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Worst looking horns a corps has used.


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Star 1990. They had to use rope to keep their horns together.

:P

Elmo Blatch

Seriously? I would have thought with Cook's budget they would have had back up horns in a third semi waiting to back up the back up horns in the second semi.

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'Cept they looked like they were playing on valved toilet bowls.....

In 84 they had silver horns with brass inside bells....weird, but not as bad as the white.

I remember those . . . supposedly the brass finish resulted in a warmer sound.
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I remember those . . . supposedly the brass finish resulted in a warmer sound.

That makes sense. Brass does generate a warmer sound.

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Crossmen had a mix up with their horn orders that year. By the summer, they had had horns with different color bells. The only way to unify them was to paint 'em!

Does anyone have a picture of this?

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Wow three shout outs for E already. I thought having the brass colored instruments did look awful, but I thought it gave our line character... =) My trumpet personally was pretty beat up from tossing 6's with it, i should have just been better at catching them.

EqLou

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Bridgmen horns. Brass finish and beat up. But they could make those suckers honk!!

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Without a doubt, the winner is Magic throughout the 90's. I remember lining up beside their brassline, and they had duct-tape holding instruments together, rusty two-valved horns, and even some of the old chrome horns. The amazing thing is that they still sounded pretty good, especially 97 and 98.

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Okay ... so what was the deal with those horns that the Crossmen used in 1989 (I think) that had the white lacquer inside the bells?
Crossmen had a mix up with their horn orders that year. By the summer, they had had horns with different color bells. The only way to unify them was to paint 'em!

Let's get one thing straight, the words "Crossmen" and "horn order" did not go together back then!

Two years ago Mike Denis was at the YEA! golf outing and I specifically asked him about those white bells, I hope I got the details right!

Was it 89? Not sure of the exact year really. Like many corps the Crossmen had a seriously old and beat "set" of horns, and by set I mean a bunch of brass bugles and not a matched set from Yamaha. For some reason most of the horns were silver but had brass inside the bells. The corps was coming up in DCI rankings and had obtained several horns that didn't quite match. A key guy on brass staff, Mike Denis, was looking into having the inside of the bells replated. When he found a guy to do it he asked the guy what color would be easier (silver or brass) and the guy said "we can do any color you want". Light bulbs went off, and they decided on white just to be different. I remember them taking a few horns at a time to the guy and bringing the finished ones to the corps on tour and taking a few more. The horns were generaly junk and held together with tape and solder, the brass staff did a great job in those lean years.

For those interested, here is a link to an article about Mike Denis and some of his brass conversion kits from back in the day. middlehornleader.com

Edited by jonnyboy
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That makes sense. Brass does generate a warmer sound.

:laugh:

Yes, that was the idea, but I am not sure I agree with the concept. Colts had brass horns and once that laquer wore off, the horns looked terrible. A good player wll get a good sound on most any horn.

VK had some pretty mismatched horns those early years into finals--silver K90s, a plain brass K90 prototype with a chromed bell, DEGs and Olds P/Rs in the contraline. We managed to get a pretty good low brass sound, with some good tuning work. Made things much simpler once the horns are matched, but very good hornlines have achieved some very good sounds with mismatched stuff.

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Seriously? I would have thought with Cook's budget they would have had back up horns in a third semi waiting to back up the back up horns in the second semi.

That shows a major misunderstanding of Cook's relationship with Star. He didn't keep throwing money at them every year, you know. From what I'm given to understand, he provided an initial investment to get the corps started but then expected them to operate within their budget like any good business.

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