Having done just about every modification you could think of, including a few "terminal" experiments (oops), to hundreds if not thousands of horns over the last many years, Here's what I'd do. As has been wisely said, first make sure the horn is mechanically sound. If you have leaky valves and leaky tuning slides, nothing else is going to help much. Second, as has also been mentioned, make sure the mouthpiece fits the leadpipe correctly. If it doesn't, you will have to work harder for pitch, response, range and sound. Don't worry, everything else will still be ok. Ha Ha! Well, step 2 is the cheapest and will help even if your horn is a bit leaky. Step 1 could cost quite a bit of money, which means maybe step 3 actually isn't such a bad idea. Step 3 I think was suggested tongue in cheek, but if you're thinking about laying out a bunch of money for a valve rebuild and then a bunch more money to experiment with leadpipes, mouthpieces, freezing, thawing, magic incantations, changing the air column in the horn to pure nitrogen etc., all of course with no guarantee of success, well, why not just buy a new/different horn that you know you like because you tried it out? International Horn Workshop coming up soon. Great place to try lots of horns and sell your old crappy one! If nothing appeals, then you may find out that you still like your present horn after all.
- Steve Mumford _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
