Posted by Klaus on October 18, 2001 at 20:54:09:
In Reply to: A question I know the answer to......... posted by Austin H. on October 18, 2001 at 20:34:15:
By flushing a laquered brass instrument by some makers and of some vintages with too hot water, you can make the laquer crack and flake.
If such a flake is sitting strategically in the lower throat of the bell, then one might happen to move it by the wind of ones playing.
But basically the story has the nature of an urban legend.
However ones blowing can make bad solderings crack. And that can happen in a quite noisy way. The cracking that is.
Playing a church concerto on a rather new trombone a mf passage was interrupted by a gunshot sound right next to my left ear. I only realised what happened later on, when ensemble members got curious., so the playing was not interrupted.
It was a large soldering inside the tubular main stay of the bell, that had cracked.
The only ill effect afterwards was, that when I played topline Ab in 7th position, the trombone went on playing after I had stopped blowing. The dealer gave me a new bell section for free.
Klaus