What Are You Weighting For?

Oncewasaplayer · Heavyweight Member Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 526

Brian, if you can, ask Flip how the long cornet plays with different weight caps. I have a medium weight on valve three (but it's not one of Flip's weights).
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Lawler C7 Trumpet
Lawler Cornet
Flip Oakes American Long Cornet

shofarguy · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:05 pm Post subject:

shofarguy · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:14 pm Post subject:

Capt.Kirk · Heavyweight Member Joined: 24 Feb 2009 Posts: 1316

No Brain I do not have a problem with it I was just teasing you! It is all in fun! Myself I like Carmel Mochachino(sp) but I also do plain old double double with plain coffee! 6 son's I am suprised you have any sanity left my 3 drive me 1/2 crazy every day!
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The only easy day was yesterday!

shofarguy · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject:

Oncewasaplayer · Heavyweight Member Joined: 24 Sep 2007 Posts: 526

I was curious about what Flip Oakes recommended about heavy caps on his Long cornet. (Also I was curious about the silver heavy caps I have that look different than the ones being discussed here.) Here's his reply:

"Sounds like the heavy cap you have is the Kanstul heavy cap. What do I recommend? I recommend what ever works for you, meaning that perhaps you should try some others? But telling you what to use can only be found through trial and error. I like the horn just plain stock, but different strokes for different folks, and your mpc. selection, could also influence your decision, as well as your playing situation and acoustics."
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Lawler C7 Trumpet
Lawler Cornet
Flip Oakes American Long Cornet

shofarguy · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:10 pm Post subject:

Update:

I have been playing the Chicago flugelhorn exclusively with the middle-size weighted caps w/O-rings and the "Swirling Vortex of Terror!" mouthpiece. Comments about the sound keep coming in. I'll let Dave Edwards give his own account when he returns home from his San Francisco trip.

I was scheduled to play last Sunday for three contemporary services and had decided to use the heaviest caps on the WT for it, because they really help hold the tone together in the upper and lower registers. They help me hit those upper notes with more accuracy, too. As long as I am careful to only let them touch the bottom of the valve casing threads, and not over tighten them, they do not hinder the horn at all.

Alas, just five minutes before the 8:00 service started, I slipped a disc, or something, in the base of my back. I was just able to get the WT back on its stand before I hit the floor of the stage, unable to support my weight any longer.

I am recovering now, having seen my chiropractor yesterday. I'll go back tomorrow for a follow-up and see if I can go to work on Thursday.

Those heavy weights are slowly becoming favorites of mine.

Brian
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Flip Oakes Wild Thing
LA Benge 5X
Kanstul 1025 Flugel

There is one reason that I practice: to be ready at the downbeat when the final trumpet sounds.

jcmacman · Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:53 am Post subject:

Brian, where do you play? I would love to come down for a listen.
john
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I don't know anything about music. In my line, you don't have to.

Elvis Presley

shofarguy · Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:18 pm Post subject:

crzytptman · Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:19 pm Post subject:

Retlaw · Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:25 am Post subject:

shofarguy · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:42 am Post subject:

It's been awhile since I hurt my back, but I am... oh, 90% better now. I just had the first rehearsal of any kind since "hitting the deck", as it were.

It was for my Orchestra, and I had no trouble playing, but was pretty much spent chops-wise after just an hour. Three weeks of no significant playing isn't good for endurance!

Anyway, I asked my friend Jerry to hang around for a bit, afterward to help me with an experiment. I wanted to try my Wild Thing with the heavy weights and compare the sound with O-rings and without.

I had been practicing in a great room of a house I'm painting (my son and I stay there during the week, as it's a fight through LA traffic to get there and back each day) and thought that the O-rings made the horn brighter sounding than without them. Knowing that room size can alter the ultimate sound, I wanted to redo the comparison in my usual venue.

It's true. Adding the weights makes the stock horn sound more resonant in the lower and higher registers, but calms the harmonics down giving it a nice dark (like espresso!) tone in the low and mid-range.

Adding the O-rings between the caps and horn brings back the full spectrum of overtones while still holding the tone together in the extremities of range.

So, I'm going to use the weights with O-rings when I need brilliance and not when I want a calmer sound. If I really want to do the "lounge" act, I'll just go stock and get that nice smokey thing going.

Now, I just need a #1 J slide... Mm, mm, MM!

Brian
_________________
Flip Oakes Wild Thing
LA Benge 5X
Kanstul 1025 Flugel

There is one reason that I practice: to be ready at the downbeat when the final trumpet sounds.