Olds Ambassador Cornets - Trigger Addition Pictures

[mncorrado]

I am remiss in not posting a few pictures of the Olds Ambassador cornets I had modified. I initially had some work done on the instruments which involved having the 1st and 3rd valve slides reversed. I also had a saddle rings added to the 1st valve slides. The 3rd valve slides then had a longer ring attached to a piece of rod.

While the setup did work fairly decently... in the end it was difficult for my girls to use the ring and saddle setup. Once the Besson 928 came with the squeezable triggers they found that was much easier to use. More strength squeezing vs. extending fingers.

Charlie Melk did his magic on the cornets and now the vintage Ambassadors have functional triggers that work really well. The girls like them as they are easy to squeeze and they get the bonus of better intonation.

One of the cornets did not have much finish left at all so I told Charlie just to strip away whatever was left. In one of the pictures you can see the vintage look the cornet now has. The pictures with the shiny look is the cornet that was just finished up by Charlie. It has yet to patina but eventually will look like the other instrument.

There is some satisfaction on the part of the girls that some students or parents at concerts look at them and try to figure out what kind of trumpet they play. More so as they sure don't look like all of the other trumpets in the band. I suspect some of them figure we dumpster dove to find it.

The valves are super light and fast in both of the cornets. They sound wonderful with the girls playing on the DW-4BW mouthpieces. I opted for the wider rim when they started as not to induce so much fatigue. Also with the idea of them not having a pinched sound especially as their range increased. So far so good on that.

I purchased both of the cornets for less than $70. New cases cost more than the instruments themselves. Yup the triggers were pretty expensive but they came out amazing. The instruments are built like tanks and they really do have a nice full sound. Their band directors will not complain about them using the instruments in the program as the girls do play well and with the functional triggers they are able to play in tune with those pesky problematic pitches.

If I were to do it again or offer any advice for someone reading this post in the future thinking about a similar project. I would have just gone with the triggers from the get go.

One thing I have noticed with my oldest girl playing the Olds vs. the Besson 928 is this sound wise. This coming from a euphonium player through graduate school... the fundamental sound is not that much different. What I do notice is that the Besson has just a bit darker sound and is a bit more complex for lack of a better term. Just a bit more clear and deeper sounding.

Based on that would I buy a new 928 vs. the vintage Ambassador? Nope... more so because I don't have $3000 plus dollars for one, the girls are not even thinking of being music majors in college, plus the fact while there is a sound difference... it is not a $3000 difference. Yes, equipment does matter but it matters most who is buzzing into the mouthpiece in the end perhaps more than anything else. My oldest daughter has started to be much more confident in her playing besting others in part assignments and auditions playing her "dumpster" cornet vs. the students playing nice shiny trumpets that don't sound nearly as good as musicians. New and shiny does not make one a good musician. What makes a musician is mostly between the ears... not a hunk of metal or wood. I think at times we all lose sight of that.

In the end triggers on the old vintage cornets are amazing and the 928 is an amazing cornet as well. Fun stuff...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ERax40FADyOSaf7qkW6QIeOy7mejvr7S

[Dennis78]

Cool!
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a few different ones