Wynton plays Monette horns. A tad pricey, the lack of lacquer is a feature set on those heavily braced horns. The basic idea is that if the horn vibrates at all, it is robbing energy from the sound coming out of the bell. Hence the heavy crescent shaped braces, etc.

You can take your Olds to a good horn tech and get the 1st valve slightly shortened and a 1st valve trigger added to it. Then the D will be in tune and you have the trigger to lengthen the slide a bit for the other notes, that will likely be sharp after the slide shortening.


--Mac