#mid brass

[synthesis-music]

I spent like an hour and a half removing bits of broken screws from this flugelhorn.

The tip of original lever hinge screw broke off inside the holder. Presumably what happened after that was someone tried to replace the missing screw, except the “new” screw was just a tiny bit wider than the original, so it got really jammed in there and eventually broke too. The connection screw attaching the trigger lever to the 3rd slide also broke at some point in this whole mess, leaving three pieces of screws that needed removing.

Getting the tips of the two original screws out took a bit of time but not too much, but the hinge screw in the key was... stubborn. The well-intentioned-but-wrong-size replacement screw had managed to partially cut its own threads inside the hinge tube before getting stuck and breaking, which made it a right bitch to get out of there. I had to file out the hinge tube and make an oversized replacement hinge screw instead of using an official Yamaha part due to the mangling of the hinge tube.

Left-hand drill bits are the best, by the way, and I find them indispensable and unbeatable for screw extraction. (Why left-hand bits for screw extraction? Because if/when it grabs the broken screw, it will start backing it out of the hole instead of driving it deeper in, as a normal bit would.)

[synthesis-music]

OMG LOOK AT THE TINY MUTE

Believe it or not, it is a functional mute, not a keychain or (really big) phone charm thing. You could clip it to your keys if you wanted to, but since it’s made of aluminum and therefor rather soft, it would get damaged very easily, so maybe don’t do that.

It’s called the Nano Mute, made by Best Brass, and is designed to fit harmon/bubble/extending tube mutes for trumpet and cornet (so far; perhaps one day there will be a trombone version too).

So if you have one of these:

...you can take out the tube-y bit and put the nano mute in the hole instead, and boom, now it’s a practice mute. One less mute to buy and/or carry around.

(Also supposed to be able to put a trp/cor/F.horn mouthpiece in the nano mute for quiet warm-up and lip exercises, but none of the mouthpieces we tested fit at all, so IDK what’s the deal there.)

[synthesis-music]

This is a super neat trumpet mouthpiece that was brought into the shop a week ago.

Looks like a normal mouthpiece at first, doesn’t it? I thought so too, until I noticed the knurled ring. Then I thought maybe it was the kind with swappable rims, but nope, it’s even cooler than that.

Adjustable cup depth mouthpiece. That’s what this is.

Spin the rim to the desired height, then lock it in position with the ring. How nifty is that? Go from super deep cup to regular all-around to screamer and back again with a few twists. I suppose the rim could be swapped out too, if one had other rims made to fit the threads, which shouldn’t be too challenging for someone with good lathe skills (and access to a good lathe).