Best posts made by stumac

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.

Such a shame he died at 28.

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).

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.

@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.

I will be 81 at the end of this month, I feel young compared to a flute player in our Orchestra who is 90 and a visitor to the Big Band a couple of weeks ago, a Clarinet and saxophone player still blowing at 98.

Regards, Stuart.

I have one that will, you cannot have it because I need it myself.

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

What changes has these mods made to the Radial in the playability and sound? I have 4 Radials, Bb, C, D and Eb which are my go to horns for Orchestra, they are great the way they are and do not want any "improvments". Regards, Stuart. (sometime Devil's Advocate)

@ROWUK said in Is a $280 New Bach Stradivarius Trumpet too good to be true?:

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?

This reminds me of a talk I gave to the Victorian Leica Society about 20 years on aspects of photography I was persuing at that time and equipment I had built, I concluded my talk by holding a page from a magazine advertising the first Kodak Digital Camera with Docking station, when I said "this is the future of photography", I was greeted with laughter and derision.

The reasons for the demise of many trumpet makers I think are many, lack of skilled workforce, rising costs of labour, shrinking market, takeovers by corperate raiders and others.
Just some thoughts.

Regards, Stuart.

The only other things I can think of are if the felts are the same diameter as the piston or the center hole is too big they may be contacting the wall of the cylinder and picking up the oil. I have never experienced oily felts on any horn. 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.

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

Been there and done that!

George I have started a chat with you as one 80 year old to another, perhaps I can give you some pointers that have fixed me.

Regards, Stuart.

In addition to the Bass Clarinet I see 2 trumpets with tuners on them.

Regards, Stuart.

Only a year behind George I have similar problems with arthritis developing in my finger joints, I find that having the lightest valve springs commensurate with good action helps, I don't think you can compare finger action with a violinist, their fingers do not have to move far and exert much pressure.

A typical trumpet valve has 1/2" to 5/8" movement and an initial preload of around 100 grams and final pressure down of around 175 grams according to my measurements.

I have a French Besson trumpet made by Courtois, the springs were stainless steel and so strong I found it impossible to play without pain in my hand, going through the spring stock of 2 local repairers yielded nothing that would fit, I ended up modifying a set of Yamaha Flugel springs, now 100 grams depress the valves half way and the instrument is a joy to play.

Playing 2nd trumpet in a 40s style big band and having no trouble with the fast lines.

Regards, Stuart.