Posted by High Profile T on June 11, 2002 at 10:19:31:
This afternoon, 22 days after the closing of the deal, my "new" fanfare/herald bass trumpet in G arrived.
It is a 1971 (ca.) Imperial from Boosey and Hawkes with a bore of 13.2mm (.520") and a 6" bell. The bell dimension is a bit misleading as the bell throath has a comparatively large volume.
There did not come a mouthpiece with the instrument. The receiver calls for an old style European medium stem.
I have not yet settled for a mouthpiece. I do not have a mouthpiece with a medium stem, so for now the Yeo signature seems to work better than the DW's 4AL and 4BL
The sound resembles that of my 50 years older Hawkes G slide trombone, that has a bore of around .490".
The wrapping is odd, but secures a good balance with the center of gravity being very close to the wrist of the left hand.
The 3 loops seen in the front layer at the picture are the valve loops.
The 2 bows seen in the left background both belong to the main bugle. The one farthest to the left is before the valve cluster. The inner bow leads to the bell, which screws into a fixed ring at the bodyside of the connection.
This odd instrument is a specialty of the British military. For ceremonial purposes they use a trumpet chorus consisting of an Eb soprano, some Bb mezzo sopranos, a couple of Bb tenors, and a G bass. The case of mine has a #, 20/1, painted in the British military style, that I saw back in the 60-ties.
As recently as in the TV transmissions from the 50th jubilee of the British Queen I saw such a trumpet choir accompanying the royal entrance into St. Paul's cathedral (if I remember right).
Such an instrument is somewhat of a rarity among valved lower brasses, so please forgive the lengthy report cum bragging.
Klaus
PS: Joe S and I both recently have had the "t"-noun attached to us by some of the junior high-school students waiting to fail their examns. I guess, that Joe takes it as an unsurmountable honour, like I do. And a usual I have outdone Joe, as he plainly has been called a "t", whereas I have been called a high profile "t".