| I dunno...
You might try using a bigger mouthpiece for legit stuff. I find that really helps a lot, personally. It may or may not work, but who knows till you give it a go, eh?
I had an intersting conversation with John Cveonovich, a local trumpet teacher and old friend. He and the late Johnny Howell had a bunch of trumpets they got and were trying them out in Howell's old man's barber shop after hours. Afer a couple of hours of one blindfold test after another, Howell told Cveonovich, who passed it along to me many years later when I was going though lots of horns, that no matter what horn they played, once they got the feel of it they ended up sounding the same way on ALL of them; like themselves (they way they heard tumpet). I found to be food for thought.
Also, mouthpiece backbores can make a difference. Granted the cup and diameter are like shoe sizes, but the throat and backbore are an integral part of how the acoustics of the horn works. You might try some different backbores and see what happens.
I think the valves did need more breaking in. I've got the same ones right now, and it took a few days for me to get them right. Now that they're finished, I find them to be extrmely quick, but I live tight valves.
Have you done any blindfold tests? By that I mean have your teacher sit with his/her back to you and play one horn after another (the same piece, of course) and challenge them to pick out what horn you are playing. That can be quite imformative. Heck you may have already done that and I just didn't get that from the post. If that's the case, sorry!
It will be intersting to see how this all plays out! Keep at it! Have fun, in the process.
Peace.
Nick |