mike ansberry

I have been kind of a fanatic about vintage horns lately. I got a Conn 40B and an Olds Super/Ultrasonic. I have been enjoying the 40b but the Olds seems kind of stuffy. Anyway,I took them on a jazz quintet gig yesterday. Neither horn could come anywhere close to playing as well as my Eclipse MR. I thought maybe the 40B would give it a run for its money, but the 40B ended up being just too bright. The 40B plays well and has the best valves of any horn I've ever played, including the Bauerfind on my Eclipse. Maybe a 48B would be the vintage horn for me?

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"Music is a fire in your belly that has to come out of your mouth, so you'd better put a horn in the way before someone gets hurt" (paraphrase of Bleeding Gums Murphy)

Eclipse MR in scratch gold
Olds Super/Ultrasonic
Conn 40B
Leblanc Paris large bore with Bach mouthpipe
Bach 37
Olds L-12 Flugel
Benge Picc
Buescher Cornet made in 1914
American Standard (King?) beginner trumpet (crap)

Willing to provide a good home for a stray Conn 48B or Olds Recording

A.N.A. Mendez

Those later supers are a crapshoot, they tend to be very loud/projection type horns in my experience. Great for lead or marching band....

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(Above) Alexanders ragtime band-circa 1960

"Baby, I'm already the coolest, and the hippist, now you want me to be on time too?" Buddy Love

"We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and our best generals to edit our newspapers." Robert E. Lee

jonterman

I just got an early 50's Olds Super Cornet, I've been playing it all weekend - my Yamaha 8335LA trumpet is in danger of taking 2nd position...I'm not kidding!

I guess I lucked out, don't give up!

ComeBackKid

I also just bought a SuperStar/Ultrasonic. It seems like a 'tradeoff' design. As I'm sure you noticed, it has the 'straight-through' airflow path when the valves are all open - which also means that the valves are interchangeable. It has the nylon (or whatever they are) valve stems/guides which some don't like but I don't see that as a problem. If yours plays 'stuffy' it could be that the design of the valves, while great for open notes, requires more contortions of the ports in the valves so that there is interference between the ports and thus some of the passages have constrictions in them. I have not noticed that mine seems stuffy although I do wonder about the valve design. The other possibilities are (1) valve alignment may be off, or (2) your choice of mouthpieces. It is possible that the resonance of the bell based on airflow through the valves is more sensitive to the vibration created by the mouthpiece. I have tried a number of different models and have found that some are definitely better than others for me.

But, I will say that because it is an unusual design and not common, it does attract attention when I take it to band rehearsal.

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Come-Back Kid
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Selmer Invicta London (T)
Olds SuperStar (T)
Olds Super (2T)
Olds Special (2T+C)
Olds Ambassador (9T+7C)
Andreas Eastman (2T)
Conn Director (T+C)
King Cleveland Superior (T+C)
Holton (T602+C605 Shep Crk)
Holton Collegiate (T+C)
Blessing (T+C)
Yamaha (T+C)
Getzen 300
Amati ATR213
(+Revelle, Bundy, Alcazar, & ?)

mike ansberry

My Super/Ultrasonic does not have the straight through-interchangeable valve design. I checked the alignment on the valves and the third one was quite a bit off on the down stroke. I realigned it, and the horn plays MUCH better. Now it is quite a playable trumpet. I've been playing jazz with BIAB most of this morning on it. At this point I'm pretty happy with it. I'll try it on my next jazz gig.

I want to find an inexpensive bore scope to check the up alignment. I have a reverse dental mirror, but you can't really get a good view with it. I almost bid on a used arthroscope on Shopgoodwill.com, but was kind of afraid of where it might have been in the past.

__________________
"Music is a fire in your belly that has to come out of your mouth, so you'd better put a horn in the way before someone gets hurt" (paraphrase of Bleeding Gums Murphy)

Eclipse MR in scratch gold
Olds Super/Ultrasonic
Conn 40B
Leblanc Paris large bore with Bach mouthpipe
Bach 37
Olds L-12 Flugel
Benge Picc
Buescher Cornet made in 1914
American Standard (King?) beginner trumpet (crap)

Willing to provide a good home for a stray Conn 48B or Olds Recording

A.N.A. Mendez

Don't move those valves around, when new it may have been OK but now they have seated in their tubes and won't like it in another. I STILL say the super star is way under rated.....Nothing like the super, really. What;'s the bore on yours?

__________________
(Above) Alexanders ragtime band-circa 1960

"Baby, I'm already the coolest, and the hippist, now you want me to be on time too?" Buddy Love

"We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and our best generals to edit our newspapers." Robert E. Lee

Indian

The 40B was made in an era where birght was in vouge, demand and was the preferred toen for a trumpet. Remember many bands of this era did not have electronic amplification. Bright horns were needed as well as liked. Dark horns came about later. These old horns were made to be bright, stand out and be heard. This should not be a surprise, the horn was playing the way it was designed to.

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Rob,
King Liberty SilverTone (3)
King Liberty (7) Super 20 (2)
Conn Vocabell 40A - 40B - 80A (6) - 81A (1) - 38A Victor (2) - 22B - 16B, 12B Coprion bell
Getzen Tone Balanced Super Deluxe
Holton French LeBlanc (1) - Al Hirt 550
Olds Studio (1) - Special (1)

ComeBackKid

It turns out that it probably won't matter if I switch them. They look like they need to be replated. They all have lack of compression. Also, that keeps the horn from playing as well as it could. So, right now it's hard for me to compare. But my Supers are really great players so this one will need to really shine to keep up.

I am waiting for my son to bring his micrometer over but in the meantime, I found that I can interchange the slides with both an Ambassador and a Special so I guess it is .460?

__________________
Come-Back Kid
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Selmer Invicta London (T)
Olds SuperStar (T)
Olds Super (2T)
Olds Special (2T+C)
Olds Ambassador (9T+7C)
Andreas Eastman (2T)
Conn Director (T+C)
King Cleveland Superior (T+C)
Holton (T602+C605 Shep Crk)
Holton Collegiate (T+C)
Blessing (T+C)
Yamaha (T+C)
Getzen 300
Amati ATR213
(+Revelle, Bundy, Alcazar, & ?)