If you've been following my site for a while, you know I've written several blog entries about the Jupiter flugelhorn that I purchased in August of 2004. Most of the entries focused on the valve problems that I had and the subsequent repairs.

Well, after several months of deliberation, I've come to a conclusion: I'm selling my flugelhorn.

My reason for selling has nothing to do with the horn itself. Now that the valves have been repaired, they're awesome, even better than my Bach. Everything else works well too. The slides slide, the spit valves spit, etc. No, the problem isn't the horn, the problem is me. I've discovered that I just don't like my sound after it's been flugel-ized. I feel like the flugelhorn mellows out my sound too much, killing the intensity and masking the emotion. It kind of reminds me of playing the French Horn. Yuck!

While I'd be content to never play a flugelhorn again, I'm still glad to have gone through this experience. Thanks to the flugelhorn and to the trumpet trial, I'm confident that I'm playing the ideal horn for me right now. The range of tones I can produce, from airy and mellow, to crisp and bright, allow me to express myself precisely as I intend. My trumpet is my ideal sound, cracked notes and all.

For anyone interested, I'll probably sell my flugelhorn on eBay in the next month or two. Who knows, maybe it has your ideal sound ;-)

Updated 12/5/05: I sold the horn yesterday!