You didn't mention who made the horn, but there's really a lot of variation. If it's a King, all bets are off. Nobody can feel comfortable with those. It's a little known fact that the head horn designer at King back in the old days, Mr. Herman M. Sasquatch (the M stands for Munster), was approximately 11 ft. tall and could palm two basketballs at the same time. Well, a King could be made comfortable but they do have an extra extra large grip so it would take a little fooling around. I kind of think a lot of the comfort factor is affected by how far in or out the piston valve is located. Hmm, how to picture this, I mean if you set the horn flat on a table, would the piston valve be closer or farther away from the surface of the table? Often that distance gets messed up if the horn's been taken apart and reassembled badly sometime over the years. I have a real Schmidt that I finally ended up kind of resting the piston valve on the palm of my hand and reaching around to the finger levers. The piston valve got moved closer to the table in a previous life so otherwise I would have to reach back to work it. If it's the distance from the finger levers to the top of the piston button, maybe the finger levers could be bent upward a bit. See if you can find a spot where it feels good to operate the piston valve while just letting your main 3 fingers fall wherever they feel comfortable. Your 3rd finger for instance might be resting on the 2nd valve platter. If you mess around with that a bit, you might be able to come up with a position that feels comfortable, then the horn can be changed to fit your hand. Of course the pinky hook can be moved anywhere you want. Do the same thing, find wherever your hand feels good when operating the piston, without worrying about valves 1,2,3, then move the pinky hook there. A strap probably would be kind of cool too. To experiment, tie a shoelace around the pinky hook or a nearby brace and adjust it to the right length. That will give you an idea of whether a strap would be helpful. I have a soft spot for Schmidts, but as usual you don't get the real Schmidt sound unless you have a real Schmidt. The copies only copy the shape, not the playing characteristics.
- Steve Mumford _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
