Expert: Kenton Scott - 11/13/2011

Question
dear Sir,
I have my great grandfather's cornet (?- shorter than the student trumpet my husband has)- silver (color, anyway - it is not tarnished but has been in a velvet bag which has perhaps protected it), engraved on the bell with Carl Fischer's Reliable New York, serial number 7371.  There is a silver (real) mouthpiece included, but there seems to be a piece of tubing missing which would fit between the body of the horn and the mouthpiece.  The body tubing ends at the level of the valves and is too wide for the mouthpiece, plus one could not fit one's mouth into that position, which tells me something is missing (sorry, I'm a clarinetist, I do know my brass from my oboe, but nothing further about brass).  I assume the horn is from the late 1800s, knowing my ggf's history.  Is it possible nowadays to obtain a piece of this tube to restore this instrument?

Answer
The part between the horn and mouthpiece is sometimes called a bit, and they were common on cornets till around the turn of the century.  They were of varying lengths so the instrument could be adjusted to different pitches.

You rarely see them for sale on ebay, so the more likely way of getting one is to get one custom made.