Bandsaw

I was fortunate to have a friend whose father was a retired carpenter and happened to have a saw which totally suited my needs - a good tool as well! I picked it up last week and here are some of the things I have been working on before putting her to use.

This is how it looks (if these photos look odd it is because I rotated them online).

And the reason it is called a bandsaw - the blade is a band of toothed steel which runs around 2 pulleys, 1 of which is driven - in this case by a 550w induction motor.

One of the top guide wheels was supported by a fractured piece of cast aluminium (rubbish material really) so I set about replacing that. Firstly the wheel, and a look under the top guide mechanism. The left wheel support is fine.

Here you can see the fractured holder, and the 1/4" metal strapping which I planned to cut to suit. The hole in the strapping both suited the bolt position and size! Nice, eh!?

I really just break things so that I can angle grind stuff... or take pictures of me angle grinding stuff... honestly! (not really)

This is the replacement shoe which needs a slot ground in it.

There is the shoe with the slot ground - far from perfect, but close to "good enough"!

Here is the top support set correctly - all guides are not touching until pressure is applied in that direction.

And a cut from a piece of 2 1/4" Ash - all working well!

The owner before Ronnie had this set very poorly. (Ronnie used this saw once or twice, but never had the call to, so all comments apply to its previous owner) Out of interest I checked the bottom supports, and the right hand ceramic pressure support thingy (technical term) was deflecting the blade by almost 1mm - BAD. The rear support wheel was about 10mm from the blade!! BAD. All set properly now!

To get to those fixtures I had to remove the cast iron work top and the bolt that secured it was cast into a plastic wing-nut which had rounded and didn't grip any more. I broke that away, removed the bolt with spanners. I then cut a large washer and had my dad weld it to a suitable nut. I cleaned it up with an angle grinder (woo) and it works better than ever! (considering it never worked...)

I will do the same thing for the guide stanchion on the front of the tool - same plastic rubbish nut. I put a wing-nut on there, but it is too small for my delicate fingers to work with! Here is an example of a rip-cut from a future guitar neck:

MUCH to my surprise the starting capacitor blew while I was lightly using the saw!! Now load on the motor wouldn't cause this, and there wasn't even much of that, so I guess it was defective, it is 12 years old after all. Still, I didn't want to see this:

And for the grand price of £5.95 inc. postage I have a replacement part! For anyone running the Elektra Beckum or Metabo BAS315 (and 316/317 - the updates) the start capacitor for the 0.55kW motor is labelled "16400". It is 16 micro-farads @ 400V.

I have some good examples of scroll work to post up, but this post is long enough. I will sign off with a few points.

5/8" (15mm) blades for rip sawing large depths coming - 6 and 3TPI versions.

1/4" (6mm) blade @ 10TPI for general finer sawing on the way.

I found some suitable hardwoods locally. When I manage that bank job I will drop a bit of cash and start building more instruments.

I have 2 bass body wings cut and ready, and 1 guitar body wings cut and ready.

There will be an 8 string guitar this year.

Finally, since no-one would believe this unless they saw it - this is half of the workshop... and tomorrow I start tidying.

Good night and God bless,

Mike

Computer Build #5

Right, this will be the final instalment until one of 2 things happen:

1) I decide not to get water cooling (in a month or 2) and make the outside pretty.

2) I decide to get water cooling and replace the drive bay covers.

If I decide to pretty it up now and get water cooling, I will not need that big fan at the front - or I *may* not need it, so I would quite like the case to go back the way it was, looking all normal at the front. Though I might decide to keep that fan. Actually I probably will, but I don't want to make a rash decision, so there is no rush to pretty this up, so I can leave it as it is until I make a final decision.

The advantage of the water cooling - 4.5GHz. Need I say more?

The purpose of this post is to show off the lighting. I couldn't resist putting a cold cathode lighting setup in this - I figure that if the chip catches fire, I may as well have the case glowing red so that I don't notice at first thus lessening the blow of my i5 processor going down the toilet, hahaha! I am usually not one for "speed stripes" or "things" but I just wanted to do this, after all I did build this with an angle grinder, so here goes.

