Steve Contra-Dude Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 (edited) Hey All! I'm new to this board and wanted to share a K90 story. This thread started with the tracking of a serial numbers of a K90 to find the history....and that got me thinking. Back in The day....1983, I was marching with the Freelancers. We were planning on marching 10 contras that year so the Corps went and bought as many K90s as they could find, but they could only find 9, so one of our rookies had to play a DEG all year. The K90s were big, beautiful and sounded really nice, and we had a great book that had lots of exposed walking bass lines for us to showboat on. SO, at Nats that year in Miami, we went on and played our show at Finals (got 8th place), then they sent the Horn Line over to a place deep inside the catacombs of the Orange Bowl to set up all the horns in some sort of hype formation.....while we went out to watch some of the other shows. Well, when we got back 3 of our K90s were gone!!! STOLEN!!! DISAPPEARED!! VANISHED!!!! Sadly, they were never seen again. It was a heartbreaking experience. Thankfully mine was not one of the taken. I have always felt a little bit responsible because I was the Section-Leader and should have stationed a rookie there to guard 'em. Those horns were like brand-new, not a scratch or dent on them. So, where are they now? Are they still around serving the needs of the corps community somewhere, or are they all dented, rusted and beat-to-@#$%^ sitting in some ###-holes attic? So heartbreaking!! Edited May 5, 2008 by Steve Contra-Dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-horns Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Hey All! I'm new to this board and wanted to share a K90 story.This thread started with the tracking of a serial numbers of a K90 to find the history....and that got me thinking. Back in The day....1983, I was marching with the Freelancers. We were planning on marching 10 contras that year so the Corps went and bought as many K90s as they could find, but they could only find 9, so one of our rookies had to play a DEG all year. The K90s were big, beautiful and sounded really nice, and we had a great book that had lots of exposed walking bass lines for us to showboat on. SO, at Nats that year in Miami, we went on and played our show at Finals (got 8th place), then they sent the Horn Line over to a place deep inside the catacombs of the Orange Bowl to set up all the horns in some sort of hype formation.....while we went out to watch some of the other shows. Well, when we got back 3 of our K90s were gone!!! STOLEN!!! DISAPPEARED!! VANISHED!!!! Sadly, they were never seen again. It was a heartbreaking experience. Thankfully mine was not one of the taken. I have always felt a little bit responsible because I was the Section-Leader and should have stationed a rookie there to guard 'em. Those horns were like brand-new, not a scratch or dent on them. So, where are they now? Are they still around serving the needs of the corps community somewhere, or are they all dented, rusted and beat-to-@#$%^ sitting in some ###-holes attic? So heartbreaking!! Hey, it could have been worse. The thief could have left three DEG's in their place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Contra-Dude Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Hey, it could have been worse. The thief could have left three DEG's in their place! I just felt bad for the 3 men that had to march on to the field for Retreat at Finals empty-handed. Maybe in this case a DEG is better than nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 I just felt bad for the 3 men that had to march on to the field for Retreat at Finals empty-handed. Maybe in this case a DEG is better than nothing. That sucks...was Randy McRay one of them?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Contra-Dude Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 That sucks...was Randy McRay one of them?? Randy....Randy.....Randy...mm, sorry doesn't ring a bell. (yet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 Randy....Randy.....Randy...mm, sorry doesn't ring a bell. (yet) Well...he always TOLD me he marched in 83....but I never got it confirmed. A little heavyset from the San Diego area... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDale Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 BTW, there were some Kanstul 2-v horns that were around before the Grandes (late 80's, VK had some) that played very well, they had a nice open window inside as well as to not occlude the left-side vision of the player... I think they were in essence modified K-90s. I wonder what ever happened to those... I have posted this before. In the early '80s, VK actually still marched a raw brass K90 with a chrome removable bell. They always told us this was THE prototype, although this may have been some hype they were just creating. I marched one of two silver K90s in '84, the other being played by Steve McLaren. The DEG 2Vs were the second choice--Harry Hutchinson, our section leader carried one of these. I cannot remember who carried the "dog". In '85 Keith Brady and I went to the Kanstul factory and play tested the new Kanstul contra, which was made of Besson parts. It had a fixed bell and a half slide. The inherent flat G was still there, some chopping (literally with a hacksaw) was done right in front of us, removing the half step option, but fixing the intonation problems. We marched 5 of these new contras in '85. The slide became a real tuning slide and a couple of notes were lost, which we did not use anyway. Not sure where they ever went, but I imagine they are somewhere in a desert, just sitting there like the old busses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 I have posted this before. In the early '80s, VK actually still marched a raw brass K90 with a chrome removable bell. They always told us this was THE prototype, although this may have been some hype they were just creating. I marched one of two silver K90s in '84, the other being played by Steve McLaren. Heh....I rememer in 02 Dream when we were watching the 84 DVDs and picking ourselves out....Steve's comment during one shot in your opener..."Look...there goes my ###!" The laughter there was only surpassed by the shocked exclamations as we saw a then-skinny John McCoy (who isn't QUITE so svelte these days)...."That's JOHN???" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDale Posted May 17, 2008 Share Posted May 17, 2008 (edited) Heh....I rememer in 02 Dream when we were watching the 84 DVDs and picking ourselves out....Steve's comment during one shot in your opener..."Look...there goes my ###!"The laughter there was only surpassed by the shocked exclamations as we saw a then-skinny John McCoy (who isn't QUITE so svelte these days)...."That's JOHN???" I remember it took TWO guys to play his solo in '85, and they get to listen to that every day, knowing that they fracked it and could not play it as good as John! I also remember getting my first California/ Hawaiian style pizza at Shakey's after practice with John and a group of VKers. Ah.....youth. Edited May 17, 2008 by BigDale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.