The way I remember the acoustical research done by Lawson was done with the premise that a detachable bell was an improvement 1, in flexibility, by being able to change size and type(brass, am-bronze etc) of flare, and 2, convenience with travel and instrument protection, with no regard to fixed bells. Why leave fixed bells out of it? Lawson horns are great instruments and their work has been invaluable,plus the guys are super cool.
While the detachable bell is an improvement in both of these areas(not to mention manufacturing, a whole other story), flexibility being the number one, notice how many people experiment with flares), I believe that the sound and quality is not as superior to a fixed bell horn and the premise is flawed. The genius Engelbert Schmid says that the hand dampens the area anyways, and it should not matter that the bell has been cut and a ring put on. I do not agree and have found every cut bell that I have played to lack a particular sound quality at the ear. It is as if the sound ends at the ring. On many horns, I think the sound is harder, brighter, and too focused as to lose the subtle overtones that lend to a true horn sound. Many times I could compare the sound of some brass cut bell horns (and players) to the sound of a Alto Trombone, lacking ANY horn qualities. These are HUGE generalizations I am making and depend so much on the player( and style) that the percentages are quite small and are based purely on personal preference. Schmid is so right in talking about these subtle percentages and improvements from one player to another. You may want to check out Schmid's website for more info. For me personally, I feel like I play with a concept to vibrate the instrument, rather than blowing through a tube. My sound even vibrates through my body, my head. I see many players try to BLOW the horn rather than sing through the horn. The horn I had growing up was cut bell, I always had the instinct to want to "attach it" again because it was such a fine horn( 400,000 28D). Notice I say instinct, I sounded good, I played well, the recordings were fine. When I got my first fixed bell I was amazed with my sound. I had no feeling of wanting to change( until a 400,000 8D came along). Now I have a 300,000 8D fixed, and my triple, fixed ( still with a crack in the bell, soon fixed i hope), I feel no desire to experiment with any different size bells or leadpipes etc.., Anyways, enjoy, Matthew Scheffelman horn __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
