[Ethan97]

I've been looking into getting a new mellophone (my first is from some company called E.F. Durand), and I'm not sure of what I want. What's best? Dynasty, Jupiter Quantum, Yamaha, King, Kanstul, or what?

[LB Mellophone]

A word of advice, you get what you pay for. I have been playing for over 25 years and my suggestion would be stick to the "names" King, Deg, Dynasty, Kanstul, Conn. You may find yourself a good used horn on E-bay, or even the Marketplace here on DCP. Good luck in your search.

[SpiritVet]

Probably a good plan to look into corps sales of their used instruments. This basically restricts you to Yamaha or Jupiter Quantum, both which are good choices, but between those two, I'd go Yamaha.

I agree with the above post, minus the inclusion of Deg and Dynasty. Based on trying the four major brands still in DCI these days pretty quickly after each other, Dynasty was my least favorite.

[randomnoise]

Yamaha 204 and the System Blue are both excellent instruments.

[Ethan97]

What I do like about my dirt cheap $200 EF Durand is that it's modeled after a King (1120?), so I would prefer a bigger and more sturdy build. An help with that?

[randomnoise]

Ethan97, on 14 May 2012 - 10:58 AM, said:

What I do like about my dirt cheap $200 EF Durand is that it's modeled after a King (1120?), so I would prefer a bigger and more sturdy build. An help with that?

You need to play the horns. Is there anywhere you can try them out?

[SpiritVet]

It's pretty difficult to just walk into a music store that's not within 10 miles of Elkhart, Indiana and find the full range of things like mellophones. If you can make it to a major DCI regional show (Minnesota, San Antonio, Atlanta, Allentown) and/or finals, you'll should find booths with marching brass available to try out, assuming you have your own mouthpiece. For the regionals, the attendance may vary, and you may only see one or two of the manufacturers (saw King and SB at both San Antonio and Allentown, Yamaha at San Antonio as well). In the past, finals has had King & SB, Yamaha, Jupiter Quantum, and Dynasty all there.

[Ethan97]

I live around Miami, so the closest DCI show is in Orlando, and there are NO places that marching brass around here :/

[Penn State]

randomnoise, on 14 May 2012 - 12:07 AM, said:

Yamaha 204 and the System Blue are both excellent instruments.

http://middlehornlea...ha%20YMP204.htm Yamaha 204 is a great horn!

[ToferVis]

I agree, I bought my students in my band program the System Blue (I use to kinda hate King mellos..) but these system blue mellos are ridiculously awesome.