MiniSopGuy

Everyone has their own preference and all you can do is get suggestions based on other peoples experience and performance venues. What you should buy and use is what works best for you in the venues you will perform in. There is no one outstanding all around horn. Each one will have trade offs, a great jazz horn will work ok for symphonic use, but then a great symphonic horn would work just fine for a jazz setting. As an owner of an over 30 year old Bach 37, I will say that the current Bachs are not even close to the same quality and consistency they were in the past. You can take 3 horns form the same production month and have 3 completely different reacting insturments. Also, my 30 year old Bach currently collects dust in favor of it's replacement a 30+ year old Benge CG. For pepband and outdoor gigs, my choice is the Kanstul Coliseum (COL103). Some people don't like this horn, but with it's .470 bore, you can't overblow it. It takes everything you can put through it and more. If you can find an earlier model with the heavyweight receiver, or special order it with one, do that. For jazz and orchestra work, I go to my CG. I have also played the "Wild Thing" and Callet "Jazz" horns. I know that one of these will be my next horn purchase for all around use. If you are only considering the Bach or Yamaha, I would go with the Xeno. However, not knowing your price range or intended useage, other horns I would consider are: Kanstul Coliseum Kanstul 1070 (also .470 bore but upgraded valve block) Kanstul 1537 (as close as you will get to a 30 year old Bach 37) Schilke X3 Callet Jazz or Symphonic Flip Oakes Wild Thing Marcinkiewicz Four X RLP or Coppola I don't know where you are from, but find a good reputable store with knowledgeable people. Try as many horns as you can. Don't just blow one scale and make a determination, unless it really doesn't feel right, really play it. Then you can make a better judgement. Don't buy a horn just based on what someone tells you is the best. I learned this lesson when I was young and everyone said to buy a Bach 37. I got it, and as I said, it now collects dust. For opinions on a lot of horns, check out brassreview.com and trumpetmaster.com. You wil find many opinions there that can give you a great start in your search of the best horn for you.

Beginning this weekend, we also step up our rehearsal schedule. All winter, we have been working on the show music and now it is time to put it on the field. Starting on Saturday, our rehearsals will be every Saturday 9:30 am - 9:00pm and every Sunday 9:30am - 5:00pm. We have a goal to present a complete show to the paying fan$ at the early season shows. Too many times we see the fan$ complaining that they are paying full price for partially complete shows from every corps. We are pushing ourselves to present a full production for our first DCi show on July 3rd. With the short season we have in California, we want the fan$ to get their money's worth. However, we also want to get as much judge feedback as possible to perfect our show before the end of the West Coast season, just 14 days later, on July 17th. This will also give us a lot of information to work with as we prepare for DCA Championships in "stealth mode" during the month of August. If you would like to be a part of this season, it is not too late! While most of the corps is through the music at this point, our professional staff, and the corps members, will do everything they can to get you caught up. Come down this Saturday and claim your spot on the field.

Looking forward to seeing you in SoCal!!!

Drill this weekend.....we need to get those spots filled fast!

Could it be lower than the Hamilton Knights prelim score of 33.10 in 1987? Or maybe lower than the Westmoreland Esquires prelim score of 28.80 in 1979? Considering those prelim scores, I would guess it came from one of those seasons, but I will watch for all the historical scores to get posted.

An all-age DCA corps sounds like a perfect fit for you. I was never able to do a summer tour with a DCi corps, so DCA corps has been my first full drum corps season experience. I am glad I am in it and just like you mentioned, it is a great way to be around people that share my same passion for the activity.

Just to play devils advocate.....On the DCA side of things, to keep younger people interested since they will be the future of DCA, do "we"(DCA, need to evolve a little more towards the DCi style of shows? Of course the first thing that comes to mind is amps and electronics but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about music and visual style. Being all-age, we definately can not expect everyone to be able to pull off 220bpm at the end of the show while jazz running 5 to 5 playing double c's, and I do not think we should ever try. But would it be possible to blend the two styles a little more so there are more crossover members? As the "dinosaurs", as DCi people like to refer to many of the DCA members, age and finally reach their individual "age-out" year, there will need to be new fresh blood to fill the corps. I really think that something to entice the younger to look at DCA as a viable option needs to be explored.

