Milsurp After Hours

I used to play trumpet in a high school band back about half a century ago and I saw this cornet on ebay for cheap that nobody seemed to want and couldn't resist tossing in a bid. And....I won it. It came today.

I think this instrument, made by Grand Rapids Band Instrument company has some age on it. It works just fine and I've since shined it up and put some valve oil on the valves and vasoline on the slides and otherwise cleaned it up. The odd thing about it is that it comes with two slides that don't seem to go with the horn...although there is a place that seems taylor made to fit one or the other of the odd pieces in the case it came in.

It has me shaking my head. I thought maybe one slide was to convert a b flat horn to some other key but none of these attachments look like they could attach. Any idea's?

I figured it out. One of the C tubes connects with the other stranger looking piece. Looks strange but has a nice mellow sound when played.

I've since bought one more Cornet. It's an Olds Ambassador model cornet of about the same vintage as my long time original owned trumpet. It was only $45 from Ebay....but I had to straighten out the bell a bit. And then the wild notion to display them came over me. I have this book case I bought a couple of year ago for some extra books....and so with some imagination and about $15 worth of materials I'm in business.

That looks interesting, nice display.

Nice work Robert they look really good.

Joe

Now that is a great idea. You going to put that compartment under glass? Maybe a glass door(s)? Then maybe a piece of old sheet music stuck on the back wall?

Thanks for the kind remarks on the display. And no Karl...don't think I'll add any glass doors....although that is an idea. So far I get a kick out of passing by it sometimes and taking one of them out and trying to play a few recognizable notes. And....my wife used to play trumpet in high school too and I caught her doing the same thing.

So, blowing your own trumpets?


(OK, someone was bound to say it ).

But with three of them , when wishing to "toot my own horn" it puts me on the "horns of a dilemma" to pick one to toot. So I just toot each in turn.

I know..... I'm heading for the "Corner" now.

This strange new collecting notion continues after a little windfall mad money showed up. I now have five additional trumpets and cornets in addition to the one I had for fifty years without needing another. What happened to spur this are various things. Two were added as really cheap but interesting horns that I thought I could make a few repairs to and bring back into shape. One was added as a mate to the one I bought first because it was in silver plate to go with the brass version...... and I paid the most for this one.

At the moment I have a Grand Rapids by York made in 1951 with a corpian bell that plays really great. An Olds Ambassador Cornet made in 1959 that, although a student horn, is better made than a lot of what is made today, and is the cornet match to my original Ambassador trumpet. The silver Grand Rapids Band Instrument cornet is the match to the brass one and made about 1911 to the brass examples about 1904 date. And the last one is a pea shooter style, or nearly pea shooter, with a bell on the small size, Martin Handcraft Dansant, 1924.

Some of these came in pretty sad looking shape. The Dansant came with a bent bell pipe loop and the York Trumpet was so oxidized that I didn't realize it had a rose brass bell until I removed the old tarnish and what was left of the lacquer.

And now...when nobody but me is home, I take out some sheet music I bought and practise up.

And another thing.....all five of the "new " horns, including shipping fees, total just under $300. That's less than half the cost of my last single C&R rifle purchase. And actually in line with the less than $100 C&R rifles I started buying about a dozen years ago.