Free mouthpiece!

[sunburstbasser]

I was helping one of my friends at my old Jr. High School today. He got permission from the director to go through some of the old percussion, and came away with a 4-piece Norma drumset!

As for me...

There were two old cornets in the back room, a King and an Olds Ambassador. The director wanted to keep those, which makes sense. But I did get a 30 year old Yamaha 11 mouthpiece. Should match up with my Schilke 11A quite nicely.

So, what are your free gear stories? Related to brass/woodwind, of course.

[thenagus]

I was given a great little pencil holder from a Brass shop here in the uk called `the Valve`. I think the guy who gave it to me was a regular customer and had bits and bobs like this to help promote them. Anyway, it's possibly the most useful free thing I've ever had. It's a wide leather strip with a place to slide in a pencil. I put it around a crossbar thing at the top of the trombone. (Not very easy to describe! Where most unvalved trombones have thier counterweight, sorta thing.)
The only picture I can find of something similar looking is this:
http://www.hickeys.com/img/sku51322.jpg
Only the one I have is much nicer.
For years, I've never had to rumage in my case for the pencil, or waste unnecessary time when making rehersal notes. Just spend half a second to whip the pencil out of the holder, mark whatever you gotta mark, and stick it back in. Don't even have ot get out of the seat. Had to spend about 10 minutes sharpening to get the pencil small enough to fit, but after that it's been delightfully convinient. If I knew where to get them, I'd reccomend every trombonist here buy one ASAP. Saves such alot of hasstle! Sometimes, you never realise how much you could do with something until you have it. It's the little things that make all the difference, I say. I'm well chuffed with it :) Tomorrow, if I remember, I might get a picture of it.

BTW, do any UK brass players have any idea what happened to the Valve? I used to go and visit them every time I was in London... then one time, a few years ago, they'd vanished. Google is being of very little help too. Did they go bust, or just move premesis or something?

[jonathan_matos5]

i was given a microfibre cloth from selmer instruments at a convention here in tulsa they wouldnt give me a whole cleaning kit though

[y-o-y]

I once bought a bach strad No. 37 that came with a monette mouthpiece. i kept the mp and shold the horn for the same as i bought it for (original seller would not sell them separately)

[sunburstbasser]

Originally posted by y-o-y
I once bought a bach strad No. 37 that came with a monette mouthpiece. i kept the mp and shold the horn for the same as i bought it for (original seller would not sell them separately)

I play a horn that cost roughly as much as a Monette mouthpiece!

[777Brad]

When we bought our house, we were looking at local antique shops and I saw an antique cornet. I picked it up in the store and played it a little and really loved it. However we were closing on this house and were really watching our funds, so I passed on it.

In a passing remark, I mentioned it to our realtor. Several days later she presented it to me as a closing gift.

So I ended up getting it for free!

No, wait. I actually paid $54,000 for it & I'm still making payments on it!:eek:

Brad

[sunburstbasser]

I bet its a nice cornet though!:D