Much excitement today, the Jerome Wiss 6/20 arrived, the fit and finish are superb, Jerome is truly a craftsman in instrument making. The $64,000 question, How does it play. With my Wedge 3CC SST mouthpiece which has been my standard for the last 9 years, it responds with the least amount of air I can give it and the tone remains uniform to the most I can raise.

The sound behind the horn is unlike any other I have played, I find it difficult to describe, full, rich, not dark nor shrill, mind this is first impressions after 1/2 hour playing, I shall have to have a lot more time on it to get fully accustomed to it. I think it is mainly a function of the bell shape which is more conical than exponential, reminds me of pictures of ancient trumpets.

I have not yet checked the tuning, first impression nothing stood out to my ear, more to come as I spend more time with it.

Regards, Stuart.

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.

Without good provenance it is just another pretty Selmer Balanced Grand Prix.

Regards, Stuart.

@tjcombo said in A little humour:

@SSmith1226 That was bonzer Sport! A grouse effort for a Septic!

Translation: bonzer = good, sport = mate , friend, grouse = (a small ground dwelling bird), great, excellent, Septic = cockney rhyming slang, septic tank = yank (american).

Such a shame he died at 28.

Regards, Stuart.

Spent about an hour on the beast today, washed the valves and swabbed the casings with solvent and removed the lapping compound, washed and brushed the inside.

Oiled the valves, greased the slides and reassembled, checked valve alignment, not bad, have seen much more costly horns worse. Valves quite smooth in operation, springs stronger than I like but ok.

Playing, with Blackburn leadpipes from behind not much different from my old Selmer, supplied Bb leadpipe ok, A pipe no. would suggest new leadpipes, perhaps this is a new project.

Supplied mouthpiece a strange double cup design, similar to old Selmer, does work but not my choice.

Was this an exercise in futility? I will see when I return it to its owner on Saturday.

Regards, Stuart.

25 years ago I was having trumpet lessons from a retired brass teacher whose principle instrument was horn, he did not have any horn students, in a fit of mental abberation I bought a horn and had him teach me, joined a community symphony orchestra where the horn section was a girl playing an Alto Saxophone and a friend playing an Eb Tenor horn neither fitted in.

Eventually a couple of horn players joined I convinced the Eb player to go back to trumpet that was his prime instrument. After the concert tomorrow I will change to trumpet to balance the brass a little more, we will then have 5 Horns and 4 trumpets having lost 2 in the last year.

Sunday I have a 2 hour gig playing 2nd trumpet in the Big Band I have played in for 20+ years.

Regards, Stuart.

About 30 years ago I was playing trumpet in a community concert band, we had an excess of trumpets and no horns.

The MD asked me to look at a couple of secondhand horns in a music shop, not that I knew anything about horns, one was a beaten up Amarti, the other a French Selmer in excellent condition and reasonably priced,

I n a moment of insanity I bought the Selmer, then found a teacher for lessons, I played that horn in the concert band for 15 years until I moved away.

1990 I was invited by a friend to join a community symphony orchestra where the horn section was a Eb tenor horn and an Alto Sax playing transposed parts, at that time I was playing trumpet in an amateur Big Band.

Currently still playing in both groups, Trumpet on thursday nights and Horn on saturday mornings. For a while I found some difficulty with the change of fingering from one to the other, eventually no problem.

Playing 2nd horn a lot of the time I am an octave lower than the 1st, she marks my part where she wants me to go up to give her a rest and she is half my age.

Regards, Stuart

@fels For teaching a beginner I suggest you watch on youtube Mr Bill's Trumpet First lesson. This is the best instruction I have seen.

I do not encourage lip or mouthpiece buzzing as I feel this introduces excessive chop tension. Feel free to chat if you would like to discuss further,

Regards, Stuart.

Could not find my old measurements, I have measured 4 Selmers, diameter of inside of bell and distance from bell mouth. Regards, Stuart.

@bobmiller1969 said in Selmer Trumpet Bell Tapers?:

all

Some years ago I measured the tapers of my Selmer Bells using different sized washers mounted on a rod and measuring how far they went in.

I measured with three sizes and recorded the results, if I can find them they may be of interest to you.

1946 Grand Prix, 1950s Balanced, 1975 B700L, 2000 Concept TT, Ferron-Selmer C, Radial Bb, Radial 99C.

Regards, Stuart.

@fels For teaching a beginner I suggest you watch on youtube Mr Bill's Trumpet First lesson. This is the best instruction I have seen.

I do not encourage lip or mouthpiece buzzing as I feel this introduces excessive chop tension. Feel free to chat if you would like to discuss further,

Regards, Stuart.

Centex Brass has a number of Olds models for sale, I have bought several horns from Clay and have not been disapointed.

Regards, Stuart.

@barliman2001. I also have a liking for the older horns, for Orchestra I us.e my Selmer Radials, Bb, C, D and Eb. For Bigband, Selmer B700L that my mother gave me for my 50th birthday in 1988. Another favorite is a Buffet Crampon Balanced made by Ernst Modl. I have not played many modern horns, I did like a Kuhnl and Hoyer, don't remember what model. My Favorite that eclipses all others is my Jerome Wiss 6/20, an absolute amazing horn that I have had for 12months. This is the last horn I will purchase. Regards, Stuart.

For the last 30 years I have played my Selmer Radial C 99 in Church and Orchestra, never had any complaints about sound or blending. I use 4 Selmsr Radials for orchestra, Bb. C, D and Eb..

Regards, Stuart.

Due to Dupuytrens contracture of both my pinkies I am unable to use a hook, (thanks to the Vikings settling in northern England). I ordered my Jerome Wiss 6/20 without hook.

The downside is the bell shape precludes the use of standard mutes.

Regards, Stuart.

@mike-ansberry Can you check the slide lengths against another?, perhaps it was a special built in low pitch A=439.

I would have no hesitation in cutting to bring up to pitch.

The strangest one I have had was a Chinese C trumpet, the open notes were fine, any valved notes flat, turned out to have a Bb valve block and slides.

If it is of any help I can measure my 55 Recording when I get back home at the weekend.

Regards, Stuart.

@trumpetlearner For my home cleaning I use a dilute CLR, one liter bottle in about 15 liters of water, this does a pretty good job, for heavy corrosion several soakings may be needed with a brushing between each. I usually immerse for about 1/2 hour, although I have inadvertantly left slides in overnight with seemingly no effect. White vinegar is also good, used straight, I once did a test by immersing one leg of a slide in a glass of white vinegar and left it for 24 nours, other a slight green tinge of the vinegar and the leg coming out clean I could not detect any other change.. I asked a repair man that I have a very good relations with what he used, he used a mixture of Phosphoric and Citric acids he could not tell me the concentration, just added to water till he thought it was enough. Regards, Stuart.

@bobmiller1969 They are made from plastic, I believe 3D printed, They fit between the valve casing and can be moved up or down to find the best position that gives the best effect, I find that at the top just under the caps for me. Ivan's website may have more information. www,jaegerbrass.com Regards, Stuart.