It works like this: take a can of beer, as brass players do, or any cylindrical object. Imagine this to be your valve. Bore, or imagine boring, a hole through the axis of the beer can and out the other side. It is of course a round hole, and it obviously looks round.
Now, bore, or imagine boring, a round hole not through the axis of the can, but to one side of the axis (i.e. non-axially bored). It's still a round hole, but it doesn't look round. It looks egg-shaped. This is the trick. You have created an ovoid. Now drink the beer.
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By moving some of the valve ports on the Wedgwood instruments to "non axial positions" this means that we've created a little more room for the other ports to fit in without overlapping (which causes the bumps) and without increasing the length of valve depression. This formula gives us a clear bore throughout the casings.
Thickness of six human hairs
Life really starts of course when ovoids meet axials and more beer is needed to demonstrate this.
Initial comments when players test a Wedgwood trumpet are significant in themselves.
The two main ones are:
"Isn't it easy to play?" and
"Oh, the bore of the instrument is very large."
To the first question: "Yes, it is easy to play."
The second is more fun to answer.
"Yes, a Wedgwood is slightly larger bored than email database a Vincent Bach. They are slightly larger by about the thickness of six human hairs". Being as I am somewhat in short supply of the latter, this is better proved by plucking out and measuring the follicles of the nearest student.
Does this thickness of six hairs make the trumpet easier to play?
"I don't think so. What does make it easier to play, and makes people feel as though 'notes are in slots' is the uninterrupted bore throughout the instrument."