Posted by Klaus on March 21, 2001 at 22:04:47:
In Reply to: Re: Brass: Rose, Red, Yellow posted by Lew on March 21, 2001 at 21:20:46:
I have 2 instruments from Saxonia, the southernmost state in the former GDR: a cortno da caccia and a rotary trumpet. Their colour of golden brass is so similar, that I suspect them to be made out of the same alloy, even if they come from two different makers, Syhre of Leipzig and Scherzer of Markneukirchen.
But my Yamaha YFL 631 flugelhorn is of a much more pinkish colour, indicating a higher content of copper.
Yamaha, being a much more resourceful entity than the old GDR companies, learned a hard lesson from their first issuings of cornets and trumpets 20 or 30 years ago. The brass lead pipes corroded very fastly, so they began making their leadpipes out of gold brass. Which is less vulnerable to red rot (de-zincification).
Taking a close look at my YEP 631 euph leads me to think that this model has a gold brass leadpipe (for corrosion resistance), very different in colour from the red brass used in the YFL 631 bell. Where the choice of alloy most likely has been motivated by acoustic considerations.
Klaus