2 RED CCTs, mounted to the side panel - the tubes cannot easily be seen here, so aesthetically this is the best choice.

This is how they look when running:

This is the wee transformer. Note the black switch (out of focus due to wide aperture for light) - it is huge. Where exactly did they think it would fit? Was I going to drill a 12 or 13mm moutnting hole in my case? Seriously guys, thanks for supplying it as a quick fit, pre-wired job, but that switch is a real huge ugly brute.

All set and whistlin' dixie!

Here is a picture showing a little... unconventional wiring. Well it is conventional in the sense that + to + and - to -, fingers in the mains socket standing in a pool of water barefoot next to a lightning conductor on a stormy day, but since I ran out of fan jumpers, I pushed single core wire into the back of one of those 3 pin plugs to create the connection. People are too precious about the power drain through these. News flash: the fans are about 2 watts each... I'm not loosing sleep. I know, I know - I can't control the fan speed by jury-rigging them, but my motherboard only supports speed control on the CPU fan and *maybe* 1 peripheral fan. I have speed control disabled - I want these working hard :D

That is all for now, computer wise. Here are some things that I plan to do in the next month:

Collect a bandsaw (all being well, tomorrow! Amazing to have found one, what a God-send)

Chamber ensemble and Indian (Haydn, Handel and Bhuna... Friday night sorted!)

Design some more instruments

Continue preparations for "Sweeney Todd" which will be performed in the Mill Side Theatre as the NI Première (Theatre at the Mill). This is running from 2/2/10 to 13/2/10. Again, on my birthday I will be playing trumpet, and I wouldn't change that for the world :)

Write more music - I plan to write maybe a head-chart a week and post it to my blogger as inspiration, I might start with one I have already written to give me some buffer time!

I will have to clear a workspace in the workshop. I have been preparing for this day... I am still delaying! Man alive. Could it be more messy? The answer is no, and I will post a picture soon, no-one will expect the level of mess. Only people who have seen it will believe it.

Keep to a better sleeping routine: 8-9am bedtimes and 1-3pm getting-ups is horrible, I feel like such a waster when I do this and I hate waking in the dark evening! Last night I managed a 12am bed, sleep by 2am, up with no alarm clock at 9.30am. More like it!

That is all for now, I won't continue an endlessly boring list for no reason, besides there are things which I don't want to be accountable for, like clearing the back drain - but I did that already. Horrible day that was!

Here's hoping! (hopping)

Mike

Computer Build #4

This is an update concerning the cooling solution on my computer. By messing with the order of fans and the case layout a little I have managed to drop the overall temps by 6-10*C. The main reason for this is airflow, or the lack thereof. The intake vent on the front panel of the case is abominable! It was providing no throughput, so I decided to take out the 5.25" bay windows, cut the spacers away and install a fan there.

Now I did every iteration of fan layout possible, measured my temp tests under all the circumstances and what I now have is probably the best I will get short of replacing all the 120mm fans with that Akasa Apache which kicks out 60CFM. Also, the next logical step is water cooling, but I will only venture there if the summer's heat drives me to (haha, NI heat) or if I want to bump up to 4.4GHz.

Onwards. I am currently running the PC in a room which is getting warm (thanks fire) and I will be able to stress test as-if the summer was here, and actually warm. More on that later (at a cursory glance the temps have gone up a few degrees, but not much.

What I did:

CPU cooler back to normal (ie 92mm fan).

5.25" drive bays opened, Akasa Apache 120mm fan installed sucking in.

Rear 120mm fan extracting.
120mm fan (perpendicular to the rear case fan, sucking air through the CPU cooler and out the PSU fan).

So in that burn test I have it from a peak of 82*C down to a peak of 74*C... much happier now!

In any case there is excellent air throughput now! Some temps for you (Idle):

Before (at new 4.1GHz clock):

Case: 21
CPU: 26
C0: 36
C1: 32
C2: 33
C3: 29
GPU: 35

After (also at 4.1GHz clock):

Case: 19
CPU: 20
C0: 30
C1: 26
C2: 27
C3: 21
GPU: 30

In the following test the 5 temperatures are the temperatures of the CPU die for each iteration of the test of which 5 were run.

Before (Improved Vcore, sub-optimal fan setup!)

