Player name horns

[trumpeternick]

What are people's general consensus on proffessional players marketing horns i.e. Bobby Shew with Yamaha. How many do it for money/contract, or cuz they really like the horns, or what? Im just curious, what are the opinions out there?

[Arainach]

In general (at least with Yamaha), the artists whose names were used worked closely with the companies to design the horns. Most, probably all, of the artists play the horns with their name on them. They're all decent horns. I know that all the Yamaha models and the Holton Arturo Sandoval horn were all developed with the named artists. I'm not sure about the Holton MF Horns. Anyone else know?

[drunkiq]

yeah - the sandavol horn is a bad copy of his Schilke X3 - they should fix it...

Bobby's modified Yamaha copy of his Schilke B7 is high quality though and a bunch less dough! to bad for Schilke - Mom and pop shops have a hard time doing the artist thing compared to a 3 billion/year company.

-marc

[mcamilleri]

I play the Yamaha 6335J James Morrison signature trumpet. I doubt that James got any financial kickback from Yamaha for having his name on the horn apart from a few free horns. His aim was to get a good horn into the local Australian market at an affordable price, and he has succeeded.

James takes an active role in Jazz education in Australia, and this horn flows out of that role. When he does a clinic, or school trips, or whatever, instead of saying 'I play on this superhorn that costs $US3000 and is only available from the factory with a 1 year waiting list' he can say 'I play this stock horn from Yamaha, which you can try out today from your local music shop, and it costs $US900, only a little more than an intermediate Yamaha horn'. That makes music accessible, and takes away the equipment mystery. James plays as well as he does because he is a great player, not because he has a rare, fancy horn.

Some artist models are more like production copies or imitations of a custom made horn, without the custom fine tuning that went into the artists actual horn. They end up being marketing ploys, aimed at sucking people into buying these horns because they have the name of a great player on them. Yamaha, at least, has artist models that the artists use from stock.

In any case, you should choose a horn because it is the best horn for you - artist model or no artist model.

Michael
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Besson Loyalist

[PatchesTheCat]

I would not refer to 6310Z as a copy of a B7. While similarities exist between the models, if you try them both there are vast differences that I feel put the Schilke on top. The first being tonal color, second being weight, third being bore size, fourth being pitch slotting, etc etc I have owned both brands and thought that the Schilke was made to much higher standards. This isn't to say that Yamaha wasn't a good horn, because it was. The Yamaha had extremely tight tolerances and it sounded great. Sorry about this paragraph, but I think you guys understand that I had to respond in some way to this.

I think it's great artists give input on horn designs because in Yamaha's case its turning out some great stuff. Even UMI has turned around a bit with the introduction of the vintage one line. The first trumpet/artist combo that comes to mind when I think of crap is Sandoval/Leblanc T357. Possibly the worst copy of a horn ever. They didn't even come remotely close with copying an X3. Sandoval is modding his T357 to death trying to fix it and in some cases is still using the schilke. His F357 Flugel is not that bad though. Not made to the highest quality, but it does play decent. It's a bit heavier than my Kanstul 1525 Copperbell, but that probably only aids in its heavy velvety/coffee cup sound. I still like the kanstul best though.

When looking at artist input, I tend to rely on the company reputation to see how it's being used. Yamaha is constantly innovating so I know that Jens Lindemann/Bobby Shew/Allen Vizzuitti aren't just poster children. Leblanc doesn't give me the same reassurance with Sandoval and Maynard. I don't think Bach even worries about this stuff since their name has been established for quite some time. Every kid going through highschool is practically instructed to get a bach stradivarius, in silver of course (kids being slaves to fashion that they are).

Best Regards.

[a-okay]

The Kanstul Wayne Bergeron horn is far different from the one he plays (But still a good horn IMO) HIs deal is on a per horn thing i heard. And he doesnt play that model exclusively