New Horn, *way* too much condensation

[dkasak]

Hi all. I've been playing for about 35 years now, mostly on the same horn ( Schilke MK II ), and I've recently gotten myself a new horn, a Jupiter JTR-812-RL ( on advice from a friend, and he wasn't wrong ). I'm loving it But I'm having a big issue with condensation. It just builds up so fast. It seems like every 16-bar phrase I have to let some out, or it gurgles. It's also making it's way into the 1st valve slide, so I have to take it out, tip the horn up on end and blow the condensation out ( and be careful not to spray myself with it ). Finally, quite a bit just comes out the bell. I've never seen so much condensation build up so quickly. When I got the new horn, I also got a new mouthpiece ( a Kelly 'Screamer' ) - which I'm also liking a lot. It's plastic or some kind of synthetic material. Maybe this is contributing? I'm pretty sure I'm not blowing a lot more air into the new horn. What's going on here?

[trombahonker]

dunno about why you're getting more, but there's no need to take the 1st slide out. The top tube of the 1st slide goes back to the main tuning slide. Think it through - you can just depress the 1st valve and tip the horn and do a light shake to get the water back in to the main slide, or third slide, or wherever you want. Same goes with 2nd or 3rd slides if you don't want to remove them. Just a matter of putting the valve down and shaking the water back to where you want it for removal.
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[roynj]

You changed both to a new horn and also a different mouthpiece. We know that the plastic mp itself would contribute only a scant amount of condensation into the instrument. So it's the new horn. Could be that the nice new brass is a bit more efficient at cooling the interior surfaces of the instrument such that more condensation occurs. Are you normally playing in an air conditioned room where the ambient temp will more quickly cool the horn to the point where condensation will more quickly build up? I've had this happen on some instruments as well, and found that when I play with "warm" air, I end up putting more water into the horn which, in turn, results in more condensation.

No need to remove slides to get the water out. As the other poster indicated, you can depress the valves and give the horn a shake with the 3rd slide water key open. All the condensation will shake out. It's a little more civilized not to get covered with spray out of your horn. lol.

[maynard-46]

If nothing else works...turn the horn 360 degrees around like a french horn...it'll pour out the leadpipe! I have to do this on occasion with my flugel. Keep the area of the tuning slide cleaned on the inside with a snake as sometimes gook ends up settling there.

Butch
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[Dayton]

It is possible that the problem isn't the condensation in your Jupiter building up more quickly than it did in your Schilke. Perhaps the problem is that you are not getting all of the water out of your horn when you use your water key.

It might be worth having a technician take a look at your tuning slide to see if a stray bit of solder or some other debris is impeding the flow of water to the water key hole (so that it goes around the hole rather than down it).

Good luck!

[Andy Del]

If it's the model I'm thinking of, then it has an Amado water key, which often won't get all the water out easily, especially if the fitting is less than optimal...

Get it checked, and pre empty the water - if it gurgles, you have waited far too long!

cheers

Andy

p.s. Is your mate's name Will, by any chance?
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[Robert P]

I've always seemed to generate a lot of slobber when I play. More recently playing piccolo trumpet is even worse - both completely dissimilar horns - a rotary Chinese cheapie and a Getzen Eterna picc constantly need to be de-drooled.
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[dkasak]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Yeah, I guess I didn't think through my options for condensation in the 1st valve slide - but in my defense, I've never had to deal with it before.

[Seymor B Fudd]

[Turkle]

I had this problem with a horn once. Turns out there was some gunk trapped in the water key. Once I got in there with a pipe cleaner and got the crud out of there my problem magically went away.

Sounds to me like you have some blockage of the water key for some reason that is preventing adequate drainage. Either there's gunk/crud buildup or maybe when the water key was installed some solder got in there?
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Curry 3.

[trumpethead]

I just recently bought one of these as they are great horns (basically akin to the Ingram model but way cheaper).

They stopped making these years ago and I searched everywhere for one. There are/were only 2 left in Australia. I bought one, you must have bought the other.

I haven't played mine much as yet but have owned two previously, and don't have your water problem, so not sure what it could be.

[jazzhorn04]

I have this same problem with my horn except it's the 2nd valve slide. It's a BAC Brass Trombone Shorty signature model and it's the only horn I've ever had that does this.

[pepperdean]

I second Andy's suggestion. I, too, had a similar challenge with a new horn. It turned out that there was a partial blockage in the opening into the Amado water key. I thought I was emptying the condensation but it was only partly true. A quick disassembly and fully opening the port resolved the issue. You might give it a try.

BTW, be careful when taking the Amado key apart so as not to lose any of the little pieces. If you've never done it before, Flip Oakes has a nice video demonstrating how to easily accomplish the task.

Alan

[Brad361]

[abontrumpet]

According to etc-etc, it's the sign of an efficient horn:

https://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=81177&highlight=condensation