Burn test (CPU temp):
53, 63, 66, 67, 67 with a core peak of 78

After (Improved Vcore and fan setup)

Burn test (CPU temp):
59, 62, 63, 63, 64 with a core peak of 74

Now some nerdy things. (turn away if numbers give you dizzyness!) Bear in mind that measured voltages don't often 100% match set BIOS voltages, so U try to give an account of both where applicable.

Vcore: 1.31v measured by CPUID (BIOS set @ 1.318750 I think)
Vin1: 1.62 - measured by CPUID (BIOS was set to 1.64)

Bclock: 216MHz
Multiplier: 19x
DRAM multiplier: 6x
Core Speed: 4104MHz
DRAM Speed: 1296MHz
DRAM Timings: 9, 9, 9, 24

All extraneous power BIOS power functions, power save, turbos etc etc... turned off.

My previous settings were something like (for the 4.1GHz clock):

Vcore: 1.36v measured by CPUID (BIOS set @ 1.3618 I think)
Vin1: 1.62 - measured by CPUID (BIOS was set to 1.62)

So initially I got the Vcore as low as possible by lowering by a step, testing, repeat. When it failed to boot and was unstable I bumped it up a setting or 2 and stress tested. Thermal implication is that lower voltage is obviously going to heat the chip less, and even though we are changing millivolts here, it really matters! I got ~2*C off the chip temp by getting the Vcore slimmed down! What I did find was that with the Vcore at its most efficient setting, I had to bump the Vin1 for the RAM from 1.62 to 1.64V. Note that the ram will work fine at 1.65V. (my Gigabyte m/board adds in .02 at a time, so 1.64/1.66/1.68 etc... but 1.64 is working well.

To break this down into manageable data:

CPU speed is a by product of the FSB x Bclock multiplier. Vcore supplies the voltage/power for the chip. This is nominally AUTO, but when clocking you want control of it.

On the i5 1.35-1.4v is about a high as they recommend pushing it.

RAM speed is a by product of FSB x DRAM multiplier. Vin1 supplies the voltage/power for the RAM chips. Again, this is AUTO, but in clocking you need the control to give the RAM more power when needs be.

You change the FSB to accommodate a higher clocking and since the CPU and DRAM are affected by this you may have to settle for a lower RAM speed.

It is recommended that the Vcore and Vin1 are kept within 0.5v of each other.

At 4.1GHz my CPU benchmark was 7115.5 which I am dead pleased about! I ran a bunch of stress tests. OCCT for 4 hours, Prime95 - 2 hours on large FFTs, 10 mins on small FFTs (I read that 10 mins should show whether the system would cope or not), hours on blend. Intel Burn Test - I ran the default 5 cycles, and it pushed the chip hard, but it was fine. I also ran SuperPi and LinX.

I am monitoring heat with:

SpeedFan
Core Temp
CPUID

Real Temp

Stress testing with:

OCCT

Intel Burn Test

Prime95

LinX

SuperPi

Benchmarking with Performance Test 7 on evaluation.

The settings which REALLY push the processor are the small-FFTs. I assume that stands for Fast Fourier Transform, and there endeth my knowledge on that matter! Also LinX gets her warm!

Now in the future I can see me running a water-cooled unit to get that 4.4GHz, but until then I may as well do some work on this instead of endlessly testing it. Currently a faster computer has led to less work done than ever (except computer faffing and searching for bandsaws...).

Finally, I have the black plastic 5.25" drive bay overs to cut up and make the front fans look much neater - everything is a bit "temporary" right now, and it will eventually look neat! That black tape on the side fan will be cut into a circle soon.

That ought to do it for now, I must process some photos and try to find a 14" bandsaw somewhere. I forget that we are in 2010... and I was born *after* imperial was the norm, so I should really be talking MMs more! 350mm would do :) I blame dad for my use of both systems (not totally illogical - lots of the guitar gear is american, and sometimes inches just work neater!).

God bless all,

Mike

Computer Build #3

It is nice to be posting this from the new machine - it is really a lovely computer! And that was a spoiler. This may become 2 parts - I am getting tired. Lets get the good news out of the way first.

1) It works.

2) It works much better than expected.

3) It achieved a CPU Benchmark of 7257 @ 4.2GHz and it seems stable (more testing).

4) There is more scope for speed, whether it is necessary or not.... ok, it is totally un-necessary, but the potential is there. I think 4.4GHz stable is possible.

