Comparing King vs Yamaha

[Shadow_7]

I noticed King has a marching French horn as well as the mellophone.

Has anyone used the MFH? And if so, how do they compare to the mellophones?

I know many corps use to use the French horn bugle long time ago.

I played the King and Yamaha frenchies at the DCI 2006 semis. I liked the King much better than the Yamaha. Although I was using a Kelly mouthpiece at semis, which isn't my usual piece. And it's not my usual instrument to boot. The Yamaha barely slotted anything, I was wondering why there were valves on it. The King played fairly normal-ish for a french horn. Probably not as good as a concert horn, or the well respected K-60, but decent/comparable. In my opinion anyway.

The marching french horns have the same length of tubing as a marching baritione, an octave more tubing than a mellophone. In my opinion, playing mellophone take about 30% the effort of playing french horn to get 2x's the volume. Although range and endurance seems a little easier on french horn, IMO. But knowing if you're on the right partial to start with is much easier on mellophone.

[shawn craig]

Thanks.

I new the basic difference but you answered my questions about volume. I also figured because of the small horn mouthpiece it would be more difficult to control in a marching situation. But was curious what some horn and mellow players thought.

While not that practical for use in the regular hornline, would it be something to use for solo or small ensemble work? Would the more true horn sound add something in certain peices, especially symphonic works?

Edited May 3, 2007 by shawn craig

[randomnoise]

Kanstul and (I think) King are making alto F (aka descant) marching French Horns. Basically, that means the same range as a Mellophone, but designed for a French Horn m'piece. I played them at NAMM and wanted to buy one immediately.

I would love to try them out in a line.

Also, I think that folks who turn their backs on French Horns are missing out. First, there are a ton of people playing on adapters, so the marching/mouthpiece argument fails. Second, they sound cool!

[tubamann]

...so..."america's corps" is not playing american instruments...shame!!!

Remember that even "american" horns are not necessarily made in the states. DEG is an american company but most of thier horns are made outside the US.

Corps go with Yamaha because they make a quality instrument and back it up with excellent customer service and deals that are advantagous to the corps.

The same cannot be said of some "american" companies.

[Einstein On The Beach]

...so..."america's corps" is not playing american instruments...shame!!!

Since when does America make anything good?

[Martybucs]

Since when does America make anything good?

I guess that includes your own work?

[Shadow_7]

A new day has dawned. Getting to play outside in 80F+ with my King 1141SP, I actually had to pull the tuning slide out for the very first time. Now I just need to get a shorter second tuning slide for the winter months where it's nowhere near 80F out. To include that DCA championship thing where it was near 50F last year.

[SueBariEuph]

As an "oldtimer" who played both French Horn(concert and bugle) and Baritone bugle way back when I discovered the King Euphoniums at Allentown in 2005. A few of the bottom lines, Phantom, Crown and Boston seemed to have a "special" (darker, fuller) sound. After the show I did some research...a by coincidence(?) they were all using King Euphoniums. It made such an impression that I had to have one...so I bought one from Crown. (The only other horn that made that impression was an old..I mean ancient King Concert French horn I used in school that had no lacquer left on it but sounded wonderful. I now have a Yamaha concert French horn that I really like but I still fondly remember that old king.) Now that I have the horn I would say that it has a wonderful sound..I love playing it ...but it is a bear to hold there as just doesn't seem to be an easy way to grip it with the left hand and the right hand it too stretched(I have medium sized hands) if I put my little finger in the finger loop. Still I enjoy playing it soo much that I practice with it even though I currently play a Yamaha Baritone with the group. The King does seem to be a bit harder to play in tune. At first I was a little disappointed to hear that Crown switched to Yamaha but now I'm really interested in hearing how the Yamaha Euphonium sound from the stands... If they have that special euphonium sound, they are easier to hold and they don't have plastic valve guides(on a professional instrument???) like the Baritones....well maybe I'll need to budget for one....but I won't give up the King.

[regularsopguy]

Remember that even "american" horns are not necessarily made in the states. DEG is an american company but most of thier horns are made outside the US.

Corps go with Yamaha because they make a quality instrument and back it up with excellent customer service and deals that are advantagous to the corps.

The same cannot be said of some "american" companies.

it sounds like you are unfairly referring to Kanstul, which is a very small company. they have said many times that they can't afford to play the marketing game with Dynasty (made in Brazil, by the way) or Yamaha (made in Taiwan) or even King (whose parent company Conn-Selmer is owned by Steinway & Sons)

thank god for Academy who had the huevos to invest in Kanstul - and they sound great on them! maybe the'll start a trend?

[Leland]

At first I was a little disappointed to hear that Crown switched to Yamaha but now I'm really interested in hearing how the Yamaha Euphonium sound from the stands...

Wow, I've been out of the loop -- I hadn't even heard that they switched brands. That partially explains why the "presence" of their hornline isn't exactly the same as it's been in the recent past, though (I say "partially" because I've only seen them at Annapolis so far).

As far as marching true, full-length French horns, it's not the size of the mouthpiece that hinders them -- it's how closely the partials are spaced. It's like sticking a tiny mouthpiece in to a baritone. The length of tubing is the same, and it would be almost like playing a bari up one or two octaves the entire time. It really is hard to center those things and not frack every attack when you're running around the field.

I still miss the sound, though. Best A:B comparison is Madison's big park-n-blow in Malaguena as played in '88 and in '96. The '88 mixed mello-French horn section had a sizzle that the all-mello '96 section just couldn't match.