Fidel

Two Ebay specials:-
Blessing Super Artist Trumpet (early 60s) - £100
Conn Victor 80A Cornet (1946) - £52
I guess no one else was looking. Both of these horns have valves and compression like new, I suspect the Conn has had a valve job. These are both fantastic classic instruments that blow the competition clean out of the water; to get this kind of quality from a new instrument would cost mega bucks. They are both large bore horns with incredible response,focus and tone. I took a gamble which paid off - bigtime.
Some may think large bore = harder to fill and maybe a bit woolly. This is not the case. Dark tone - yes thats true but the Blessing projects like a laser and the Conn has a big fat sound. Both of these instruments were a revelation to me. Their reputatation is well deserved.

bianchiboy

I had my first trumpet stolen in my last year at secondary school (it was a B&M Champion). Went to University and didn't play for 3 years, then saw a battered old laquered trumpet and an almost immaculate silver plated cornet next to each other in a Junk shop. The "gold" trumpet had a £50 price tag and the cornet was going for £45 (this was 20 years ago, but was still cheap). The trumpet was useless, but the cornet was a Getzen Eterna. It came with a case, 3 mouthpieces, and 2 mutes.

I played it for about 3 years and, as I mainly played in a brass ensemble, traded it +£50 for a 2nd hand Getzen Eterna Piccolo. 5 years later, the piccolo got me £600 in a trade in for a Schilke picc!

During all of this, I also managed to get an immaculate 2nd hand Olds Super for £300 from a shop that was about to close down.

I'm not always that lucky though

tedh1951

I picked up a nice old Boosey and Hawkes Imperial Tenor Horn from eBay at AUD$50 - it cost AUD$75 to ship, but when I opened the case, the seller had included a brand new Denis Wick gold plated #5 mouthpiece (valued in Australia @ AUD$143), and all the horn needed was a clean - beautiful. It's nice for a little bit of brass band work and gives me some transposition practice - nice tone too when "her indoors" has a headache. There ARE bargains to be had, and not everyone is out to fleece you. The world IS a positive place, except for feral cats, foxes, and VM.

Gaucho Viejo

I just joined up here and thought instead of the usual "hello, my name is" first time post I'd jump in with a response to an interesting older thread I happened upon.

I was in a pawn shop in North Idaho (University town) and found a Holton ST200 - Bud Brisbois Bb trumpet. The guy wanted $200 for it. I put the mouthpiece in it and tried to get a sound out of it and got the breath stuffed right back down my throat. I took out each of the valves thinking one had been put back in backwards and the numbers were all facing the same direction. The guy says to me "you can't get a sound out of it either, huh? How about $180?" I bought it, took it home and looked more closely at the valves. The holes on the second valve, even though it had the number facing the MP, didn't line up but I could see that, if I put it in "backwards" it would. Once that was done it played great; a little brighter than what I was used to but it is my first silver horn and Brisbois was known for high altitude, cut through everything playing. I think $180 was a pretty good deal.

Tim

Robert Rowe

Welcome, Tim.

Nice "score". Hope to hear more from you.


~ Namaste ...
Yogi Robt

--- more Mel Bay ... less eBay ---

Gaucho Viejo

Robt:

Thanks for the warm response. Maybe I should update my list of horns to include the Conn Director 18A (cornet) with Coprion bell I got at an antique store for $50 last year and the nice "Buffet Crampon" Bb made in Germany I got from a nice, if a little eccentric, brassophile out on the Eastern Seaboard. Regards from my new place of employment (Washington State University).

Tim

MFfan

I would have to count most of my horn list, except the Barrington(new) and the Remington, as prizes to me from Ebay, Shopgoodwill and Craigslist. My latest is the vintage Czech trumpet, probably 30's somewhere which came in a molded stiff cloth case which had a label reading Bull's Head Music, the standard for musicians for 60 yrs. The horn had no serial or bell markings and was from a Mission store in Pittsburgh, I think. I stripped the lacquer and polished the raw brass. It seems to be a small bore with a receiver in which a standard mp fits in about a quarter inch less than usual.

The instrument plays in tune, has a nice tone when not pushed and
up higher sort of "peels the paint" more than my others. No dents except a small one on the bell pipe curve. For $34 plus$10 shipping it has turned out well so far.

IAmBrassman

In 1989 I bought a 1979 Model, Getzen Eterna Severinsen, in a pawn shop -- -- for $50. Full playable condition the day I walked out with it. When I got it home, I found a mouthpiece hiding under some of the case fabric (it was torn). A Jet-Tone DS2 -- the slightly shallower version of the Doc Severinsen signature series.

billybix76

WOW. I had an ST200 way back when and could knock down a building in a single breath. Very big time horn...One of the best Holton ever built. They go for about $900-1500 now if in good shape. rare find.

I found a 1973 L.A. Benge 5x in a pawn shop last month...for $400...snatched it up on the spot and sold my old Conn 38B for close to a $1000 so i made money and got a better horn...(for me anyway)

Gaucho Viejo

To quote Britney "I think I've done it again". Went by the pawn shop last night and they had a 1937 King Liberty; silver with the "square" art deco bracing and the gold wash inside the bell. It was very dirty and tarnished under the dirt. All of the slides were fixed in place and the valves were gummy slow. There were no dents (except for a couple of minor blemishes in wierd places that looked like someone got careless with their mouthpiece or something. I walked it out of there for $200 (in the vintage alligator case).

When I got it home I tried some penetrating oil on the slides and was able to remove only the main tuning slide. I removed the valves and gave them a very serious cleaning; they are some kind of gloss-polished steel (looked almost like a chrome finish) and after I had gotten the past 70 years of gunk off of them and of the casings they were virtually "frictionless". The body I put in a hot sudsy tub and then polished with silver polish. It seems to be some kind of satin finish with gloss areas and some pretty nice art deco engraving.

I have a couple of questions: where can I get appropriate cork and felt replacements? One of the corks disintegrated upon removal and the other five (two per valve) look like they would too if I weren't careful. The felt rings (6) have become compressed over time and I don't think I can "reconstitute" them. The springs (bottom) look pristine so I'm not going to mess with them. I guess I can live with frozen slides but if you all have some wisdom for breaking up the sludge I'd appreciate any advice you can give.

Oh, incidentally, this thing really plays nice as well (I know, that's supposed to be the first consideration and it was but, from a design standpoint, it's very eyecatching and easy to get lost in its appearance). This has been lengthy, maybe I should get back to work . . .

Tim