5) Temperatures are all within reasonable limits, Idling quite cool.

6) Vcore settings not too high.

7) Not too loud.

So I will get on with the talking. I got my parts this morning - having had a good 3 hours sleep I decided it wise to start building with angle grinders and what not.

I started by cutting out the vent holes with an angle grinder - less impedance = more cooling. Bit rough, but good enough.

Smoothed off with a Minicraft drill + grinding tool.

I then set about mounting the 2x 120mm fans with blue foam to stop them transferring too much vibration.

You can see how I used triangles to space the fan from the frame.

I then replaced the 92mm noisy CPU cooler fan with a quiet (18dB(A)) fan with a large 60CFM air flow (compared to 40).

It ended up looking quite neat!

Now, cutting out the 18CM fan slot in the side of the case. Dangerous cutting and photographing at the same time... what's the worst that could happen (I just shuddered).

Quite circular for an angle grinder! (and for my primitive metal work skills)

Sealed with tape, mounted with zip ties and spaced with the same blue foam. the tape is part aesthetic - the silvery edges from the cut looked a bit naff.

Now to cannibalise a DVD drive (external). IDE, but it will do until I buy (and can afford) an SATA drive.

There is the soft underbelly of the DVD drive!

Looking good!

Big fan!

The black tape above the fan is actually holding on a piece of plastic which blocks an un-necessary vent. I blocked all vents off that did not have a fan in them - I want to control the air as much as possible!

Is this pretty... it seems it... in the same way a big V-twin Harley is...

Loading... it worked!

Testing with Half Life 2 - I am not a gamer, but I do own this game, so I may as well test it. 40FPs on the heavy stuff, 200-300FPS on the light stuff. Again, old game, not like Crysis! Also, this is my brother's monitor - just doing the build/test initially up home where the tools are! I have the benefit of a 22" monitor in my room, so that is nice for photos etc etc...

Checking out some over-clock temperatures.

Running OCCT stress testing the system. (I am using Prime95, Intel Burn Test, OCCT and SuperPi).

4.2GHz, 30*C nominal @ Idle:

60-70*C @ 100% Prime95 (expect higher, around 80 in Intel Burn Test).

CPU Benchmark: 7257 (currently)

Geek specs:

Vcore1: 1.3v

Vcore2: 1.65v

FSB: 210MHz

CPU Multiplier: 20x

DRAM Multiplier: 6x

You can see the Vcore1 is quite low, yet stable. I want to see if I can juggle the FSB and the multipliers to give me a slightly faster RAM clock speed (currently 1260MHz). Interestingly I dropped the Vcore1 from 1.3850v to 1.3v to try and lower the temperature, and I took 1-2*C off the chip! This seems inconsequential, but it really isn't! Hence how I want to either bring the multiplier up, boost the Vcore1 voltage and test the temperatures, or really just get this puppy lean... Anyway, I think an 8 hour Prime95 test should be called upon before I do much more! I will post the results soon, so....

... tonight I will leave a stress test on, and maybe consider some sleep! Hot water bottle (I am such a nanny), some form of sitcom and hopefully a lie in (you can count on it!)

God bless!

Mike

Computer Build #2

Ok, it is 4am and I am running strong on about 7 espressos... I wish I was more inclined to do real work or sleep right now, in limbo... onto the post.

Cooling:

I decided (prompted by wanting the most cooling at the least dB) to ditch the 92mm fan and replace it with the silent Akasa 120mm fan... should be a zip-tie bodge job, which is actually my middle name - Michael zip-tie-bodge-job Barkley; operational but at risk. Anyway I could just be blowing warm air (ha) because I haven't seen the board and I can't say what will fit, but that is the plan.

Additionally I have 2x120mm Arctic Cooling case fans (1 for a top blow-hole type use) and the other for hopefully routing the hot CPU air out to the back. Pretty cool (pun after pun... almost tiresome to write) that the blade design on the Akasa 120mm fan in the previous post offers a 5dB reduction in volume with a 23CFM increase in air flow... all blade design and layout. Awesome stuff - they both run at about the same 1,400RPM or so (between 800 and 1,500 I think are the operational limits).

120mm, 22dB(A), 37CFM

Providing the main hurricane is an 180mm Akasa fan which should deliver 51CFM (not the most CFM, but quiet and actually plenty of air).

