Dime or No Dime? Re-Printed from Feb. 17, 2013

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On one of the more active trumpet discussion boards this month was a question about inserting a dime in the third valve lower cap to change the sound of your trumpet.

Being the skeptic I am and will always be; I decided to test the concept.

I played with the dime placed in the bottom of my third valve for two weeks and today removed it for my testing. During the two weeks with the dime in, I neither felt, heard nor recognized any change in timbre, accuracy, response, range endurance, amount of money made or any other factors in my playing.
Today I took the dime out and still could not distinguish any change.

The next step was to record my sound and compare any differences. I recorded several notes, different dynamic levels along with different distances from the mike and in every case, the dime made no difference to my sinusoidal curve or even my sinuses.

Dime- No Dime

When strange ideas surface I want to find out “the rest of the story” as I did with the location of the mouthpiece in the receiver (How To Place Your Mouthpiece In Your Horn). In that case I doubted the mouthpiece position in the horn would have an effect on tone and I proved myself wrong! I hate it when that happens. In this case, I doubted that a dime would change anything, and it didn’t, in my tests.

For those who feel that a dime in the bottom of your third valve changes you tone, I respect you for your opinion, but I don’t see it and the recordings don’t lie.

For those who would like to learn more about this valve cap thing read on-

I found no change from the normal setup,
I found no change with the dime inserted,
I found no change with all the caps off,
I found no change with the first cap off,
I found no change with the second cap off,
I found no change with the third cap off,
I found no change with the dime in the second valve,
I found no change with the dime in the first valve,
I found no change with two dimes in my pocket,
I found no change with three cents in my left pocket and a dime in my shoe.
I would like to continue this discussion with anyone with differing views. Just drop a dime and give me a call.

Bruce was a member of the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, School of Music in Cedar Falls from 1969 until his retirement in 1999. He has performed with many well-known entertainers such as Bob Hope, Jim Nabors, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Anita Bryant, Carman Cavalara, Victor Borgie, the Four Freshman, Blackstone the Magician, Bobby Vinton and John Davidson.

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