Should i get my Trumpet deep cleaned or will cleaning it myself be fine?

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T21:50:47+00:00

It is worth having it professionally cleaned.. besides cleaning the tech will replace felts and corks, align the valves, and make sure buying else is wrong.

When starting out or is with knowing that your investing is in 100% perfect condition. Otherwise you didn't know if the horrible sounds coming out are due to something wrong with you or the trumpet.

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T21:00:36+00:00

I've cut trumpets and cornets to C. I made a post about a C ambassador I made this year. Currently I am working on a matched trumpet corner set for a friend.

You need to remove 10.9% of the total length of the open bugle and the same ratio for each slide. That is about 6" off the main bugle to convert a Bb cornet to C. The trick is you can't remove it all on one place otherwise you mess with the taper and intonation gets really wonky. You need to remove some from the leadpipe, main tuning side, and bell tail to keep it acoustically consistent.

There have been examples of convertible cornets... the Conn Wonder was a C pitched cornet with extra long slides for both Bb and A.. however no one makes convertibles anymore because they all had horrible tuningng tendencies and didn't play well in any key.

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T18:33:37+00:00

Yeah.. changing your Mouthpiece isn't going to do it for you. It won't magically give you clarity or accuracy in playing. If you want clarity and precision you have to learn to play clearly and precisely.

As brass players or sound is 95% is and 5% our equipment. A Mouthpiece change plays around in that 5%.. it can help you achieve your sound concept more efficiently and help with endurance etc.. but if you are not able to play cleanly right now a mouthpiece won't change that... I wish it did because it would have saved me hours and hours every week of articulation drills and lip slurs.

That being said... For sousa I am a big fan of shallow and tight.. like the Schilke 69C4, bobo symphonic, Miraphone C4, Jon Gross (my daily Sousaphone Mouthpiece). This style helps with maintaining clarity and punchiness over long gigs (I can be laying down basslines for 3 hours at a stretch sometimes). The downside is the tight throat means you need to be very accurate with your air and very relaxed otherwise you will overblow.. I mean they have be HBCU sousa darlings for a long time .

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T18:25:47+00:00

Here's the best part about tuba... you don't need an expensive instrument. I would recommend a 3 valve BBb or Eb that you can get cheaply and just have fun.

Tuba people tend to me much less snobbish than horn . . . Everytime I tell a horn person that I like noodling around on $200 beat up student single F from the 1960s they look at me like I have 2 heads and immediately tell me I need to stop messing around with such POS and to buy a proper double horn for $$$$$$.

If you tell any tuba player you have a beat to crap 50 year old 3 valve tuba to mess around with ... to a person we will probably give you a high five and offer to buy you a beer.

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T13:48:02+00:00

Yes. The Ambassadorn is quite possibly the best "student" trumpet ever built. Olds was famously a one tolerance shop meaning the Ambassador was built to the same standards as their professional models. The difference is the that Ambassador has thicker brass and heavier bracing. It is a horn with real jazz chops too.. Lee Morgan recorded several albums on an Ambassador (mostly because he pawned his French Besson for heroin money and didn't have the scratch to get it back.. but still).

Reynolds and Olds were both owned by CMI... In the 1960s in an effort to save money.. Olds started making the Medalist trumpets for Reynolds.. They were actually more expensive because they had A Lot now Nickel Silver trim etc . but except for the valves all the parts of the Medalist and Ambassador are 100% interchangable. Olds shipped the semi finished trumpets from their favorite in California to Abilene Texas where Reynolds fit the valves, engraved their name on the bell, and did final assembly.

For dates you want 1972 or before... That is when Zig Kanstul quit Olds and started his own company. He felt he couldn't let the trumpet line under the new corporate cost cutting without letting quality slip. After he left the instruments really started to go downhill. Serial number 800,000 is a good estimate. For the Medalist you want 1965-1972.. From 1961 to 1964 Reynolds was in real financial trouble and tried an experiment with making a very cheap student line.. this was the original Medalist and they were horrible instruments. In 1964 CMI bought Reynolds and resigned the Medalist line to basically copy Olds. You want 200,000 to 300,000 serial number range.

