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Shadow_7

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    Euphonium:<br />--- '88 - '92 Freelancers<br />--- '98 Westshoremen<br />--- '02 Cincinnati Tradition<br />--- '04 Gulf Coast Sound<br />--- '06 Kilties<br />--- '08 Austin Stars<br />French Horn / Mellophone:<br />--- '05 Gulf Coast Sound<br />Tuba<br />--- '07 Austin Stars<br />Trombone:<br />--- '81 - Present<br />--- '94 - '97 283rd Army Band<br />

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  1. The point was moot I guess. No one gets it (yet). When even 1 of your corps members dies from covid, or a family member, or your job, or ??? you run a foal of the "rule". And for those that never "technically" meet the rule, you season ends in MARCH or earlier, not labor day / September. This is not a good formula for the "growth" of the activity. Where's the incentive to become a DCA corps if you're a local "parade" corps or "bar" corps? If it works for you, where is the we need to change motivation? The members want it? Because DCA surely doesn't. And don't call me surely.
  2. Seems like a pandemic situation dictates that 35 or "less" corps is one of the only things capable of meeting pandemic specs for "existing". 4 step spacing, aka 1/2 of 5 yards, aka 7.5'. And yet leading up the the pandemic, illegal according to the rules. And yet anytime any corps had a "soloist", was literally spitting in the face of the 35 minimum rule. Never mind that that rule did not include the staff, the honor guard, or even the drum major. Are we still there? Or can anybody with a decent render farm and recording equipment can "win" DCA? Just curious, for that thing that has literally been "virtual" since 2006. When it became cheaper to be a spectator, than a participant.
  3. Optimistic IMO with 7 of those listed as DCA. But I guess 4 of them are returning from last season. Best of luck.
  4. 32.10mm inner rim on the Bach 18 and described as "medium" and best seller. Seems like the helleberg would be roughly the same specs, but a deeper cup. I tended towards a rim size near 33mm which was a larger inner rim than the helleberg. But it's been a while and the actual conn specs might be hard to find.
  5. What do you NOT like about your current mouthpiece? Limiting your range? In what way? To hard to play high? To stuffy to play low? Inner rim too small? too big? I was mostly a Euphonium player who dabbled in Tuba. The helleberg wasn't for me, the inner rim was too small, and the deep cup made it hard to not be on the flat side with all the slides pushed in all the way. I have the G&W equivalent of a PT88 (Caver) and it's good and large, when everything else fails for me, that's a good fallback option. The one that seemed to work best for me was the G&W Alan Baer. Sort of a middle of the road piece. I have the LM-10 too, but unless you playing a small tuba or doing delicate solo work, it's kind of small. Good for high end, endurance, and pretty good sound at low volumes. But not a drumcorps piece. That's about the limit of my experience with mostly marching horns on the large side of the spectrum. There are lots of factors when it comes to mouthpieces. Give any new piece a month to get over the honeymoon period (about 2 weeks). And evaluate what you might change on your familiar mouthpiece(s) to get your desired results. More of a V cup can make a small mouthpiece play like a large one. Stainless steel makes a piece feel larger than its' actual specifications. And other traits. If you've got performance demands you probably don't want to change your rim size much. It's pretty much an endless quest which will ultimately result in a compromise. See if you can't borrow a piece or two from other players. At a minimum give a large, medium, and small option a try to see where you might fall in your preferences. Which is what I have to play with. Caver (large), Baer (medium), LM-10 (small). If you're really unsure, then get some of the kelly plastic ones, they're cheaper in general, and that can add up if you're gonna end up with a collection.
  6. I agree with your points, and I don't want to turn this thread into that thread. But #5 no stress is an impossibility under the current DCA rule set for small corps. When you don't know if you're doing a field show or a standstill. And you don't know if your season ends in march or on labor day, based on nothing more than a number.
  7. You are more than welcome to spend your dime to come here to see drumcorps perform. TXDCP sometime in June 2014 in Austin. And probably a show in Southlake Texas, that same weekend.
  8. You give me too much credit. As I've maybe posted twice on here in that past two years. Delusions of grandeur are all yours I'm afraid. IMO, the 35 minimum rule was the cause. The effect is NO DCA competitive corps for the state of Texas. Which was the intent wasn't it? As far as the TXDCP show, it still happens. Vigilantes had their show in the Dallas area as well. But rules being what the rules are, there's just no affiliations with DCA. Or intent to even try. Austin Stars have pretty much morphed into a color guard. World Gone Mad is still around and strong in the Austin area. Not 35 minimum strong, and the instrumentation would never fly in DCA land. But still playing ball 7+ years later. I'm not sure about GCS, they hooked up with the local college, and after a few years I guess things didn't pan out. The fact of the matter is that without the competitive factor, there is zero motivation to leave town. With 200 miles between corps, it's an 8 hour drive round trip and it has no net benefit in terms of "recruiting". And yet two years after my last significant post and Jeff is still Jeff. I suppose I should thank DCA, as I no longer spend thousands per year and hundreds of hours to fail at getting DCA to do so much as lift a pencil and scribble.
  9. September 2013? Sorry my inclination to do math/research isn't what it used to be. I don't really consider DCA a competitive circuit anyway. As you don't promote something by not allowing that thing to happen in the first place.
  10. Shadow_7

