Lawler Model 4 review

[johntarr]

I’ve had my Model 4 for a while now and it’s been a journey. When I first played it at the very end of last year, the sound was amazing. Fast forward to late summer, I had been playing it all summer, and while I love the sound, I felt as if I had to work pretty hard, more than I wanted. Then I pulled out my Rath R3F that I use for more classical settings and felt that it was much easier to play, even though I was using a larger mouthpiece.

The most difficult aspect of the Lawler was that the high Bb in first position was really hard to center. Now of course one could say the fault lies with me but on my other horns (one of which is a .547 bore), that note is much easier, plus the Bb in third on the Lawler works fine. I contacted Roy and we began talking about various options, from changing the lead pipe, to a smaller bore slide, or even a different model. I even started to get a little excited about trying a smaller horn.

And yet, I didn’t want to give up the Model 4 because I really love the sound and am inspired to play in ways that I hadn’t been before. So what to do?

When playing the Rath, I notice that I feel more vibration in my hands and the horn seems to “light up” fairly easily. I had the sense that the Lawler’s bell flare and stem are thicker or stiffer than the Rath’s so I wondered if I was working too hard to try and get the same feeling. That change in concept seemed to help, let the horn do more of the work (duh!). Just that simple mental shift made things easier. Thanks to Dion Tucker and his YouTube series for reminding me that less can be more.

With the high Bb flat, I found that I need to have the tuning slide in a bit more than I normally would so that I can shorten the slide for that note. When I get it right, the Bb is much better. The position of the hand brace in relation to the end of the tubes is also different and I found that my left hand was sort of “in the way” of my bringing the slide almost to the bumpers so had to change my hand position as well.

Bell flares also make a difference, I ordered three: 8” red brass .22, 7.5” yellow brass .25 and 8” bronze .25. The red brass is the brightest and most responsive, the yellow darker and also requires more energy. The bronze seems to be right in the middle and I’d like to try a .22 gauge bronze.

For now, I will try another lead pipe and after that, possibly a different bell flare. This is certainly not a lead horn but the sound is really special and the slide very light. I feel very fortunate to be able to play this horn and have the opportunity to change different parts as needed. The one difficulty is that I live in Europe and the usps has become incredibly slow, so ordering parts takes much more time.

The specs:
Model 4 with setback bell, .22 gauge red brass stem
Nickel slide with brass bow
#10 lead pipe
Bell flares mentioned above

That’s it for now.

[harrisonreed]

What kind of room are you playing in to make the judgements above? What room usually, let's say.

[johntarr]

What kind of room are you playing in to make the judgements above? What room usually, let's say.

That’s a good question. I usually practice at home in a normal, what was once a bedroom and I also play in my teaching studio at school, neither room is very large.

[harrisonreed]

What kind of room are you playing in to make the judgements above? What room usually, let's say.

That’s a good question. I usually practice at home in a normal, what was once a bedroom and I also play in my teaching studio at school, neither room is very large.

You may find a world of difference playing those horns in a slightly more live accoustic space. Give it a try anywhere that might give you a little reverb.

[Enartselim]

I’m following your review closely since I just received my Lawler-4 this weekend. First impression is: Wow!! The sound! The sound is an instant sell for me. Big, mellow, and buttery! But I realized very quickly this horn is not as easy to play as my smaller horn (Yamaha 891z-.508). But that doesn’t mean I don’t absolutely love this horn. I just have to go through an adjustment period and possibly make some tweaks (i.e., lead pipe, mouthpiece, flare, approach, etc.). I’ll post an update to my journey in about a week or so. My set is similar to yours:

.025 Red brass stem
.025 red brass and .022 bronze flares
Nickel slide w/brass bow
#10 lead pipe