Cooper BrassWorks

Several paddles heading out to new owners this week!!!

Another valve conversion in the books!

Local D/FW trombonist and UNT alum Jonathan Gill brought his Bach 42 Corp in looking to free up the blow through the valve section and improve the overall response. He decided to have me install an Instrument Innovations rotary valve and valve section tubing, as well as replacing the existing valve section bracing with a dual edge brace, which helps with response by reducing bracing against the bell and gooseneck. I also made a new lever with a Goncalo Alves paddle (although I couldn't resist getting a pic with a Paduak paddle, it's my favorite so far)!

I always enjoy making a player's equipment work better for them, thank you Jon for trusting me with your horn!

This past fall I had the privilege of doing a custom build for Michael Dease!

Michael reached out to me wanting to know if I could make some improvements to a King 5B he had. His main concern was the stuffy valve, but he was also interested in making the horn modular, so he could remove the valve section and switch it out for a straight gooseneck. I had never done a modular King trombone before, so I was excited to give it a go!

The valve section was built using an Instrument Innovations rotary valve, tubing, and modular bell connectors. The gooseneck is a standard 4B gooseneck that I did a bit of retapering and bending to make work for the 5B setup.

This was a fun and challenging build but I'm pleased with how it turned out. Michael was also thrilled with it, saying "the horn is rocking now!" A big thanks to Michael for trusting me to make this happen!

After market valve caps can be a great way to customize the look and feel of your instrument, but make sure you check your valve alignment once they're installed! The caps may fit your instrument, but that doesn't mean they're setup from the seller to maintain valve alignment. On this instrument you can see just how far the alignment is off with the felts that came installed on the trim kit.

Not throwing shade at after market valve caps, just making sure players know what to consider when getting them!

It’s been a minute since I’ve posted, last semester was crazy busy!

One of the highlights for me of last year was hosting a two-day NAPBIRT Regional Conference at UNT on Nov. 15-16. It was a joint effort between myself and Colter Weatherholtz who put together a fantastic lineup of presenters including Scott Sweeney, Corey Divine, Melanie Ditter, and Brian Stevenson(Colter and I also gave presentations). We had a great turnout and I got to meet a lot of great people and learn new skills! I can’t wait to do it again!

I’m looking forward to getting to work on some cool projects coming up soon as well as several opportunities to present/teach between now and this summer!

(Also, check out these people’s pages, they do some seriously cool stuff!)

I recently did a “knuckle-ectomy” on a King 607 trombone with a badly cracked rotor knuckle. A patch had been attempted in the past, but those rarely hold up in this particular area. Not sure what the sticky stuff all over the knuckle was except for a poor attempt to seal the cracks.

The process involves removing the damaged knuckle and fitting a replacement knuckle out of tubing of the same inner/outer diameter as the original. The replacement knuckle gets silver soldered in place and then any hangover into the inside of the casing gets trimmed away until the rotor can be lapped in. After that it’s just putting it all back together!

A little taste of some trombone paddles I’m working on for the fall. 😎

Look for these, and more, for sale soon!!!

Recently finished a job for Andrew Dean Moser! Andrew sent me his King 8B bass trombone to have the linkages converted from string to mechanical and get the old lacquer stripped. In addition to the linkage and lacquer work, I also fabricated a new hinge rod for the Gb lever and took some dents out of the handslide crook. Thank you Andrew for trusting me with your horn!

.d.moser

I’m proud to finally share my first accessory for sale, Pretty Paddles!

Pretty Paddles are a matched set of F and Gb/D lever paddles that will fit most bass trombones with round levers. They are available in both wood and acrylic.

Since this is an initial release there is limited availability, mainly to help me gauge which options are more or less popular.

If you have a request for a specific wood or acrylic please let me know!!!

$100 shipped to the CONUS
+$25 for international shipping

DM if you’re interested in ordering!

This past Wednesday I had the pleasure of traveling to Northeastern State University in Broken Arrow, OK to give a presentation as part of their Band Instrument Repair Workshop. It’s always great to be able to share my expertise and experiences with music educators! Kevin Staggs also presented a great hands-on demonstration of common woodwind repairs!

Special thanks to Alex Doyle, Saied Music Co., and the Northeastern State University Music Department for hosting the event and inviting me to present!

Squeaky clean and shiny! This cornet is ready to go make some music and look good doing it!

Just finished splitting the levers on this King 6B Duo Gravis for Charles Jenkins of TN! This job was a very fun challenge and I appreciate Charles letting me do the work for him. I can’t wait for him to get it back and let me know how it feels for him!