Steve
Norfolk, VA
King 3B (Sterling Silver Bell), Bach 42BO
I play whatever the Navy tells me to I like the variety. But I guess my heart does lean towards classical playing. It just depends. Whatever the Navy is making me play, I usually start wanting to play the opposite.
That's exactly my point. It changes. Two years ago, I was lead bone in the big band. Last year, lead bone in the Showband. When we return from Christmas leave, I'll be in the Brass Quintet for the coming year. Throughout the whole time, I've also been in the Wind Ensemble and the Ceremonial Band.
If you're interested in military music, just be prepared to play anything.
When did you get your Edwards? What kind of bell, slide and tuning slide do you have, and what mouthpiece do you use?
I'm Jeff, from Newington CT. I play classical and jazz. I have a Shires with two different slides - a .547 with bass crook, and a .525/547 dual bore. I use each of them for different playing purposes. I also have a Rath dependent bass and a Shires .500 horn. My two backup horns are a Conn 88H and Bach 50B3. I use Doug Elliott mouthpieces nearly 100% of the time.
I got my Edwards in May of 2004. (Ordered it in February)
The bell is the regular yellow brass bell, the 333CF. My next purchase will be a rose brass bell, for those more mellow purposes.
The slide is the T-BCN slide, similar to the Bach slides, with the squared off end. I don't remember the nickel silver outer slide being available when I bought it, but I probably would have gone with the regular yellow brass slide anyway.
My tuning slide is the dual radius slide, in the rose brass color. (They told me when ordering that most people who ordered the yellow brass bell got the rose brass tuning slide. The color does not make much of a difference in that area, so I figured why not, it's the same price and it looks cool.)
I have several mouthpieces that I use with it, but I usually use a Warburton 5G for chamber work, a Marcinkowicz 5 Greg Woll piece for jazz, and (my main piece, used for 90% of my playing) a Warburton 7ST top with ST backbore system piece for bigger classical and large ensemble work. And also a Holton 1.5 for bass bone work that doesn't require a bass bone (just the largest leadpipe)
How do you like your Shires? I've heard great things about them, but I was only able to play one for a very short time, and for some reason I wasn't a huge fan of it for my personal style.
searching...
I like the variety. But I guess my heart does lean towards classical playing. It just depends. Whatever the Navy is making me play, I usually start wanting to play the opposite. 
