Meehaphone Sighting!

[ironlips]

2 hours ago, Scooter Pirtle said:

Tiffany Johns acquired the Meehaphone that was in Ken Norman’s collection and created a great video with some playing samples:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting this, Scooter. Tiffany is an exceptional player and has created a fascinating critique with this video.

The gifted Jack Meehan replaced me on the BD staff when I went full tilt into my audio producer career. (I had been Jim Ott's successor, more or less, though no one could actually "replace" him.)

As you know, the Meehaphone, like the Trombonium, had a brief but notable run in drum corps during a period of great experimentation and growth. Depending on the mouthpiece used it sounded more like a beefy Flugel as it does here, or fairly French Horn-like when a deeper V cup was used.

The latter, at least for me, was a more desirable timbre and a bit more reliable for centering. I think we all miss that texture since the mellophone ate the alto section, though folks under 50 or so never heard that sound on the drum corps field.

Ken Norman did, and knew how to exploit it. I inherited one of his Conn FH bugles which has a heavenly tone. I plan to present it to St. Peter as my admission ticket one day.