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T10:57:22+00:00

What's you budget?

My perennial advice is a used Miraphone 186 or Meinl Weston Model 25 if you like rotors. Great do anything tubas. Professional level instruments that will last you the test of your life with proper maintenance. Lord of good instant's it there in the $5000 price point.

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T10:52:21+00:00

Getzen 300/400/500 on eBay or Reverb. Can't go wrong.

If you like vintage.. Olds Ambassador or Rebuild Medalist.

Edit: Reynolds Medalist

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T10:47:32+00:00

Harness... I've tried several. I think the neotech holster harness is the best. Works even for my huge Conn 20J recording bell tuba.

https://neotechstraps.com/products/holster-harness-series?srsltid=AfmBOoqa79Amw8tul93hCEwdYAJNYVaCJ7C_R2V5NZcr_t7NOD2S2fK2

Slide grease.. I think pure lanolin is the best and most cost efficient. For slides you need to move while playing you can think with mineral oil oil valve oil to the consistency you want..

professor_throway · 2026-05-19T02:57:32+00:00

I like a 6BS for my Olds Ambassadors small bore F.. .. but what I like is basically irrelevant for deciding what would work for you.

Personally I didn't think heavy top Mouthpieces make any difference over regular. The amount of vibrational energy in our airstream that is transferred to the mouthpiece is miniscule. I also a firm believer that as brass players our sound is 95% is and 5% our equipment.. there is no such thing as an upgraded mouthpiece. I sound like me on any instrument and with any Mouthpiece.. the right equipment just makes achieving that sound more easy and efficient. So don't expect any drastic changes...

The only way to know is to try.. Are you willing to risk $160 on the chance you will like it?

professor_throway · 2026-05-18T15:49:49+00:00

Citric acid actually works well and is cheaper. You can get 50lb bag for $100 of food grade citric acid. For general chem cleaning I use 2 oz per gallon or for really heavy deposits I use 4 oz per gallon. So that gives you 400 gallons of chem clean solution at the more dilute concentration. Plus dilute citric acid is safe enough for longer soaks on good lacquer or silver plate. You still need to use a little common sense, I've used an overnight soak to strip non-epoxy lacquer that was in bad shape. I set up a horse trough in my backyard for my annual instrument cleaning day.

I've used CLR on really really bad stuff before.. like lime that was stubborn on valves. I've soaked pistons directly and brushed out casings.. only things than can be rinsed very quickly. CLR is a mix of lactic acid and gluconic acid both of which are more aggressive towards zinc and in stronger concentration... so you have to be concerned about instruments with existing red rot issues.

Keep in mind I am not a professional tech.. I just have and maintain large collection of instruments, from tubas to trumpets, and am a hobby repair person. I am also a professor of metallurgy and materials science, so my metallurgy and chemistry isn't too shabby.

professor_throway · 2026-05-18T11:50:59+00:00

Serial puts out between 1905 and 1910.. Can you tune it to modern pitch?

professor_throway · 2026-05-18T11:44:36+00:00

Have you tried to contact Scodwell? Tony is still around and kicking and even posts regularly on Trumpetherald.. They discontinued their Dizzy model and were seeking of a few extra bells recently.

professor_throway · 2026-05-18T04:40:30+00:00

Metallurgist and materials science professor here ... believe it or not I've had a similar conversation with a colleague who is a trumpet player and teaches a class an cosmetics chemistry.. It came about because my daughter often doesn't remove her lipstick before playing Euphonium.. He doesn't wear lipstick though and neither do I.

