#&@ kids!

Arg!

My son has spent the past year and a half playing an old Prestini trumpet. He took imaculate care of it. Never put a single dent or scratch on the horn. Which for an elementary age student is remarkable.

He's gotten much better in his playing, so when I found a good and affordable Yahama horn, I got it for him. A beautiful silver 232. Almost perfect. Remarkable considering its age.

So what does he do? He promptly holds it by the crook, and swings it on his finger. Something he has never done. Before I could say "stop that" he drops it, bending the bell.

ARG!!!!

I, uh, kinda went off. Sounding just like my father when I did basically the same thing with my cornet when I was my sons age; "what where you thinking!", "do you know how much that cost!", etc.

And he sounded just like I did; "I don't know how it happened", "I didn't mean too", etc.

Well, at least it still sounds good. The damage isn't bad, it's not like it crumpled. Just curled the lip back a bit on one side.

God the kid is scary though. He's mentioned several times now that he thinks he can fix it with my vicegrips. And, he keeps wondering how much money he could get if he scrapes the silver off it. Shudder...

I feel your pain, son.

My son has never "meant" to do anything bad.

The kid was excited. So what if he berkeleyed up? (Says the guy who has no concept of horn pricing) In all likely, much worse mistakes remain to be made.

With that said, is there a legitimate way to fix it?

it's all part of being a kid.

my son has countless scratches/scars all from his sister not meaning to take a swipe at his face.

I thought this was gonna be a Sandusky thread...

you can bend it back, sans vicegrips, but the crease will still be there. is there any engraving on the bell where the crease is? if not then a bit of light metalwork or PDR technique could probably get rid of most of it.

http://trumpet4u.com/WordPress/trumpets-available-today/reshape-crinkled-trumpet-bell/

I think there's a balance somewhere between kids learning appropriate measured responses to non-critical material losses and them respecting personal possessions.

(and I am still learning this)

There's no better way to get a kid to damage something than to buy him something really nice. Something to do with a guy named Murphy, I think.

My son leaned over once and fell on his single french horn crushing and rippling the end.

We talked to the music shop dude and he knew a guy that worked on brass instruments. He fixed it for us and cleaned up the dent and wrinkles for $50.

My kid has been playing the horn for 11 years now so the end result is good.

foxtrapper wrote: He's mentioned several times now that he thinks he can fix it with my vicegrips.

GRMers don't fall far from the tree, eh?

<<<< Enjoying the awesomeness that is a seven month old who just smiles, laughs, and says "DA DA DA!" all the time. Life is good!

They are so cool at that age (heck, at any age!). Has the whole fist gone in the mouth yet?

Per Schroeder wrote: I think there's a balance somewhere between kids learning appropriate measured responses to non-critical material losses and them respecting personal possessions. (and I am still learning this)

per, my older girl is 10 and i'm still learning it too, so don't feel bad.

Yea, I think my parents are still waiting for me to learn the lesson as well.

Not that long ago my mother finally gave me my birth certificate. Only after she spent a few minutes lecturing me on how she thought I'd finally matured enough to handle documents responsibly. I was in my fourties I think.

Somehow, in the process of taking it from her fingers, I tore it in half.

"I'm sorry", "I don't know how it happened", "what where you thinking", etc.

It never changes.

I must say I was once carrying my cornet by the mouth piece, bell down. Yup, cornet came out and bounced on the ground, bent the bell. Not long afterward, some knothead in the band was horseplaying and stepped on it while it was laying on the ground, along with everybody else's instrument. Bent the bell about half way down pretty good. I never fixed it and quit band that year.

Keep in mind a similar accident led to a successful career for Dizzy Gillespie. I'd say just roll with it. Heck, maybe now is the time for a blitz black paint job and some pinstripes for it. Or not.

spitfirebill wrote: I must say I was once carrying my cornet by the mouth piece, bell down. Yup, cornet came out and bounced on the ground, bent the bell.

as a band geek trumpet player i've always cringed after any band event especially when it involved middle schoolers (and not even because of how they play)... it seems that there is always a mom or dad carrying around some kids trumpet by the mouthpiece...

that being said... my first horn was a rental... in 7th grade band I somehow dropped it on the bell and it bounced and landed on the 2nd valve tuning slide which caused the valve to get stuck... sent it into the rental company and they fixed it (to be playable) no charge... at the end of the year mom n dad bought me one of my own (rental company would give the $$$ from rental towards a new horn)... I played/marched with that bach/bundy untill my jr year of HS without ever dropping it... then during a long and hot (103*) marching practice in a daze I let it it slipped out of my hand and put a lip on the top of the bell... played it for most of my Sr. year that way... got a new horn after I made 1st chair all county... been though many horns since then but the bach still is around... it's not a great playing horn, the fit and finish is rubbish (just like every other student horn) it may be played by one of my kids if they want... but they'll never get my strad ;-) lol

If the bell is not creased to badly, it can be worked out using a drumstick or smooth dowel. The trick is to slowly massage it back into shape. Any music store that does rentals should be able to do this if you can't do it yourself.

I won't link to it, but go check out the e36 m3 my kids ruined blog. I don't have kids yet, and after checking out that site, I might never.

I'd take it to the local music store - if they don't have a repair shop they'll know where to send you. Just straightening out a crimp in the bell shouldn't be terribly expensive.

I play the trombone - my horn originally belonged to a high school classmate of mine; one time we were playing in the pep band at a basketball game, and a missed throw from the court hit the back end of the horn and wrapped it right around his head. After it was repaired you couldn't tell it had ever been damaged.

Anything not purchased or owned seems to be about a million times more fragile when held by foreign fingers. I've dropped my cell phone a hundred times without more than a scratch, but I'm sure that as soon as someone else drops it, it will explode into tiny fragments.