My helium-filled bags are holding up my car.

arpthark wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 12:04 pm

bloke wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 11:59 am When somebody says they play the recorder, I would probably ask them whether it's tape or digital.

You use your fingers, so it has to be digital, right?

Could be pedal. Just sayin'...

According to the 1952-1953 York catalog as reproduced on yorkloyalist.com, I appear to have a brass Model 51 E flat Sousaphone. But everything else I can find tells me the model 51 was an upright tuba, not a sousaphone, and not produced after 1921.
...
it also has the full York log on the bell ...

Let me say this about that.
The lacquer on my slant rotor Marzan was wearing down because it was built in the mid-seventies.
So I stripped the bell with a lot of work, and thought it sounded better.
And, at the time, a lot of players were recommending raw brass.
So I asked ears I trust (my trombone ...

My mistake.
I mis-interpreted "3/4" as a size (and not 3/4 INCH BORE).


Talk amongst yourselves.

I have a York Al-Tru 76 BBb Bass (large) mouthpiece with larger than Standard shank.
I've only seen one Al-Tru 91 mouthpiece, and it was for a horn.

Did he compensate you for the use of your photo on the cover?

Schlepporello wrote: Thu Feb 05, 2026 9:41 am Actually I could see this happening if he was a BBb player and had to switch to an EEb horn in a pinch.

I kept hoping someone would pinch me...

I thought it was more like a grenade... you pull the wire and RUN!

Charmaine wrote: Sun Jan 25, 2026 12:33 am

anadmai wrote: Fri Jan 23, 2026 9:18 am what's the serial number on the bell?

19151

That's got to be one of the last Distins. The highest number I've seen was a tenor trombone on eBay last year: 19869
Keefer apparently started over in 1910.

It looks like a high-pitch horn coverted to low-pitch. But when this horn was made, low-pitch was A=435, "French Diapason Normal." So the extensions may actually be a bit too long to bring it up to A=440.


It appears to have the 1910 H/LP loop, and given the serial number I would place its ...

This is my work on York mouthpieces on Horn-u-copia:

York mouthpieces

Schlitzz wrote: Sun Dec 14, 2025 1:18 am K, well, if the choir is singing,"Away in a major", scolding them, should have an a replacing the o.

scalding them!?

Just a comment: I would have a ball playing this!
(but then I like playing holiday music in minor keys, too)

Yadent wrote: Thu Nov 20, 2025 2:27 pm IM(A) DORK&Sons? Never heard of such a brand....

It's Old English script that actually reads "J.W. York & Sons".

It's c.1904, but they don't give the bell size.
Too bad it's so far left-coast.

I suspect that the truth lies more in bore profile and wrap than it does in the minute differences in valve type actuation and the performer's perception thereof.

Serial number would help.
I've recorded "The Wonder" cornets from 1887-1908.

Don't fix what ain't broke.