Those Thein Brothers Are Crazy!

[windshieldbug]

And if you find yourself to be in the 1% of dissatisfied customers...

... just call iiipopes!

[iiipopes]

And if you find yourself to be in the 1% of dissatisfied customers...

... just call iiipopes!

Thanks. The key is when you run across weak notes, (after all the usual cleaning and adjustments, including corks, alignment, integrity of braces, good compression, etc.,) run your fingers lightly over the tubing from receiver to bell to find if there is any vibration or resonance where it should not be. That's where you put the tape. It is trial and error. Before I found the offending ferrel, I had, in the manner of Curry caps, taped the valve bottom caps. That was too much, and deadened the overall response of the horn.

There are several threads in the trumpet forums especially, and also in Brass-forum.co.uk that talk about this. The bottom line is that added mass damps vibration and changes characteristic. Some players and/or horns need it, others don't, depending on the horn AND the player. I needed a couple of grams of weight, some need the full 1oz Curry caps.

Regarding the bass 'bone that was not improved, for that money I'd make them take it back and make me a new one. There is no excuse for less than perfection when you pay out of this world prices.

There is some recidivism among the usual suspects, usually where there are transitions to and from the valve block, and other similar places. I've read elsewhere that if the small little brace between the first valve slide and the bell on a Bach 37 is not in the right place that trumpet's response will be skewed. Cannonball makes a big deal about their semi-precious stone improving response. My old King Silvertone cornet has a designed-in reinforcement patch on the curve in relatively the same place where the lead pipe enters the valve block. It has great response for what is now considered on the small side of cornet bores (.458). Many years ago there was an article in the Instrumentalist magazine about experiments with Bud Herseth and the placement of the spit key on the main tuning slide and its effect on intonation. Sometimes I'll take my mouthpiece and a small piece of tape and move it around just to see what response characteristics change. With that, I'll say that most of the "megatone" style mouthpieces overdo it. Again, what is usually needed is a couple of grams (the weight of a dime), not a couple of ounces. Oh, by the way, I also put dimes in the bottom valve caps of my cornet for the same reason. Doubled the core and projection. $0.30 compared to $30.00 for the Curry caps! The receiver usually always needs a little help, for it is the weakest link by necessity, getting the buzz through the mouthpiece into the horn. The fact that 99%+ of trumpets have a bell brace attached to the receiver and not the lead pipe is not an accident. A lot of tubas have a solid soldered lead pipe to the bell and nothing on the receiver, when it should be the other way around!

Sorry for getting off thread on a rant. Thanks. I'll do it for free; if you don't like it it's completely removable, just pay the shipping both ways.