180mm, 15dB(A), 51CFM

This I plan to mount on the side of the case and have air blowing directly onto the northbridge, RAM and CPU. Not totally traditional cooling, but I think for my purposes it will be good. Worst case scenario is that I move some fans - no big deal.

I am aiming for a slightly positive pressure system to keep dust intake through air leaks to a minimum, but with huge fans I will be planning on a fine mesh, like a fly screen - mainly to keep out hairs and large debris - fine mesh could end up murdering the air flow. Some use tights... pity mine are all laddered.

Cutting an 18CM circle to give clearance for that large fan will be a bother since I have no hole saws that large (nor should I!), so I will drill a series of 3-4mm holes along the circumference, get that roughly cut out, then with a small grinder bit (in the drill, a cylinder) I will smooth it, finish with sandpaper, and in all likeliness it will look like something from SAW. I am going to check out some plumbing fittings, there could be some convenient sizes which would cover up the roughness.

I will be mounting the fans with a layer of foam (from a Tesco camping mat - waaay cheaper than sticky foam tape) between the case and the fan - less vibration noise I hope! Double sided carpet tape to the rescue; it is VERY sticky!

Finally, and I will confirm this at a later date, but some modern PSUs suck air INTO the case. Maybe to increase circulation within. To me it seems stupid - they are at the top and at the back, a prime area to suck air OUT I would have thought. So, they distribute pre-warmed air in the system; not on my watch. 2 options:

1) Turn the PSU upside down and cut a hole in the roof of the case.

Pros: PSU has good cool air 100% of the time.

Cons: A pain to cut another hole.

2) Take the PSU, open it and flip the fan around, thus making it suck.

Pros: Should be easy, no case hole, more air throughput in the case.

Cons: Warm air through PSU, could lead to a negative pressure system.

I will have to see how the connections are organised on the unit before I start destroying everything! I wish I had huge hole saws. Or a good bandsaw (unrelated, but it would make guitar building much quicker.)

My last 2 days have involved:

Thinking (overclocking, BIOS, cooling, fans, voltages, life, existence, motivation, objective)

Forza 3

Trumpet

Coffee

Sleepwalking

Cacti

It is cold, my bed is warm, best leave now! Parts arrive tomorrow (today in a few hours I hope to be realistic since 5am is on the way up).

Mike

Computer Build #1

Right, Blogger wiped my last blog text which I am now re-writing, but in a more indignant and to the point manner.

I am building a new computer - my 4/5 year old Acer 5051 is near death's door. I didn't want to spend too much money as I don't have a lot, but I decided to build a machine which will be somewhat future-proof.

-DDR3
-P55 (socket 1156) board
-supporting high FSB
-supporting FAST memory

I decided to build a system based around the i5 750 chip which is a bit legendary for overclocking. People have boasted a safe 4.2GHz (from 2.66GHz) - that seems a bit heavy for me, that chip ran at 80*c and would require me to upgrade the cooling solution I ordered, so I am aiming for 3.6-3.8GHz.

A rough idea of power (processor benchmarks):

N270 (1.6GHz single-core Intel Atom) - 300
Turion-64 (2GHz single-core AMD) - 400
i5 750 (Intel Quad-core at stock 2.66GHz)- 4100
i5 750 (at 3.4GHz OC) - 5400

I am hoping to nearly grace the 6000 with the full over clocking.

For CPU cooling I have chosen an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro:

It is quite a brute of a cooler, and it wasn't that expensive (£20). I hope it fits on the motherboard - it should clear the capacitors at the ram slots, but it may obscure a ram slot, regardless, we will see. It can always be sent back or modified - I am not afraid of wire cutters or a hacksaw :)

Worth noting that the above CPU cooler, the PSU and the 120mm case fan are especially quiet - nothing worse than a BIG WHIRRING desktop!

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-P55-US3L Intel P55 which should facilitate easy over-clocking. Should be able to push the FSB speeds enough on it. Not really worth including a pic, but I will anyway!

The RAM is DDR3 - Geil Ultra Series (4GB) PC3-17000 2133MHz (Dual Channel). Having really fast RAM is an advantage, because I will have to under-clock this to over-clock my CPU.

Being tired is really lowering my interest in talking about every component - lets keep this sharp.

