old geezer

I have been a "Bach" basher for years, having owned 5 or 6 strads in the last 20+ years and always being disapointed after the newness wore off. I have owned a Mt. Vernon since last Dec. and am still in love with it. a couple of months ago I bought a couple of Monette mouthpieces and they feel and sound good to me. well last night after reh. the sound man came up to me and said he loved my "rich" sound. talk about making an old man feel good. I believe that I may have stumbled across the right set up for me ( Manny helped a bit with the mouthpiece advice-give credit where credit is due). I firmly believe there are good and bad of any product, it just took me a while to find a good Bach. so---- guys when you are busy bashing a big name product always consider different not all horns of a certain brand are bad just as all horns of a certain brand are good. old geezer Dave
my trusty Benge 2 MLP works a lot better for big band for me, and I am using a Monette B5 LD with it.

W Scott

Well, you have to not pay so much attention to the name on the bell and instead see who made the horn! There is just no comparison between the old Mt. Vernon Bachs' and the new junk made by a big corporation.

Another example would be the old Conn 22B's and Constellations. The new 22B's are student level horns and aren't built well---but the old horns are hand built, pro level horns as good as they come. The new horns are built by a huge corporation (UMI), the old Conns were built by a small group of artists in Indiana.

Same with many of the grand old horns of the past---Benge, Olds, Conn, Bach, Selmer, etc.

rjzeller

Dave;

I had the same experience in reverse. I played for years on a 1972 Bach Strad and thought it was the cat's meow of trumpet. Then I finally started to feel I was overplyaing it a bit and began my quest for a new horn.

I had been a staunch Bach bigot for years, wouldn't touch anything else. So I tried several new Bach horns and none of them "felt" right. Finally I decided, "well, I really shouldn't limit my opportunities like this...I need to try everything." So I did.

I tried Shilke, Yamaha, and Getzen. I'll never thank the local music dealer enough for turning me to the horn I have now. As far as I knew at the time, the Getzen Eterna II was their top-notch pro horn, and I my dissregard for Getzen at the time was roughly equal to my high regard for Bach. But not wanting to be close-minded about things, I called up Wellhaven music and asked for a couple of their best Eternas to try.

When I go there, he brought out an Eterna II and another horn I had never seen before. "That's a Getzen?" I posed.

"That's a Getzen," he confimed. So I took the two horns home and played them. After about twenty minutes on the Eterna II I never picked that horn up again. I tried the new horn, a Renaissance, and it blew me away!

I immiedately sent the Eterna back and asked for large bore version of the Renaissance. They sent one on approval and after a week on it, I found that all the other horns just didn't feel right anymore. I had found my baby. I've yet to find a horn I like to play better. In fact, most of my students love playing the thing too.

My only regret?

Hearing ML play his Monette next to my Getzen. Ugh. Talk about a sound you could swim in and float on for days. Geeze. If you ever think you sound good or your equippment sounds good, go listen to ML play his Monette...sigh...

Of course, what's the cost difference? About two Taylors and a Renaissance....so I suppose my horn is doing just fine....that is, until I trade it up for that genesis...

(really shortened reader's digest version of all that jumbo...just make sure you try anything and everything before you buy, let not a bias be your guide).

Z

old geezer

my wife is a really good player and she doesn't care what brand a horn is - if it plays in tune - plays like she wants it to - has the tone she is looking for then that is the horn she plays. we went all over the place last year trying to buy a flugal and no matter what I tried to talk her into she prefered the top of the line Jean Baptiste [curse you Sam Ash]. she liked the way it played,sounded and the intonation better then Bach,Jupiter, Blessing, Yamaha and several others so that is what she bought. lo and behold when we got it home we discovered it was made by B&S. I think sometimes a better player isn't concerned as much by name but more how the horn plays. what a concept. old geezer Dave