Kanstul 1070 is GREAT! (Thanks Bruce Haag!)

[StupidBrassObsession]

Well I've had my wonderful, magical, new baby, for a bit over a week now and it is just a tremendous trumpet!

I've played a few other trumpets: Yamaha James Morrison J2, Bobby Shew 8310z & most recently a Carol Brass 5060H-GSS. They were all great trumpets... At least, I thought they were!

The funny thing is that whatever one horn did better came at a trade off compared to the others at some other area. So I pretty much expected that it was more or less a balanced equation and a matter of choosing priorities. Did you want great X or great Y? Because you couldn't have both.

So while I was looking forward to getting a new trumpet - and Bruce Haag had spoken very highly of the Kanstul 1070 to me - I was also somewhat expecting more of the same, but with a different twist, a different balance between where the trade-offs happen.

The two things I really wanted from the instrument were good intonation and a tone that could still be coloured; I was worried it was going to be too bright from the few comments people on TH made about it, so the last was very important as I wanted to be able to play more that lead on it.

Instead, I actually, by some strange magic, end up with an instrument that, at least to me, does everything better than the other trumpets I have played.


It feels tremendously easy to play, to control and to color. I just love it!!!

SOUND COLOUR

It has a big rich, core sound, which can be flugelly if you want, or BRIGHT if you want, or light and dancey, if you want, or whatever it is that you want.
The spectrum is really there.
My real suprise though was that it can still be flexible at the more extremes: You can play High, Loud and BRIGHT, or you can play high and loud, but still with a warmth and mellowness to the tone.
This was where the other trumpets all had issues to my mind. At the outer ends of the volume and colour spectrum, the timbre lost the ability to be controlled.
You want a loud high C, you only got one colour choice.
But with the 1070, you can play very loud and still make the sound brighter or darker.
And the same is true right down at the soft end!

But most of all, I love the rich core of the sound!

It also responds well to other mouthpieces, I tried a few different ones briefly and the instrument seems to be a real Chameleon of a trumpet. Although, I'm sticking with the good old CG Personal for all my practice.


FEEL

I've never had a Large Bore trumpet before but always thought they were supposed to be more tiring to play. I have found the complete opposite to be true.

From the very first day I was just blown away at how easily this thing played.
I am playing it with the Marcink. CG Personal mouthpiece and it feels like the two were made for each other, the two characteristics perfectly complementing each other.

It's unlike anything else I've played! You just relax and blow and this thing plays. It's the closest thing to 'singing' I've ever felt when holding a trumpet.

And everything Claude taught just seems much truer when playing this instrument. On the other trumpets, I've always felt the instrument sort of resisted the changes of the tongue, but the 1070 doesn't fight you at all, not down low, or up high.
I had never realised how uncomfortable it is when instruments push back as you play higher. Double Pedal C through to Double G has never felt so easy.


INTONATION

The intonation on it is so much better than all the other trumpets too!

In the staff Eb and E are very nearly totally on pitch, where as on both the Carol and the Shew, they were almost a quater-tone flat, and I struggled with them every single time I played them. The Kanstul is pretty much spot on, close enough that for the first time since I've been playing, it's a complete non-issue! You can just play, and they are where they should be.

The A above the staff is also the most in tune A out there, I actually feel completely comfortable playing it 1&2 without adjusting the first slide, which is also another first!

I don't know how they did this but it's wonderful.

The other interesting thing is the way it slots. The intonation is so good that you don't need big wide slots, so the slots feel precise and you can move around the horn with a lot ease. Wide slurs feel a lot easier on this compared to the Carol I was just playing!


WHERE TO BUY

I highly reccomend buying from Bruce Haag. Bruce really knows and recommends these horns as great and very versatile horns which live up to Claude's intentions for a trumpet. He gave me a great price, and went to a lot of trouble to make sure I got a top-notch horn.

If you're a CG student or style of player and you want a great, free blowing horn with wonderful ease of play, fantastic intonation, a great core sound with lots of room to colour the sound for different settings, then you really have to try one of these or at least ask Bruce some more about them!

http://brucehaag.com/product/kanstul-model-1070-bb-trumpet-2/

[jbeights]

Bruce has suggested the same horn to me as well. I will probably get serious about it this summer. What type of finish is yours? Silver, gold, lacquer? I am leaning toward the gold finish if I decide to get one. Your thoughts?
_________________
“Breathe and play the first note with a beautiful sound.” –Allen Vizzutti
“Don't stop where I have, but go further." –Claude Gordon

[StupidBrassObsession]

I just got the silver model, no idea if the gold plays any different but I highly doubt it? Ask Bruce, he'll know!

[razeontherock]

Congrats on finding a Bb to love. Not saying you need to sell off your others, but if they collected dust for a while you'll play better.

Everything you're describing is a match between player and horn. Getting it to "sing" is what it's all about! The things you like best about this particular axe are done by great players, on just about every horn made. But when you find one that works for you? Stick with it

[trumpet56]

Just out of interest I wonder how this horn compares to a Wild Thing since they are both manufactured by Kanstul?

[StupidBrassObsession]

[lotherro]

Great review. Bruce told me the other day that one of his students had received their new 1070--that must be you! I also have a hankering for this horn, being a student of Bruce's for the last year. I appreciate your comments specific to Claude's method. Right now I'm using the very same mouthpiece you are, so nice to know the two fit well together. I'm playing a Shires A right now and it just feels somewhat constricting to me (operator error? Congratulations and thanks again for the very detailed review.

[StupidBrassObsession]