marksmenbari

marksmen didn't completely fold in 1975, but most of the members did leave... the full equipment truck (an ugly maroon/brown ford cabover that had the sentinels logo on it) was stored in our backyard during 1976 and the corps resumed in 1977. we lasted until the fall of '78 as a parade corps and near the end we actually changed our name back to shamrocks and did a few parades using the original uniforms. the intent was to try to get support from the community, which didn't work... marksmen were going strong in 1975, and the future looked good but it was a financial screw-up that killed the corps... the bod mishandled funds, the director (corbin) was incompetent, and our bingo license was canceled. vfw kicked us out of our hall in white center... and the rest is history. the uniforms were cool though :)

i have 2 low brass (12c and 6-1/2al) kelly mouthpieces, mostly for playing outdoors during christmas or at football games. they feel good, but their tone isn't as dark as a metal mouthpiece. they are really great for playing outdoors in winter though.

my first trombone was a bundy pos.... first bugle was/still is an olds ultratone p/r.

i have 3- an olds ultratone p/r bari, a getzen titleist p/r g-f-f# bari and an olds ultratone p/r mello. i play the first two, i don't know why i have the third one.......

getzen, deg, olds or american command/heritage? p/r or 2-valve?

they are taiwan-made stuff, very thin brass and don't tolerate much abuse unlike most domestic brands. i've played some jupiter concert brass, and it's comperable to the 70's yamaha horns. decent sound and the valves work well enough for student instruments. fwiw, jupiter's quality is a thousand times better than the brazilian-made weril/deg dynasty stuff.

imperial.. would that be a whaley royce??

78-79 seattle imperials did something similar, except that the snare drum was a shorter, concert-style and the 3 toms were smaller. they called the unit an "isometric", or "iso" for short.

oops!.. ...to us left-coasters, all of those tiny eastern states all look the same...

no free samples?

new toy (birthday present :) conn 75h tenor 'bone with f-attatchment. nice horn

i haven't played a kanstul flugabone, but i have played the one made by king (looks just like the kanstul) and while it doesn't project outdoors as well as a baritone, it does have a very nice trombone sound. i couldn't see a corps using them , but definately would work well in marching band or for jazz ensembles.

yamaha doesn't make contras, only too-bahs.....

spam, spam, spam.........

marksmen were short-lived... the corps began in 1974 as a merger between the bellevue sentinels and the seattle shamrocks. sentinels had lost their american legion sponsorship and had their own trucks and buses, shamrocks had vfw sponsorship, a bingo operation and new olds ultratone p/r horns but no vehicles. the merger created one fully-equipped corps with a very competent staff, and all of the membership was local to the seattle area (like to see a current dci div1 corps do that nowadays :) ) i really liked the uniforms. men wore black slacks with a narrow (about 1") maroon-over-silver stripe on the outside, ladies wore black skirts (below the knee) with the same stripe along the bottom, both wore the same tan khaki military shirts with a narrow (about 3") maroon sash, wide (about 6") maroon cumerbund with a square stainless buckle, topped off with black aussie hats with a silver star. drum majors wore tan slacks and tan hats with gold stars. they were simple, sharp-looking, easy to put on and comfortable in hot weather. marksmen did a full tour in '74, but just before the '75 tour, disaster struck: due to erronious bookkeeping by the BOD, marksmen lost their bingo license, their bingo/corps hall and soon after, most of the membership. many went south to march with freelancers, scv and troopers. membership went from close to 120 in may to less than 50 by july of 1975. we continued as a parade corps and winterguard for a few years before the BOD decided to fold the corps in late 1978... i still have my baritone (nobody bothered to collect them after the collapse..) and still play it sometimes. enough, i went on a rant there..... sorry about that. corps i'd like to see back: black watch, auburn wa. marauders, longview wa. renaissance, spokane wa. drifters, surrey bc. spartans, vancouver wa. sky ryders, hutchinson ks. 27th lancers, revere pa. but, as psiguy stated, it would really be nice if corps were evenly distributed across the country so one wouldn't have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to march...