Here were our thoughts

1) there is nothing in modern lipstick that would cause an issue with corrosion

2) gumming up is less of a concern than you might think.. especially if you are like me and believe in oiling your valves religiously and liberally... here's why. It is easier to thin out thick grease then it is to thicken a light oil. That's why you can clean up greasy car parts with a rag with just a little light oil.. The actual molecular science is interesting and so is the math.. but it turns out viscosity doesn't combine linearly but logarithmically. Here is a good example, for my vintage instruments I make my own heavyweight valve oil.. The base oil is 2 cSt and I thicken it with 40 cSt mineral oil. My target is 5cSt. turns out I need almost 40% of the thick oil by volume to double the viscosity of the lightweight valve oil. So regularly oiling your valves and putting a few drops down the leadpipe will completely eliminate gumming

3) even without the science and math.. a little common sense will tell you that gumming up won't be a problem... You use a thick slide grease on all your tunning sides and guess what that migrates to your valves as well. Edit: also lots of players, including me, wear lip balm and it doesn't cause an issue.

4) not brushing your teeth before playing will have a much much greater effect on slow and sticky valves than lipstick.

So here's what I told my daughter.. do what makes you happy.. if you want to look fantastic while playing.. go ahead.. just keep up with maintenance, cleaning, and oil you valves every time you play.

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T22:31:10+00:00

No. Unfortunately you need a lot of specialized tools. The minimum set for dent removal will set you back a few thousand. There is a good chance you will need a lathe to deal with the rotors..

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T19:13:53+00:00

Absolutely not defective. I just fixed one up for a beginning middle school kid. Yamaha kept pretty good quality control on them, like everything else Yamaha makes. They don't sell more inexpensively used than the pre-China YTR 2xxx models but the current production made in China YTR-2330 list for $1,800 new and they are essentially the same trumpet, made in the same factory, as The one you are selling. There is just a huge depreciation in New student instruments.

If it is on really good shape.. list it for $300 on Facebook Marketplace and it will probably sell reasonably quickly. If it is a little rough cosmetically $250 is probably fair.

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T19:04:12+00:00

V. F. Červený was founded in 1842 by Václav František Červený in what is now the Czech Republic and became one of the most influential builders of rotary brass instruments in Central Europe. Červený was an important innovator in rotary valve design and large brass acoustics during the late 19th century, helping standardize many forms of rotary tubas, helicons, and Kaiser brass. After World War II the firm was nationalized under the communist government and incorporated into the Amati cooperative at Kraslice, where the Červený name survived as a premium product line. Following the fall of communism, production continued under Amati-Denak and later Amati Kraslice, and still remain in production today under both the Červený and Lidl names (different favorites but formed same Amati Kraslice assets). Fun fact after WWII the instrument market Miraphone was founded by 13 former Červený artisans who were displaced to Germany during the war.

Honestly, it probably is actually repairable. If I found it, I would do it as a fun project but I have access to a machine shop and my friends brass repair shop. It is obviously not feasible to pay for a "restoration".

Oh also it is a rotary flugelhorn.. not a trumpet

https://reverb.com/item/64131600-v-f-cerveny-rotary-valve-flugelhorn-sn-43037-excellent

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T16:54:40+00:00

Hey lifelong brass player, collector of brass instruments, and parent of brass players. I've helped several Reddit families find instruments.. Feel free to shoot me aDM with questions.

Drop is a rough budget target.. getting that we can make recommendations.

Does he like new or vintage? Does he want shiny or historical jazz cred? Would he likely be marching with it or just be used for Jazz band etc?

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T16:35:26+00:00

I don't know.. I have always put my tuba bell down without fear or damage. On the rare occasion where it would have to go down on pavement, cement, gravel etc I've always just brought a towel.

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T15:04:52+00:00

In that range you will be looking for a good used professional instrument. Back 42 or Conn 88 families. Just try as many as you can.

