Had an interesting experience that led to something I never thought I'd be using again. So one day last week one of my employees was going down the leadpipe rabbit hole, leading me to dig out every leadpipe I have kicking around here for him to try. Whilst doing so, I ran into a leadpipe I cut down to be just a receiver 20ish years ago. For the hell of it I stuck it into my horn to give a toot. Besides being immensely fun to honk away on the low stuff with, it also was quite terrible as I moved up the staff, which led me to the question of would it be possible to design a leadpipe shank all in one around the same length as a shank?

I ended up having to go an inch longer to make it work right, but the answer is yes, yes you can. It's still an air hog, and still requires more effort to focus, but talk about an amazing training tool! After several days playing on it, the only real remaining difference is the significantly less amount of edge I get vs a normal leadpipe. That and the sound is a tad darker.

Ideally I can't see myself every using it outside of a practice setting, but when I switch back to my leadpipe I really feel like superman behind the horn, so it role for me at least is quite clear. My plan is to spend a few weeks on it to see if that opinion changes at all, but it's been a fun little mess around project, since designing a backbore specifically for this application took a hot minute and some thinking.

I love how you phrase it as a training tool. I love an old Schilke with a no leadpipe shank that I have hanging around. Great sound, great blow… but just like you said, this doesn’t leave the house.

I think there’s probably a place for this as a tool, but for me as well, not a daily driver.

Cheers,

Andy

Reminds me of the guy hitting his head against the wall. Asked why he was doing this he replied, "It feels do good when I stop"

What if it was made of harder material. Would that help the upper register?

Now,add an extra inch to the backbore/shank and i guess it would be Even more interesting !<EMOJI seq="1f609" tseq="1f609">😉</EMOJI>