About a month ago I was offered a Reynolds Emperor single horn in D-Flat for my collection. It was found in Taipei and verified by a fine professional player to be indeed standing in D-flat. Although some forty years old it was virtually in new condition. I figured it must have been some special order for the Asian market (what do I know??). Upon seeing some photos, however, I couldn't detect any additional tubing to put it into such a low key. Noting that the second and third valves rotate in opposite directions, I guessed that perhaps the rotors had been swapped as Steve points out. The owner confirmed that he gets air out the slide legs without pressing the valve levers, so I thanked him for the offer and suggested he take it to his neighborhood horn tech. It turns out that valves 2 and 3 had been strung backwards (not an easy thing to do), making it a horn in D-flat with two ascending valves. (I leave it as an exercise to work out the fingering chart.) This strikes me as a hilarious Merry Prank to pull on an unsuspecting colleague's horn just before a performance of Till. So be forewarned not to have your valves re-strung in Taipei.
Dick Martz -- http://www.rjmartz.com/horns Horn Collection -------------- Original message from Steven Mumford <[email protected]>: -------------- > > Oh! The thought just hit me what might have happened with your valves. If > the horn's old enough, '20s or '30s, the valves are probably numbered > backwards from what we would expect today. The #1 valve played with the 3rd > finger. There may be numbers on the underside of the finger platters, 321 > instead of 123, or maybe something like 36,35,34, or maybe 1, 2 or 3 dots. > Under the valve caps, on the side of the casing facing the platters, there > may be some hash marks. 3 marks on the "1st" valve (#3), 1 mark on the "3rd" > (#1). Those should match up with the number of hash marks on the pressed-in > bearings and the number on the rotor. My old Knopf from the 20s has all the > rotors marked with the number 2 and then the requisite number of dots to show > which hole to put them > in. I can't count the number of times I've seen the valves put in > backwards on old horns. Usually they're worn out enough that they'll go in > there anyway. > Sometimes it's kind of funny because the 3rd valve will often turn the > opposite > direction to the other 2, so if it's in the wrong hole, the horn will stand > in C > or some other odd key. That makes for some very confused looking horn > players! > If that's what it turns out to be, I hope your repair person didn't > resort > to any carpentry to make the thing go into the wrong hole! > > - Steve Mumford > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/rjmartz.lists%40att.net _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
