EH stuff, practicing.
Sunday December 23 2007
I’m enjoying my vacation very much as I practice up my major thirds clear up to high G and back down. It’s something I just never really spend a lot of time sorting out and making sure they’re perfectly even, but I’m enjoying the challenge a lot. It’s forced me to become a lot more comfortable with the right hand Ab key as I go from C×Short E×D×Short F×G×Short E×Short F×D and back down.
Some good news is that I’m getting an EH gouging machine soon! I just need to send the check away and I’ll receive an old Reynolds EH gouging machine that I can fix up and begin using. I’m also getting a Graf guillotine with that order. A man posted a Graf planing board/planer on the IDRS… forum and I responded to that, so I will also receive that soon as well. So I’ll have the Gouger, planing board/planer, and the guillotine.
I also purchased an old Loree EH from Peter Hurd back in September. The problem with it was it didn’t have the C# articulation key, Left hand F, and had a funky octave system that was kind of a cross between an automatic and a semiautomatic. So I sent it to Marvin Kranz in St. Louis to do a bunch of keywork on it. He’s adding the C# articulation key, changing the octave system over to a regular semi-automatic octave system, and adding an adjustment screw on the end of the F#-G# bridge. The horn interestingly has a left hand C#, and he said he couldn’t fit on a left hand F without removing the C#. Mr. Hiniker likes left hand C#s on his horns, and if it really becomes an issue to me, maybe I’ll take the horn over to him and see if he could make me a special key for a left hand F. The whole process is very time-consuming, and I’ve been waiting for quite a while, but I really hope it turns out to be the horn I think it will be. It had a very special feel to it before I sent it off. The upper register really sat up well and had excellant projection. Currently the project stands at about $4200 total.
The problem is Hannah wrote me recently to tell me she had a new BC Loree EH, which was spectacular. So she’s sending that up my way after Christmas. Which means I might need to sell the other EH to purchase the BC if it’s better. Decisions decisions decisions.
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