G-horns Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 (edited) One of my best friends and a former TBIRD was a converted BariSax player who played and excellent French horn bugle. How....? He has no LIPS.......( well....he really has LIPS.....but his mouth is essentially Flat) Now that I think about it.....we had (6) Frenchies who were really good but also ALL flat Lipped. Never saw "PEPE" up close so I don't know if he was in that group. (Mike Siglow....white courtesy phone.....) I think Pepe and Hy (yup, he was a frenchie man) played on custom wide-rim mouthpieces. They were essentially a trumpet piece with a frenchie shank and a modified back-bore. ....I just remembered - Danny Fitz uses a "cross-over" mouthpiece on frenchie. It has a trumpet cup and a french horn shank. Don't know the make, but he told me he bought it "off the shelf" many years ago. Edited August 3, 2008 by G-horns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Bari Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 steel city ambassadors had a great french horn soloist,Pat Cavanaugh.,also,debbie kutch........to hear them you gotta go back to 87,88 DCA recordings.(vinyl days) or cassette.............no compact discs,in the olden days! In the 1970's, I believe Pat Cavanaugh scored the first 100 in DCI I&E, playing FH for Gen. Butler Vagabonds. In '87, Debbie Kutsch had a FH solo in "One More Time Chuck Corea" (reprised from '86), and Pat had a FH solo in "Come Rain or Come Shine". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomnoise Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Hi guys! Renegades have used French Horns whenever we had the players. Last time was 2006, and we had 4. I think that Mellophone dominance is just what is in fashion. It is not the mouthpiece - If you do measurements of mouthpieces, French Horn mouthpieces are not substantially smaller that trumpet. The partials ARE very close together, and that makes it tough (but not impossible). In addition, Mellophones are louder. I am trying to get the word out about a new marching French Horn that would be perfect for most hornlines - it is in the key of F and has the same partials as a mellophone (for the Horn players out there - this would be called a bell front alto F or descant horn). This horn eliminates most, if not all objections to using the french horn on the field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard Rich Posted August 4, 2008 Author Share Posted August 4, 2008 Hi guys!Renegades have used French Horns whenever we had the players. Last time was 2006, and we had 4. I think that Mellophone dominance is just what is in fashion. It is not the mouthpiece - If you do measurements of mouthpieces, French Horn mouthpieces are not substantially smaller that trumpet. The partials ARE very close together, and that makes it tough (but not impossible). In addition, Mellophones are louder. I am trying to get the word out about a new marching French Horn that would be perfect for most hornlines - it is in the key of F and has the same partials as a mellophone (for the Horn players out there - this would be called a bell front alto F or descant horn). This horn eliminates most, if not all objections to using the french horn on the field. Questions: Who manufactures these? This would then lead to a website, to see what they look like. And you utilize a conventional fh mouthpiece to play them? Interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanguard Rich Posted August 4, 2008 Author Share Posted August 4, 2008 (edited) Deleted - Duplication - OOPS!!!! Edited August 4, 2008 by Vanguard Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomnoise Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Oh yeah - a link would help! Kanstul 284 Marching French Horn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniSopGuy Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Oh yeah - a link would help!Kanstul 284 Marching French Horn Thats cool! I have 2 of their Bb model with the curved lead pipe sitting in the closet at the school. They didn't work out too well for the kids, but I like them. If the F model blows anything like the Bb's, I am sure it is a great horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_7 Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 I played both horns while testing horns at Kanstul after DCI 2007. I liked the Bb better, but they were close to each other playing wise. The F horn being pitched higher than the Bb was a little odd. And the ergonomics of the bent leadpipe of the Bb was nice. Sound wise I liked the Bb better. But I could probably play louder on the F, given the proper conditioning / familiarity. Not that I spent much time on either to do them justice. I was mainly interested in a 1606 trombone. And to get a feel for how the Bb Euph compared to the King and my G Euph. Decent Euph, but doesn't sound as good as the King. Doesn't play as well as the G Kanstul, but did seem to have better intonation. Decent horns all, just not enough to get past the sticker shock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dukecornwell Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 I think Pepe and Hy (yup, he was a frenchie man) played on custom wide-rim mouthpieces. They were essentially a trumpet piece with a frenchie shank and a modified back-bore.....I just remembered - Danny Fitz uses a "cross-over" mouthpiece on frenchie. It has a trumpet cup and a french horn shank. Don't know the make, but he told me he bought it "off the shelf" many years ago. When Pepe retired for the first time, I believe '71, I had his mouthpiece and used it for a couple of years with a huge improvment in my range and intonation. I was at a show in Ct. while he was with the Hurcs as Drum Major and returned it at that time. I retired from marching so I didn't need it any longer, but I could never thank him enough for letting me use it. I believe that it was custom made and to say that it was easy to play is an understatement. I'm not saying that the mouthpiece is why Pepe was so GREAT, he could play on anything, it just helped me a great deal. This is true, at that show when he got on the podium, he saw me in the small crowd, and asked me where the mouthpiece was. As he was trouping the stands I gave it back to him. I remember that it was a very hot Sunday afternoon and that was the day that a very great judge passed away, John Cullum. I miss them both and drum corps has been missing something without the both of them.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmaustin Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Buzzy was undefeated in National I&E competition, winning the VFW FH title in 60,61,62 and 64 ... he couldn't make it to Seatttle for the 63 VFW or he would have been a 5-Peat!!!!He recently did some playing at the BHOF dinner and wowed his peers with some ad-lib jazz notes on the mello ... a night to remember ... :-) Guys, The legendary Buzzy Bergdoll will be joining us in Rochester as a member of our brass ensemble - Half-Mass Brass, and also with our Mini Corps - Mass Brass. Be sure to check us out, he's still as talented as ever! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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