CapoFirstFret

Hey guys, I'm new here and pretty much new to brass period. I'm a 25 year old music theory student (will have my bachelor's in a year and a half, then off to grad school). I'm a guitarist primarily but I also dabble and perform on a variety of instruments and decided to give brass a shot. Well I snagged a cornet in good condition (all slides work, only one tiny ding in the tubing, good mouthpiece, no valve issues besides a little dryness which was remedied immediately). I've never heard of the company nor have any of the folks at school. I couldn't find anything searching the internet so thought I'd take this to you guys.

The cornet is a brass color with Silvetta across the bell. Also has Stradolin down the piping. I can't find anything on them and I don't expect it to be anything special, just wanted to get a bit more of an idea where it came from. I snagged it for $100 and for a working cornet in pretty good condition, I wasn't complaining.


Thanks! And any advice for a beginning brass player would be helpful!

Cornet1

If you are trying to get into brass playing do these four things if nothing else;

1) Establish a clear articulation habit by using the tongue to sound the rythym of 'Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang'....don't worry about the pitches at this stage just get that tonguing habit.

2) Establish a breathing habit by using the yoga breathing excercise called 'purple air'......imagine that you are watching yourself inhale purple air down into your legs and then up into your body until full of purple air,....then, time yourself to see how long you can use the air to play a tone,...don't worry if it sounds rough,...extend by a second a day if possible.

3)Get to a teacher at the first opportunity to correct any bad habits which you have unwittingly picked up.

4)Understand absolutely that brass playing is all about placing good habits while eliminating bad ones.

Good luck!

study888

Hello Capo. Hope you find out the info. on your cornet. It is a new make to me also. You may have a top of the line cornet and not know it yet. I waited to long to post for info. on a King Golden Flair and 22B Conn New York Symphony trumpets. And two very nice and top of the line vintage pro- horns got past me on e-bay. In fact if I had posted sooner. If I had not won the Golden Flair myself. There were some of the fellows on this site and the Trumpet Herald that were interested also. Of course if all of us had got in on the bidding. Who knows were the bidding would have stopped.HaHa I lucked up on a 1948 King Master cornet in very good conditon advertised as a king 600 trumpet. Won it for $145.00 plus shipping. They are well designed cornets and fit in the hand like a custom fitted glove. Will keep a eye on your post and see what sort of horn you have there. If it plays and sounds good. At that price. You have lost nothing. I may have bought the last new stock 4X1 Al Cass cornet mouthpiece from Steve Cass. That alone was $100.00. If Cornet1 is still following this topic. I hope he continues to post his thoughts on playing the cornet. It was very informative to me. As I am a older come-back player. I have had to go to small bore horns. Due to not having as strong a lungs as when I was younger. Also for help in embrochure set up. You may want to do the first two or three exercises listed in the Carmine Caruso muscial tech. book for brass players. Now I am just a rookie. Cornet1 seems to know his stuff. I would seek his advice first. I now have a great and easy tongue exercises I can do riding down the road and back. Later

oldlou

Go to Horn-u-copia. com and scroll down to Stradolin. It seems from the limited information available per Stradolin instruments that they were made in New York by a pair of immmigrant brothers from The Ukrain. They specialised in high quality Ukelaili's,( sp) and were known to farm out the manufacture of several kinds of other musical instruments to other makers, having the Stradolin name on all of the instruments, no matter who the maker.

plp

I have a Silvetta trumpet that is stamped 'East Germany' in english on the valve cluster (not DDR, as I would suspect, nor anything in German) which backs up the import idea. I've posted on this on TH, pretty much like you, trying to find information on it.

My observations are that these are very well assembled, but mine is made of less than top quality materials. The valves are like new, but are bare brass, and would wear out pretty quickly if subjected to heavy playing for any period of time. The fit and finish is excellent, but looks like it was assembled from plumbing parts! To top it all off, it is either nickel or chrome plated, yes, I said chrome.

This is the brightest playing trumpet I've ever played, bar none. It has that razor edge to the tone, even in the lower register, and slots very well to the top of my range, at E above high C. I suspect in the hands of an accomplished lead player, you could slay oxen with it.