- 500W OCZ eXtreme PSU

- boring cheap ATX tower

- Akaza 120mm silent case fan

- Radeon 4350 1024MB PCI Express graphics (IE cheapo, low powered graphics - not intending to game)

- Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB drive (16MB buffer, SATA-II)

- Existing 22" Acer screen (x224w or something)

All in, I spent about £80 more than I wanted to, but it is a system which should be blisteringly fast with plenty of upgrade potential. In the future I plan to add:

1TB drive - preferably Samsung - never had a Samsung fail, quiet great drives. Unlike Hitachi - in my family in the past year we have witnessed 5 Hitachi drives fail. Can you believe that?! Total rubbish. AVOID. Western Digital have let me down before, but I have an external which has been reliable for years now, so no complaints.

A further 4GB of ram.

A DVD-R/RW drive, preferably a dual layer one - should only be near £20 - I have an external which will do for now.

A card reader - again, I have an external, but it would be nice to have one built in.

Anyway, it should arrive on Thursday, so I am excited! I expect a few days of no sleep and Prime 95 torture testing on the computer :)

Till then... peace!

Mike

The bass is complete! Video #1

I have finished the bass, and this is a preview. I will be posting the complete build photo set soon complete with commentary and writeup, so I won't bother with that here!

Thanks to Mark McKnight for the music:
www.markmcknight.co.uk

Thanks for watching!

God bless,
Mike

Nearly there

Job nearly done!

Bruce Adams Hang

Another one for you instrumentalists/jazz musos...

I went to Luton last year or the year before to hang with Bruce Adams, get some tips on playing etc etc... Well it was a great day, Bruce is a total gent, a really fabulous trumpeter and great cook! Over the course of the day I got fed, watered and musiced (new verb...). We chatted and played, ate chilli and had a couple of beers - it was a great day. I learned soo much from listening to Bruce play - I recorded 3 tunes on my wee H2 recorder, I wanted something to record his playing so that by listening over and over I could appreciate his phrasing etc etc...

I have put the track online and you should have a listen. Some of it is me talking with him (nothing much more than small talk), but what speaks loudly is the music. Such natural rhythm and time feel and a real sense of swing. There are a few audio anomalies - where I have had to boost the gain to pick up the talking etc etc...

The tracks: Softly, As In A Morning's Sunrise, I Remember you, Groovin' High.

Bruce has a number of great recordings out, my favourite is "Sure As You're Born" - worth checking out. He does a bunch of recording with Alan Barnes and is featured on the Cat Anderson chair on the "Echoes of Ellington" disk - this is another cracker. With respect to the other guys on that album, who do play well, Bruces' solos blow them out of the water - such command, confidence and coherence within. I am also fairly sure there is a Double F# or G on that album... chops of steel!

Bruce was over doing a solo spot with the UYJO (Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra) - I was playing for them at the gig, and it is the first time I met him. He pretty much scared the whole band... Good times! This was probably 2007.

Some clips of Bruce from his Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/bruceadamstrumpetflugel

Take her easy!

Mike

Mouthpiece placement. Upstream/downstream.

For the benefit of any brass players who happen to read this blog, I will post more things that Mic Smith has generously shared with me! I will include my email, and amend any facts necessary! WARNING: This gets geeky, and only touches on a small area of playing, one which fascinates me all the same.

Hi Mic,

I decided to check out a Curry 3C. from the marketplace, and man it is a really nice mouthpiece. I think it is becoming my fave quickly. It has the big fat sound that the TF has, sounds brighter, slots nicely and is in tune. Cheers for the tip - I thought it would be like a Bach 3C which is why I didn't bother with it for some time, and it isn't! Still favouring the 3M. for lead, but the 3C. could quickly become the go-to piece! I am playing Joseph in a local production in a few weeks time, might see how it goes!

