Tootsall

Well, last night it happened: my son (grade 12) is playing in the school production of "Honk". Due to stage limitations, the "band" is on a small platform mounted 10' above the stage with access via a ladder up through a small opening. The ladder is removed once the players are in place (you better take your potty stop BEFORE the show starts).

As he handed his trumpet up to a kid already on the platform he said "Have you got it?" "Yes". "Are you certain?" "Yes, I've got it". "OK, I'm letting go now". Ahhh... the trumpet went up safely.

"OK, put the trumpet on my chair and make sure it can't slide off.... is it safe?" "Yes". "Thank you".

Two seconds later *clank* *bang* *rattle* resonates in the theatre. The horn took the hit on the bottom/back part of the bell bow, caving in the tubing, bending the back brace upwards and bending the bell tube upwards all the way forward to the 2nd valve area. It plays... barely. The kid said "Well, I thought it was safely balanced on the railing!" With a 12' drop to a solid floor involved I'm amazed that's the ONLY damage.

The kid escaped with his life... but it was a close call. My son is 6'4, 220 lb and could be playing football, not trumpet. The music teacher just buried her face in her hands. The "actors" all thought it was a giggle. My son's twin sister who is the stage manager had to leave the room before she swatted someone (she's only 6' but has a bit of a temper). The show starts Wed. morning and my Schilke is NOT going up onto that ridiculous, postage stamp with no safe access. The Besson "kind of" plays; intonation isn't great (but better than some Chinese horns). It'll get dropped off (ok, bad pun) at the local shop to see if they can coax some of the worst restrictions out of the bell bow but the horn is going to have to go to Calgary for rebuild now. Hopefully the school can come up with a loaner for the show.

KAKA!

Well, at least I know that since the horn is built by Kanstul, I can get a replacement bell if it really needs it (I'm afraid that the bell bow might split when they push the "sinkhole" out).

And that, Julius, is why we don't send expensive horns to school.

Bourbon City

Back in the sixties I was playing a Conn 60B. The band was playing at the Officer's Club at Fort Cambell. Our manager who had one too many tripped on the band stand, fell into my trumpet and sent my horn flying across the dance floor. It popped off the third valve cap and distorted the valve casing. I used a drum stick to unstick the piston and to finish the gig.

My manager excaped unharmed too. See, we trumpet players can be kind, gentle and totally under self control when we want.

Tootsall, check out my NY Light thread.

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Dale Schmidt, P.E.
Bridges to build and Rivers crossed...

Tootsall

Saw it, Dale. Glad you've found something that works for you! Now... can you get one in my hands by tomorrow morning?... including shipping time and customs clearance? (Not that I'd let it go up on that "leaning tower of musicians" anyway).

Hopefully the school will have a "beater" Yamaha that he can use until we can get the Besson repaired. He really doesn't need any better horn until he can afford it and unless he wants better since he's not going into music except as a hobby... he's applying to enter aerospace engineering next year.

green_eagle18

wow poor horn....

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Yamaha YTR - 8335 Xeno Custom Series
Bach - 1 1/2 C 24ktGP mouthpiece
University of North Texas - 2nd year

Brian H. Smout

Hi Ed,

I used to play in an R&B band with a sax player who dropped his sax on to my Benge Flugelhorn's open case. Nasty, nasty ding ...... he offered to pay for the repair but it wasn't until I sent the horn for replating that the ding was sufficiently removed for me. Left a scar on the metal though to this day. What an idiot but then again he was a sax player lol.

Cheers,

Brian

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"Swift Current - where we're neither swift nor current"

Eclipsehornplayer

Wow Ed.... :Shock:

I am lucky I've never done more then "ting" my bell off the music stand! Of course now that I've said that I expect to put a hum dinger on one of my horns now...

After that drop I'm amazed that it is not in worse shape...

Yikes.....

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Eclipse MHY Bb Trumpet with interchangable leadpipes
Bach 229 25A C Trumpet
Getzen Capri Bb Cornet
GR & Monette mouthpieces

rjzeller

safely balanced on the RAILING???

Wow.

I'm still picking my lower jaw up off the floor (which is too bad, because I'm gonig to need that lip tonight when we run through Russian Christmas Music for the umpteenth time). I would have killed the kid.

But maybe there's more to the design of the theatre than seems obvious, but I cannot believe they couldn't come up with a better solution than this elevated platform to perform in. Yikes!

I remember a jazz gig one time where the guy to the right of me dropped his horn, leaving a significant crease in the bell. Five minutes later, the guy on the other side of me dropped his trying to place it on his trumpet stand, crumpling the bell. Talk about omens! I made doubly certain that I had a firm grip on my baby and forced the other two to move as far away from me as they could.....

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who do not.

40cal

I would have had a 12 pack o'whoopass for that clown.

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“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day so that my child may have peace.”

Thomas Paine 1737-1809

“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd

Tootsall

Well, the local shop says that they can't even start work for 3 days... too late. They're also afraid that pushing out the "sinkhole" will split the bell bow... which I'm also concerned about. Guess he'll have to "make do" with a Yamaha loaner for the rest of the show. I can lend him the Schilke for the Christmas Concert (flat stage)... not the first time I've done that for him.




The 2nd slide is actually fine... that's reflection. 1st slide is a bit stiff, 3rd slide is fine! Sure hope the fine folk at Kanstul are fine!

techboy10

Wow that really sucks. I definatly would have punched anyone if they dropped my horn like that in my school (Im in 11th grade). Tell your son Im sorry to hear that happened.