Now, some of you who are professional hornists may already know how to do this, and may shrug off my latest accomplishment, but still, as someone who doesn't consider himself super handy, I'm happy for what I've done.
Normally I give my horn a bath twice a year, but I had missed my last "bath time" session, so it had been almost a year! So I got to it yesterday. When I gave my horn a bath in the past, I just took the slides out and threw it (not literally, mind you) in the tub. But this time, I decided to be a little more thorough. So, I took the valves out, too. For those of you who don't play horn, please know that taking a rotary valve out of an instrument isn't quite as simple as a piston valve, like on a trumpet or tuba. There are some screws to take out, some light hammering to be done, and strings to redo. The string part is easy, because I've known how to do that since I first started playing horn. I really needed to restring my valves this time, too, so it was another good reason to take the valves off.
So did I blindly go in with no knowledge of how to remove and replace my valves? Definitely not. When I was at CWU, my teacher, Jeff Snedeker, showed me how to do it. It actually isn't that difficult of a process, but if you're not carefully you could cause some problems.
But it was basically problem-free for me, which I see as a big accomplishment. In the 7 years I've owned my beautiful Conn 10D, I've never seen the valves outside their natural habitat, and it was good for me to have a look, to check for corrosion. There was just a little, and I managed to delicately remove it. But otherwise, they looked really great. There was now wear or anything wrong with them. They sure built this particular horn quite well. And when I eventually got the valves back in and everything properly lined up, The valves seemed to work even better. What a nice little horn.
Have I ever told you the story of how I got my horn? It's quite simple, really. I found it at the Ted Brown Music Store in Richland, WA. My wife and I went there before our performance of Verdi's Requiem with the Mid-Columbia Symphony because she wanted to buy a slide whistle for her student teaching work. I had concluded a couple weeks before this that I needed a new horn; I was playing a Holton 179 whose valves were quite worn down. This beautiful Conn 10D, along with an Eastman and Accent student horn, were sitting on display when I walked in the store. The horn seemed quite out of place there, so I had to have a look at it. It played like gold compared to my Holton. And they had it marked down to $2800, being worth about $5500. So, as you can imagine, I cashed in. And I came to love that horn right away. I loved switching to the Geyer-wrap horn, and it's put in 7 very good years of full-time playing and lots of traveling. And I've received so many comments over the years of the tone quality I get on this thing. I blame the horn for that.
I do want to have some work done on it, though. There are some dents that need removed. I'd love to have the lacquer removed, too. And the bell isn't detachable, so it would be convenient to have it converted. I'm sure it could stand to have a chemical cleaning, although I've taken good care of the valves and they're doing quite well. But I just can't afford to have work done on it now. Plus, I use it so much that finding an adequate replacement while it's getting repaired would be difficult. My wife has a nice horn, a yellow-brass Conn 8D, but the problem is that it's adjusted to her smaller hands, and it's actually kind of painful for me to use it.
Sigh...oh well. My baby still plays nice. As long as the valves work well and there are no cracks in the tubing, it's still completely playable.
Thanks for reading today. It was a very personal but important subject for me...hehe.
Take care and value music.