I am still having inconsistent days, but on those good days I am playing up to a good F. At a band competition I had a decent Ab on the cornet... which was uncalled for but out of an immature reaction to a comment made I played the solo cornet line 8va... I didn't do this on the actual competition :)

I wonder if you have experience of players who can switch to an up-stream style embouchure from a downstream type. I reckon it isn't a great idea, but I will admit to doing it for the thrill or when I am really beat, I don't do this much in fairness. I can quite often pick out a double C at about a mf - F dynamic, or up to a G at any volume I want, but I really do avoid this because I reckon it isn't good practise... The give away is when you can't play in the normal register with any security, but the switch is pretty quick, 8th rest if even. I know in 1 example, Bruce Adams (big Scottish trumpeter, really great jazz player) used to gig a lot in his youth (6 hours a night from 14 years old) and I think he hit his lip and he had to do shows and learned how to play upstream and always has since, but that was due to physical damage. That is a pretty serious case! In any case, Bruce has INSANE range - often something I attribute to upstream players.
Anyway, just a quick update - I hope you are well in what is probably unquestionably warmer weather than we have... and I have nothing to complain about... yet! How are those new springs? I emailed Kanstul to see if I can get my 1525 valves moving better

Mic's reply:

Hey Mike,

Like I said, I find my self using the 3C as much as possible. There's something unique about the cup shape that makes it more efficient than say a Bach 1C or 1C shape without losing the depth of sound players like. Before this 3C, if I were on a Broadway show, I would use either the the 3B or 3DE. Now, there is no choice to make...it'll all goes to the 3C. The 3Z I just sold was a great lead piece but I did have to deal with compromises in my sound on or below the staff. After shipping off the 3Z this past week, I worked a couple of studio things where I used the 3C so I basically spent the entire week on that piece. I had a couple heavy-hitter lead gigs this weekend and used the 3DE. I found that there was no loss of power, range or endurance using it as opposed to the 3Z. Sure, it might take a little more air but not much more. I like the depth of sound the DE provides...something that was lacking with the Z.

I know you probably hear all kinds of theories about lead players having to play on extremely small and shallow equipment. They say its a sign of being efficient as a player if one can handle playing all night on a 6A4a. The problem is that your chops have to have room to vibrate and this has nothing to do with the size of one's lips, contrary to popular belief. I've worked beside too many players with huge lips who sound quite good on very shallow cups for this idea to make sense. While I can play on cups as shallow as the 3Z, it did start to feel a little cramped towards the end of the night. With the 3DE, I don't have this feeling. It plays as free as the the 3B I use for classical work.

As far as your upstream experiments go...be careful. It doesn't hurt anything to experiment a little but make sure you aren't killing your "bread & butter" downstream embouchure. I actually took a couple lessons from Doc Reinhardt way back in the day. He "diagnosed" me as a type 3B downstream. He said that a lot of 3B's make a gradual progression towards upstream players due to them performing a lot in the commercial world. As you know, the bottom lip is all but indestructable so moving the placement down to, say 1/3 top, 2/3 bottom can help a player deal with pressure better. I've never messed with it much as what I have works pretty well and it would probably screw up my classical sound. The one thing I do know (for me) is that keeping almost all the weight on the bottom lip is a great way to increase your endurance because it babies the top lip. I used to have an exercise I made up that promoted keeping the bottom lip as the "anchor". I would play some note in the staff and while holding it, I would move my jaw out and slightly rotate the horn down to the point where it ALMOST breaks contact with the upper lip. So, at this point, 100% of the weight is on the bottom lip. Once I got the feel for this, I would start doing everything with this set up. The depth of sound isn't quite as meaty but its more of a feel thing. While I normally play with more weight on the bottom now I will use this little trick on long blows where I don't want to tire the top lip out. I would try this before taking the plunge into upstream but only you can decide if its hurting anything.


I benefited from that info quite a bit. I think my reply email sums this up best - again - this is online for the benefit of others, not me - I have benefited already. Take the care to note why I benefited - I was returning to a previous mouthpiece placement, previously avoided due to damaged tissue in my lip. Soon I will experiment with a 1/3 top, 2/3 bottom lip placement soon, with all pressure on my lower lip. I have not yet tried this - I want to understand the implications of this. I am currently working to consciously lower pressure, extend the lower jaw and solidify a happy placement of mouthpiece - too high was clearly a temporary answer for a temporary problem which in hindsight could have been cured by using a sensible mouthpiece, less pressure and a LOT of long tones. More at the end.

Your comment on mouthpiece placement was very interesting... and rewarding. And above all - even when I reckon my mouthpiece can't get any lower, it still hasn't hit 50-50... (this is when I am lowering it in experiments).

