Brass vs Silver

[Chuck(G)]

I think I may have posted it in the wrong thread.

I believe that Bloke is cross-threaded:

<img src="http://badattitudes.com/MT/archives/nut_&_bolt.gif">

[Dan Schultz]

... "a bit of detective work regarding this guy's name should sum it all up, as far as you guys are concerned..."

That's naughty

[iiipopes]

Schilke supposedly built three trumpets as identical as he could and left one bare brass, silver plated the second, and lacquered the third. Not surprisingly (Have you ever seen a lacquered Schilke?), he concluded there was no difference between the bare brass and the silver plate, but that there was a deadening of sound from the lacquer. I want to know how much and how thick lacquer he put on that one trumpet. My tuba also sounds different when I wrap it in a blanket and shove a pillow down the bell as well! New lacquers applied as an extremely thin coat and/or "electro-sprayed," (whatever the real term is) can't have that much effect, if any, on a horn. I must say that the lacquer on my Besson has not been scraped off. It has come off the old fashioned way: 35 years of wear, use, abuse and repairs before I got it!

[imperialbari]

I go for the sound only, so I have lacuered, silvered, gilded, and raw brass instruments in all sorts of alloys.

The silvered ones go black, the raw brasses go brown, and some of the others stay just about beige. So I guess I am in for playing some Ellington.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre,
who went white glowing with rage, when a repairman just "happened" to demonstrate a new impregnated polishing cotton on my Zelenka of Praha large bell flugelhorn, which had come with a 60 or 80 years old very even and very beautiful patina to its raw brass.

[chronolith]

Regarding the Schilke thing...

Having lived a previous life as a serious trumpet player, I remember very clearly the differences you get between the sounds of horns of various finishes (or non-finishes). It is much easier to detect on trumpets.

The differences seem to disappear on larger horns though. Anyway even at their greatest effect, the silver vs laquer thing is one of the least important variables on a horn. In a world where you have to worry about bore size, wrap, mouthpieces, bell diameter, valve stroke, etc., there is just no reason to discuss the finish.

I like to tell the story of a trumpet teacher I had way back when named Dave Coleman. He was doing a small ensemble gig and wouldn't you know it, he forget his piccolo trumpet in the car. Well, when the piece came up that had the piccolo part, he picked up his Bb and played it on the big horn. I wish I had taped that, because you could not tell the difference in sound between what he did on the big horn and what the piccolo was supposed to sound like. If I had not been looking right at him, I would have sworn that it was his little Schilke picc. Blew me away. I'll bet it wasn't easy to do, but he did it.

Do you think then that it mattered what finish the horn had? You yourselves as players probably account for 90% of the variables in sound that you produce. Doesn't leave much room for mechanical stuff. Leaves almost no room for talking about finish.

Sometimes I think our preoccupation with the minutia of the mechanics of the tuba is a method we sometimes use to explain away our deficiencies as players. That inludes me too. Sometimes it matters. Most times it doesn't.

Go practice.