Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

(Also Check out our About Us, Ordering, Etc page)

Which Bugle Should I buy?

We have a lot of details on various styles of bugles on our "Buy a Bugle" link. This should answer most of your questions. However if you send us e-mail please add the age of the player, how much experience on musical instruments they have, and the purpose of the instrument. That should help guide our answers.

Do you ship out of USA??

Out of country orders are considered depending on the order and destination. Since size, weight, and destination are critical to the final calculation and this is a LOW BUDGET website, it's best to do these calculations by hand and send you and invoice which you can accept or ignore. However for CANADA $10 extra will get you any bugle order. Note that custom fees, etc, are out of our control and up to the purchaser to cover.

Why don't you have a phone number or mailing address?

Well we have both of those, it's just not put on the internet. The vast majority of our business has been done by electronic payments and e-mail. When we published the phone number, we received a significantly greater number of SALES CALLS then ORDERS. These would come in all times of day or night. So while we can return calls if e-mail isn't adequate, we don't maintain a special number for such purposes. This allows us to keep our costs, and therefore our prices, low.

Mail also was a huge problem with junk mail, to the point that legitimate orders got lost in the onslaught of junk mail. Thus if you want to order by mail, just let us know and we'll put the item on hold and supply you with a mailing address. Click Here

You said you shipped the item, but the post office says you didn't!!!

The USPS doesn't offer a "tracking service" on priority mail. They offer "delivery confirmation." So most of the time the package going out will not have anything other then "electronic shipping info received." However, if we generated a label, the package is going out in the next mail pickup.

Your website is GREAT!

Thank you!

I have a tuba player

wannabe bugler--he works at it

but it is a huge struggle

His teacher had him get a wider deeper mouthpiece

and since he is playing on a trumpet he is using the valves to

stay away from the highest notes.

I have read everything--and what I am hearing is he needs to stay

with the trumpet because for now the bugle is just going to make the high notes harde

-Elizabeth

The Trumpet <-to-> low brass argument, are all over the map and 180 degrees in disagreement.

I'm going to make the following working assumption:

As a brass player, he has a better idea of how to make this happen then a reed/non wind player.

For ANY (except a few freaks of nature) player learning the trumpet, they tend to have more difficulty getting the "higher notes"

For the B-Flat trumpet (standard) doing bugle calls the note of interest is usually the G resting on the staff. That's often out of the range of the beginning player.

Thus the idea of using the "G" bugle or G/F bugle. Where in reality you only have to hit a lower note to make your song:

Key of instrument and what you would play on the b-flat trumpet (concert pitch)

B-Flat Open

A 1/2 step Valve 2

A flat 1 step Valve 1

G 1 1/2 step o valves 1 and 2

So to simulate the G Bugle you would hold down 1 and 2 which in theory should make it easier to play. If you can hit the notes however, there's no problem with a B-flat bugle.

The answer, like everything else PRACTICE.

I think the best advise I saw was treat each as separate instruments (Tuba as one Bugle/Trumpet as the other)...And develop the appropriate muscles for each.

There are tons of exercise books that will SLOWLY allow him to increase his range...especially taking advantage of the smaller increments when using the trumpet.

As a side noted: I did do a Bugles Across America gig where it ended up have three trumpet players (so I'm glad I had a trumpet in the car instead of just a bugle). One fellow who HIRED HIMSELF OUT as a bugler couldn't hit the higher notes, so we all played with 1 and 2 down.

It'll come to him in a reasonable amount of time, but don't do the bugle calls, work on developing the scales which would allow him to do the bugle calls.

I wouldn't worry about buying a bugle just for the scouts if he has a decent trumpet (heck, he can have a trumpet whose valves stink and still have a great bugle)...if he has an expensive trumpet you might want to think twice about letting it out on campouts.

Hope that helps!

-fred

Please send comments, etc to: support