Within the last couple weeks, I came across two horns that I couldn't refuse. The first I found on eBay. Coincidentally, I recognized the name of the seller who is a brass repairman that has a channel on YouTube which I've watched a few times. It looked to be in pretty good physical shape with the original lacquer and at a fair price. The fact that it was also one of my "bucket list" trumpets made the decision for me. What was it? An F.E. Olds & Son R-10 Recording from likely 1954 based on the serial number. After playing it for about an hour when I received it, I can now see exactly why these are so revered. It is a very capable trumpet across almost all genres. I tend toward liking more commercial sounding horns, but this trumpet covers that sort of work as well as jazz and pops/orchestral work, particularly with the right mouthpiece. You know that initial, triumphant B♭ blared out by Maurice Murphy of the London Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of Star Wars...

So, apparently I used to be a blogger that wrote about trumpets, accessories, and music/pedagogy material. Who knew? *cough* OK, OK; so I didn't develop a case of amnesia and spend the last two years rediscovering my former identity. I did, however, get sidetracked by life, going through a work change and two relocations. Meanwhile I had to pause progress on my comeback practice, but by the beginning of 2020 things were getting back to normal. Normal... Anyone remember what the hell "normal" means? Beginning with February 2020, this is going to be one of those points in history that everyone recalls for a long, long time. 2020 will no doubt be remembered as a truly horrible confluence of politics, medicine, science, pseudo-science, capitalism, racial strife, and radicalism. And to think I was excited to leave my personal turmoil of 2019 behind! Well, regardless, my practice has resumed and progress is being made. Enough so that I feel comfortable enough to sell or trade s...

A few days ago I was perusing eBay when I stumbled across something that caught my eye. Of course, you already know that I am likely talking about a trumpet and you would, of course, be correct in that assumption. Now before I go letting the cat out of the proverbial bag, I should mention that I've never been much of a vintage trumpet kinda guy regardless of the fact that my favorite horn is from the mid-'70s. What I am talking about is something at least 10 years older than me. My fear with a vintage horn is that it might be too vintage: parts that might be difficult to replace, wear that would require installing non-original parts, or a leadpipe that would require an unusual matching mouthpiece configuration. That's probably why when it comes to vintage that I tend to look at mid-20th Century stuff. Post WWII modernization and industry bridged the gap to what we consider contemporary today, so many things are still in great shape and are perfectly compatible with the m...

My bacterial respiratory infection started to finally clear up about a week ago but, as is typical when your immune system is compromised, a head cold decided to take up residence on its heels. I had one day of feeling decent and getting some sleep and then it was right back into not being able to breathe for another 4 or 5 days. However, by the time the weekend came around, I felt well enough to head over to Baltimore Brass to see if they had anything of interest in stock. This was my first visit to this particular store and they had roughly 50 or so new and used trumpets on display. In particular, their website indicated they had an Edwards Generation II, a 1963 King Super 20, and an Adams A4L, all of which I was looking forward to trying. I walked in, figured out where the trumpet section was and quickly sized up the display. The first one I tried was the Super 20 and I have to say it made a very favorable impression on me. In fact, I played it the longest of the three. It ...

Ok, so the title for this post is pretty melodramatic, but there is more than a little about it that is fitting. Two days ago my long-forgotten favorite trumpet came back into my hands after an overhaul by Charlie Melk. To say I was excited to see her again is an understatement. I unwrapped her with some serious nervousness. And then, there she was... After marveling at how amazing she looked from various angles for a few minutes, I went about my routine of checking all valves and slides in preparation for a test playing. Man, the slides were immaculate and slid so smoothly! I noted that the 1st valve slide was no longer out of round and the 3rd slide had been appropriately tightened a bit as I'd requested. I think the valves looked better than when I'd first bought the trumpet from the original owner back in 1983. Charlie had mentioned that he'd replaced the springs with a stronger batch, and indeed the valves felt quick and sure. If you've never played a set of G...

After a thorough examination of my old Getzen Eterna Severinsen Large Bore Model trumpet, Charlie Melk, of Charlie's Brass Works in Georgia, provided me with two options: partial restoration with spot-plating as necessary, or complete restoration and re-plating. Both options were about what I expected for a job of this nature. Charlie said the horn was in good shape for its age and it only had plating wear in a few places. All of the rest of the work was going to be pretty ordinary repair work with the exception of the leadpipe since those of that era have not been made in a long time, and current Getzen replacement leadpipes are simply not the same. He mentioned mine was probably one of the last of that particular style, as well, even though the Severinsen Model was manufactured quite a few more years after mine. Given all of this information, it really boiled down to going the extra mile to have it look like a new trumpet with a complete re-plating job or just clean it thoro...

As I've mentioned previously, I've been having a discussion with a brass guru, Charlie Melk, regarding the possibility of having my favorite trumpet fully restored. Today he asked for some photos to get an idea of the work involved outside of the obvious: replacing the leadpipe which has red rot. So this evening after I returned home from work, I pulled the old girl out of the mothballs, so to speak. Now, you have to realize that the last time this horn saw the light of day was roughly 22 years ago. I was more than a little apprehensive of what I would find when I opened its case. Was it black with tarnish? Were the slides stuck? My biggest fear was frozen valves since they had always been one of my favorite features. I took a deep breath and opened the case... To my surprise, she hadn't turned to dust like the irrational part of my brain kept telling me to expect. In fact, the tarnish didn't even look that bad. I tugged on the main tuning slide and, after a mom...