Posted by Roger Lewis on January 09, 1999 at 10:40:44:
In Reply to: Mel Culbertson 6/4 CC posted by Matt G on January 08, 1999 at 17:02:09:
A friend of mine recently purchased the piston valve VMI horn from the Brasswind. He and I play together in a summer band each year. I don't feel it has the same projection as the Yorkbrunner since the tapes had more of me than of him, on review. He's been having a lot of alterations done on it to get it up to speed. He's having more weight added to the main tuning slide and Amati water keys added to all the slide on top of the horn. (Like my Yorkbrunner the water doesn't seem to get to the bottom of the horn and you wind up having to do all kinds of slide pulling and rotating of the horn to drain it - but it's part of my upper body strengthing program).
I also notice that he is using a LOT of alternate fingerings when he's playing. I playe it and it responds quite well, perhaps better in the low register than my Yorkbrunner, but I found the intonation "out there" and it didn't quite have the sound I've become used to.
Just my $0.02.