    Valve oil?

    I just use the al cass fast stuff. Back when I had the option to do competitive drumcorps and when outside in dry conditions, you can get away with using a spray bottle with water like trombonists use. Or at least that's how'd you save yourself a bottle and a half of valve oil when rehearsing in utah for a couple of days. But it's not always a simple answer. Many of the newer horns have tighter tollerances and need thinner oils. Rotor oil is some of the thicker type stuff so you probably want to avoid using that.
  11. In my experience. The mouthpiece that works can depend on the horn that's going to be played. I've had good luck with the G&W signature series. But a bit pricey if you have no long term plans with regard to said horns. I tend to get 3x mouthpieces. One large, medium, and small. Of the popular types so they can be resold or bought used. You still have to try any mouthpiece for a while before you can know for sure if it works for you. Your kellyburg should serve you well till you get acquainted with whatever horn you'll be using. From there you should kind of know if you need to go bigger or smaller after a period of time. Tuba mouthpieces of the metal variety can be quite pricey, so I wouldn't be buying anything that you haven't tried first.
  12. It isn't a baritone, but I have a used silver plated Deg 3 valve Euph in Bb for sale that I bought from the brass shop back in 2006.
  13. Buy used if you can. If you're lucky, you can sell it for what you paid for it. So it's not really money spent from a certain POV. The yamaha 204 is supposed to be pretty good. If they plan on using it for drumcorps, they should get silver. Unless you're in europe. They tend to cost more, but hold their value better IMO. Various opinions on bell thickness and sound attributes between silver plated and not. With silver generally winning the opinion poll. For college, I'd be hesitant to use a personal horn. And some groups might not even allow marching mellophones, except some marching bands. So you might want to check on that. With various horror stories about horns getting damaged in transit, and since it's a personal horn, the school (and army when I was in it) wouldn't pay for the repair(s) since it was a personal horn and not their property.
  14. The rotating thing wouldn't work too well, unless the pit learned two different versions. And then you're left noticing the different version, not the difference in sound. To be honest I've found it hard to tell myself anymore. At least up close or with smaller groups. The difference IMO is how far the sound projects, which seems to favor the G horns. But most watching of drumcorps situations, not that there are as many options to do that these days, I've got to look at the actual instruments in use and recognize a brand and model of a Euph or other horn to know if they're on Bb or G. The G's generally do a half loop before entering the valve cluster, the Bb's tend to just go straight to the valve cluster on the leadpipe. Or just look at the trumpets and if they all look like piccolo trumpets, they're Bb. The bells are so tiny, it's almost cute, if it weren't for that hideous sound they make.
  15. Make sure that the leadpipe that the mouthpiece goes into is clean. Dirt and cheaper metals corrode and can form a bond of sorts. BITD we'd just put an ice cube in the metal mouthpiece and that was generally enough to weaken the bond. Hot things expand, cool things contract and what not. You're not likely to have a freezer handy, much less one big enough for a tuba. But a half hour in there is about the same as the ice cube method. Get a puller. But some cleaning options will help prevent it happening as often. And of course remove the mouthpiece at least once a month to keep it from getting stuck, or at least finding out if it is stuck. At least during the winter to summer time frame. I've never had much issues with my kelly's, but mine are probably first generation versions. They're actually the least likely to get stuck IMO. And if they do, the ice cube method probably wont work, get a puller.
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