JRFIII

Well Gang,

I don't know for sure who made this horn. I picked it up on Valentine's day 2008 for $100.00. It was as tarnished then as an old penny.

I've cleaned it up and it works fine. I love playing it with the mouthpiece that came with it. I have all the slides moving. I've replaced the cork pads with felts and put new top springs in. Replaced spit-valve corks as well.

The valves are numbered 7, 8, and 9 instead of 1, 2, and 3.

No leaks cracks or major dents.

How do you think it looks?

cornet 003 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
cornet 005 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
cornet 007 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
cornet 001 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
cornet 002 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

tedh1951

Wow. Silver finish always looks good - nice cleaning job.

JRFIII

Thanks, Ted,

But it is actually raw brass. I took thepictures outside on a very sunny day...

tedh1951

Wow Jim,
I'm even more impressed with the finish - are you going to let it "age for sound" or will you keep the lovely finish and make wonderful loud shiney music.

I very much like it the way you have it - but I'm horrified at the work committment you have set yourself - just a thought though, if you intend keeping it loud and shiney, try practising in cotton gloves - I use this trick to keep my lacquered Eterna 900 in top shape - it undoubtedly helps to keep it sparkly clean.

Voltrane

Hello,

as I have seen some pictures of the Besson, Class A New Creation, Prototype...Carl Fischer sole Agent, and so on, cornet in this thread (like the very first picture posted by MJ) I take the opportunity to ask the owners what they think about this horn.
I got one for a few € in the same shape than MJ'one, with a serial number (9743X) dating around 1910 and wonder how it could play after a good maintenance. Does it worth the investment (in a player point of view, not a collector's one)?
Thanks a lot
Marc

JRFIII

Ted,

Thanks for the suggestion on the gloves. I am going to do that.

luckily, it seems to clean up well with Brasso when I need to clean it. Iplay it nearly every day, so the idea of the extra protection of gloves is something that made me think, "Duh?" Yet I didn't even consider it.

Regards,

Jim

KRax!

Hi!
I sent you a PM, not sure it arrived, so here´s my view again:
I depends on what you want to do with it!

Mine was playable (I have sold it) and not in need of restauration, valves were not tight but not leaky either, as I said playable. However the push stroke was rather long so valves were rather slow and therefor I never used it for fast songs, but I loved to use it for slow hymns, ballads, chorals and blues (whenever I picked it up I always played Saint James Infirmary). Intonation was good (with the proper mouthpiece) and the tone was as buttery as it should be and really huge when pushed.

However I suspect that there could be some blending problems if playing it in a modern band or orchestra. I do not play in any brass band but I played it as a "trumpet" on one rehearsal with my community band. It was so-so, I have used more modern cornets rehearsals too (I feel sorry for my poor conductor sometimes, but then I get a new instrument and just have to try it on the next rehearsal) and they blended better. With this Besson I had to be spot on on intonation to blend at all.

So, as I said, it depends on what you want to use it for. For example, if I had played in an old style blues band I would have kept it.

KRax!

Here is a cornet of unknown origin. It is pretty beat up but silver polish can do wonders!

Any info is appreciated. There is no name in the engraving but a small "p" is stamped on the valve block along the serial number (?) 62.

veery715

Looks very similar to my King HN White from 1904 - it's my avatar. The one slide with the screw stop adjustment will take it down to A.

KRax!

Thanks! King is a new idea. It has the same kind of three legged valve guides, but I guess other American manufacturers used that design too. Problem is that there seem to be many cornets that look almost like it, but I have not yet met the "This one look exactly like my..." opinion.

Anyway, to motivate this reply I'll add another photo. I know that there are people out there who love aged lacquer. This one I received this week, an old Cavalier cornet. Makes me think about roasted almonds.