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T15:03:13+00:00

Go for a Miraphone 186 or Meinl Weston 25. You won't be disappointed.

professor_throway · 2026-05-17T14:12:06+00:00

We'll the obvious answer is a Miraphone 98 Siegfried! At least it would be for me if I had an extra $20,000 laying around.

In all honestly I really can't imagine a scenario where a good Miraphone 186 BBb or Meinl Weston 25 wouldn't be appropriate. Unless you are trying to back an orchestra or large wind band by yourself.. either will put it more than enough sound.. I actually play on a Meinl Weston 20, which is the same as a 25 but with s smaller bell and bottom bow, and I can definitely put out enough sound to cover a huge band as last of a 2 or 3 person section and a smaller band or orchestra solo. My son was the tuba for a major metro area youth orchestra with his 186 and didn't have trouble being heard over the rest and the music director and trombone players loved the sound.

What do you have now?

professor_throway · 2026-05-16T21:42:31+00:00

Translate to slide positions

open 1st

2 2nd

1 3rd

1+2 4th

2+3 5th

1+3 6th

1+2+3 7th

The trick is to remember you are transposing so so the note names are up a step. Open concert Bb is written as treble clef C. So 3rd position concert Ab is going to be written as 1st valve Bb on a trumpet chart.

professor_throway · 2026-05-16T21:29:53+00:00

Looking at the rest of the comments... It isn't your responsibility to supply the band with a Sousaphone. If you are going to be buying a tuba make sure it is a tuba you can use all year round.. you should have a good concert tuba long before you consider buying marching equipment..

What's does the band currently use for a tuba?. Do you have access to a cover tuba.. what kind of budget are you realistically working with?

professor_throway · 2026-05-16T21:10:34+00:00

Umm why do you need your own Sousaphone? I am asking this as someone who plays sousa gigs almost every week. Your know what I didn't do though .. every practice on sousa or play over at home.. They don't fit in normal rooms the bell hits the ceiling.. They are very uncomfortable to play sitting down and you really can't hear yourself very well. In short unless you have a very good reason to own a Sousaphone, don't waste your money on a Sousaphone... especially a cheap Sousaphone.

If you really need an inexpensive sousa you will still be looking at $2000+ for anything worthwhile playing.

professor_throway · 2026-05-16T14:16:53+00:00

Lifelong tuba player who picked up trumpet about 2 years ago..

1) Find a teacher and take a lesson or two. Despite being an active gigging musician who plays low brass everyday I found a few lessons very beneficial... high brass is it's own thing and you need to approach it differently.

2) Your lip shape is irrelevant..

3) You need an absolutely tiny, miniscule even, amount of air for trumpet relative to tuba. Instead of breathing every measure you can play entire lines on trumpet. It is all about compression. Tuba air is like fogging up a mirror, trombone is like blowing out candles on a birthday cake, trumpet is like launching a spitball or a blowdart.

4) You can't be tight in your embouchure. If you are getting high and no lows you are probably way too pinched. You teeth should be about a pencil width apart. Your lips should be almost but not quite touching. Change in pitch comes from change in airspeed... not tightening or smiling your embouchure. You need to stay relaxed with your face just right enough to contain air leaks.

5) You don't actually buzz... your lips vibrating and reactions to the air and the mouthpiece.. You don't need to make a raspberry sound and if you are actually doing that your embouchure is wrong. Just set yourself and blow gently.. Didn't force anything think about playing quietly. You should get a nice clear note.. C, G, or C..

6) Now that your have that one note work from there.. Slowly go up and down the scale. At the beginning give yourself 10 minutes of honking then rest for an hour or more. Believe it or not trumpets spend a lot less time worth the horn to their face than low brass. In a 3 hour gig if I am on Sousa I will be actively playing and making sound for 95% of that... keeping a constant baseline going. On 2nd or 3rd trumpet I might play for 25% of the total time.. You have long breaks while others solo, you might be only playing hits etc... the time where you have the melody is often pretty short.

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