started posting like I feel, that the threads would last 2 days. In that case, why bother. At Trumpetmaster I made a point about getting to the meat immediately. Here we seem to be afraid of blood.

This is all fine and good, but is the excuse - other things are bad for you too the right argument? Even if a mouthpiece is plated, is what we "think" or "assume" even asked for. We have a lot of Americans believing anything that they want to - from guns to global warming. It is hard to find enough facts outside of the emotion and populist BS being spread thick.

California did not dream lead poisoning up. They announced levels for legislation long before the laws took effect. That is an OK process in my book. It is also what I expect from a reasonable functional government. Don't clobber overnight, give the industries time to adjust. If they sleep on this, goodbye - or move out of state and don't sell in California. Make the Californians travel to Tijuana if they disagree with the policy.

Saw the facebook entry. Lose the heavy caps and replace the leadpipe and receiver and the horn would be well on its way to at least being in tune. This problem pops up even with professional trumpets. Monke rotary Bb and C trumpets occasionally had the same issue. The G on my natural trumpet is "naturally a bit high". Not quite this much, but it does require attention on a regular basis.

Hang in there big guy! Better times are coming!

@Dr-GO said in Frustrated:

To me Rowuk was the role model of moderators. Tough love is the best!

Thank you, but I was not trying to be a role model. I was just trying to keep the fluff out. There was nothing to prove - except that discourse needs more than a weak opinion.

@SSmith1226 The F being sharp is very unusual. E and D will be sharp and need a bit of correction. That being said, vintage instruments (the days before first valve slides) often had a slightly too long first valve slide. Someone that had habits from a vintage instrument can have acclimatisation issues when switching to a "new" horn. If it bothers you, there is nothing wrong with putting a spacer on the first valve so that it does not go all the way in.

I really do not spend much time here (there are various reasons), but when I do, I sometimes find very annoying things.

Today: Multiple threads were locked down "for obvious reasons" - but no obvious reasons were anywhere to be found. Could it be that the threads are cleansed and then locked down? If they are censured, what does the lock accomplish? If there is no indication as to why, how does the casual user even make sense of what goes and what does not. What is the motivation on locking threads down? Is there a policy governing this?

As I had an administrative function at TrumpetMaster, there was regularly an "urge" to lock down a thread not going anywhere. We (I) only did when the posting got really ugly. The ugly words were replaced with a clear note as to why. Sometimes the member got a vacation. Keeping threads open kept them alive. A bump after a year or two brought forgotten subjects back to life - even if the original poster was long gone.

I would appreciate a real reason when threads are locked down. I never appreciate completely deleting anyones posts - or intentions. Unsuitable language is easy enough to smooth out and publicly document.

I am not expecting or demanding an answer. I would consider a detailed why in the respective threads to be "courteous".