Ok - so I don't change mouthpiece placement just randomly because of emails or because I think I suck and it is bound to be gear related... but I did change it because I remember consciously moving it up once because 1) I had hurt my lip playing too much on a really sharp-rimmed tiny mouthpiece about 2 or 3 years back - moving it up seemed to help (I also went to a larger piece, from basically a Schilke 13a4 size to a B4S - a 3C). and 2) because although the range suffered, my sound on the B4S plus moving the piece higher, was much mellower and pretty. That I now know was substitute for a "useful" tone. Mellow is at times synonymous with dead to the younger player (I was he) I didn't realise how useless such a dead sound was! Anyway - the past week or 2 I have been doing a lot of my blowing on the 3C. or the 3M. - they are soo similar - the 3C. is a better all rounder, the 3M. is less work in big band, yet I want brighter in that case... anyway - after looking at some older photos of me playing - say 4 year old ones - I had a lower mouthpiece placement. So I reckoned it was worth a shot. I don't use that much arm-pressure when playing, so I figure I can't damage myself just experimenting. Well I tried it - it felt foreign, but nice. My sound became more vibrant or clearer, pitching went a bit weird, but when I slotted a note it seemed solid! Chipping and splitting a few easy notes, but everything else was better! I think my horn angle is a little lower now, my range is about the same, my attacks 100% clearer, my sound much fuller (if a little brighter or richer), and my endurance is better surprisingly! I can't muscle high notes as easily when tired - but I don't see this as a downside - I shouldn't be doing that anyway! As for sound - I still like the dark sounds, but the core sound I have on the 3M or C or TF or Z when I can play it is the same, but the overtones and quality differs. The TF is a dream to play, soo easy, I guess I like the looser slots and mellow tone, but it is draining and lacking sometimes. The 3C. is cracker for most everything else - did a little lead on it - sounded good!

Again - thank you for your help - I am glad you mentioned moving the piece down - I had forgotten that I had consciously moved the piece up in the past and by the results I am getting now - it was detrimental! I am no Charlie Scheulter, but I am pleased to have made more of an improvement by what could be returning to my older position, or perhaps even lower than that. I am going to experiment - I will have to get a feel for where it sits optimally for me. I feel like I need some weight on my top lip to make everything work - weight wise I think I play about 1/2 1/2, but trying my best to favour the lower lip - admittedly if I am wrecked there is sometimes a tendency to lay it on the top lip which is bad, but I do try to avoid that!

And there you have what, for me, proved to be invaluable correspondence. Again, I urge you to check Mic's playing - support a fabulous musician!

www.myspace.com/micsmith
"Trumpets Alone" Mic Smith
Available at CDBaby:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/micsmith

I want to stress how player-specific this is. For a full month I have been playing with a lower placement, and it is working for me and probably because I used to play somewhat like this. I am going to try 1/3, 2/3 placement, and work on getting the weight on my lower lip, but I reckon that what I have is what I am going to work with. As Mic and other great teachers say - experiment, but realise when you are doing yourself harm - tread cautiously! Re: downstream/upstream, well I am classed as a IIIB embouchure (downstream), and I make the switch (to upstream) - when I take the head-staggers or sometimes I am just plain done. I know for a fact that working on this and not my normal IIIB setup is detrimental if done in excess. There is also the tendency to play the uppermost notes on a lead pad with the upstream embouchure - this never trains the normal set to do this work and ultimately you (I, me) am taking a step backwards - if that clarifies anything for a reader, I am happy - I learned this the tough way.

Finally, for anyone who gets the WTF face when they read "Curry 3C. mouthpiece" etc etc... I will make a brief synopsis so that you can stay with me.

Deeper mouthpieces emphasise lower harmonics and sound darker/mellower, less harsh. Shallower mouthpieces do the opposite, and there are varying degrees in between. The mid point most often being the "C" mouthpiece. I my case a "Curry 3C.". The reason is that different music demands different sounds, furthermore the shallower mouthpieces facilitate playing louder for longer in the higher tessiatura. This page explains the Curry mouthpieces that I currently use.

If you got this far - pat on the back. If you got this far and don't play a brass instrument - I will buy you a pint!

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Getting there!

This is a sneak preview of the bass project. . . Stay tuned . . . What a bad pun!

Will Vinson

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