I hope this was a successful evening for the Renegades. I was up Davis for the weekend with a band I perform in and planned to attend, but after an "eventful" 7 hour bus ride from SoCal, I was in no condition to get a rental car and drive over there.

As the PR person for SoCal Dream, I will say "ditto" to this. I will also add that eventhough there will be less corps on the field, we are excited to be returning to DCA championships. Those not on the field will be sadly missed, but we anticipate the shows and competition will be as stellar as ever!

I still love the look on kids face when they walk in cold and pick up a G horn and play. Their first reaction is priceless. They always have been, and always will be the one major distinction between band and corps. Now that said, I like a line in Bb as long as they are a large bore horn that you can put air through and peel paint. Could you imagine a complete soprano line on Wild Things or Callet "Jazz" horns? Second best to those would be Kanstul Coliseum horns. I guarantee they would be just as powerful as a G line when cut loose. Just for the record, SoCal Dream has a mix of Kanstul, Dynasty and DEG's throught the hornline. Unfortunately no one section seems to have all the same make except mellos(Kanstul). Only money would solve that problem.

We were never really gone. Just took a year off from the expense of NY travel. We are definately farther along than we were the last trip to NY. New guard and percussion cap heads and a return to our 2006 brass cap head, the year we won brass. Looking forward to gettting back to NY again!

Does anyone know where to find complete historical scores from WGI championships? I know there are some on wgi.org, but they only have the finals scores, and for a few years not even all classes.

How true. I will never forget getting snowed on the week of championships.

Dont forget coffins

Thus another reason many band directors still have a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to drum corps.

And if you remember correctly, as I am sure Lee will, another corps' PR person stepped up and helped out with that situation, and hopefully had an impact. Which is what Lee is brainstorming about in this thread; "Corps Helping Corps", but on a more national or organizational level. I think it is a great idea, I do not think it will be an easy idea to sell to all the corps in DCA. It is not an easy idea to implement either. It would take dedicated, hard working people to start a program like this and figure out how to make it effective. How do you start? What help do you provide? How do you decide which resources go to which corps in need? What would those resources even be? On and on, there are many questions that would have to be discussed and answered to get this going. However the first thing that needs to happen is to get the corps(DCA) to agree to the idea in principal and work from there. We all know that DCA is run by the member corps of DCA and they are busy simply trying to run their own corps. Adding another project to the mix is going to be a tough sell, but possibly and effort worth making.

Looking at the Warburton compatible shank, I am thinking it is a 2 piece design, looks like there is a seam, then soldered together. Then their 2 piece looks like the top part was made as 2 pieces then soldered together:

Just to add to the discussion of different backbores, has anyone played on an Xstream mouthpiece? Take a look at the picture on the link above. It has a "power chamber" right after the throat.

So the answer to your question They are called clip mounts.

Are you talking about something like these: CLIP MOUNT: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...%3D1&_rdc=1 Slingerland Wedge Mount: http://cgi.ebay.com/Old-Vintage-drum-part-...=item4cee456fee There is another one that is simillar but is thinner than the Slingerland wedge and even narrower at the top than the bottom, I think is called a bayonet or spade mount.

Sam I believe your correct. When the 'Gades had to cancel their trip east prior to finals, Empire also cancelled the west coast trip.

Probably when DCI-P/DCI approves them and puts them on the schedule?????

Love or hate of CF obviously depends on who you talk to. People that love it seem to look at it as a group of like minded people being crazy and having fun. People who hate it seem to have the mind set that they are making a mockery of the Mini Corps competition. This may not be true, but watching the of 2003, they even state they are going for negative points(take note of the interview at 1:48). That of course is directly opposite of the notion of "competition", thus the assumption they are making a mockery of the competition.In 2004, there were even more people than 2003. I believe this is what led to the rule that rather than getting a penalty for too many people, you simply would not be allowed to perform.

Hopefully the people bidding know that it is not a joke and they are in essence "signing a contract" to pay the amount they bid! Good luck with this, I hope you get more than the current $787.78 bid.

No they are playing Bb/F horns