Entry # 4: Vintage Instruments

So I've recently come into possession of a 1934 Olds Cornet for only thirty dollars and it has made me question my previous views on old instruments. I didn't hate them, but I didn't really understand why everyone loves them. My logic in this purchase was 'hey, even if it plays bad it will make a pretty cool lamp' which is pretty accurate. C'mon, how is this not cool?

Vintage instruments are an interesting thing in the music world. People either love them or they hate them. I've not known how to feel, really. They all seem so great when people talk about them because 'back in the good old days everything was made better' which, to a point, is correct. Much of current instrument manufacturing is machine based while many old instruments were made more by hand.

Nowadays pretty much everything is owned by Selmer (like seriously look at the brand names on the right here) even companies that pretend they aren't owned by Selmer are owned by Selmer, which means a company that was never too great at producing high quality products now controls most of the instrument production. Yamaha is pretty much the only other major producer of instruments. Yamaha is the competition.

Now here's where the 'good old days' get put to shame. Yamaha, a producer of basically every type of instrument, actually pulls professional instrumentalists in to help improve their various products. So if you grab a 1980s Yamaha student line trumpet (which I happen to have) and do a side by side comparison with a 2016 Yamaha student line trumpet, the older one will actually play worse. I've done this, I know it's true. Yamaha is a brand that is constantly improving so the increase in mechanized development does not really set back their quality. That is all well and good but Yamaha definitely makes sure you pay for their name. Every instrument is at least a couple hundred dollars more than their other-brand equivalent, even if they're pretty dang close in quality.

But since I'm talking about my Olds cornet, let's take a look at them. Olds are an especially interesting thing in the trumpet world. Depending on who you talk to, they're total trash (almost regardless of age) or they're like the coolest thing ever (this is where age really matters). They're almost like the cult classic of the trumpet/cornet world. Famous people have played them, notably Rafael Mendez, but otherwise have just kind of sat in the background because why play an Olds when you can play a Bach? Seriously, though, if you don't play a Bach you can almost not be taken seriously. It's a bit ridiculous, but that's an argument for another day. Anyway, Olds instruments become really sketchy and almost worth nothing after 1970. But that doesn't mean every single instrument they produced past that point was bad. It just became more of a consistency issue from instrument to instrument.

Mine, though, is a good one. No one questions the decency of a 1930s Olds that still plays.

That's the trick, though. It has to still play. Decades of spit (sorry, condensed air) going into an instrument will undoubtedly do damage to the inside if not cleaned regularly or taken care of. A lot of this lack of care leads to the many "for parts" instruments that plague eBay.

So a 1934 Olds Cornet at Goodwill? What are the odds that it's actually going to be good? I had a friend pick it up for me after he said he saw it. He's a big fan of old instruments and owns two saxophones that are pre-1950. My initial reaction was well this will probably be a lamp. But why not, thirty dollars isn't too bad for a cool lamp.

When I saw it for the first time in person, my assumption hadn't changed. I figured 'It's old and has enough cosmetic damage that the inside is probably rotten'. I WAS SO WRONG. Sure enough, it could probably benefit from a new leadpipe (which is the section of tubing that the mouthpiece attaches to that runs all the way to the valves) but I'm mad at how good it sounds. I paid thirty dollars for it and it plays almost as well as my trumpet that cost literally one hundred times that amount. Granted, it doesn't so much sound like a cornet (although I've been assured it's just because I don't know how to play a cornet or don't have the right mouthpiece) because cornets are suppose to sound more mellow than trumpets. Either way, though, what a satisfying buy! I wouldn't choose it over my trumpet which is totally brand new (like the newest model Bach Strad they make) to the point where I'm the only person that's played on it after it was finished, but I'm certainly glad I own that little cornet! Now I can hand my students an instrument that I don't feel scared of them holding while I fix their instruments that magically manage to break themselves so that they can still play and participate with the rest of the class.

Here's a picture of my two babies:

Psst.. the cornet is the smaller one!

Realistically, my new cornet is worth like two hundred dollars. So I could sell it for more even if I didn't want to keep it. Vintage instruments are okay in my book. 

So next time you're at Goodwill or some pawn shop and see a really old instrument for really cheap, you might want to consider picking it up and finding a friend who can tell you if it sucks or not.