Quote:
Originally Posted by 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 |
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.