[Trombone-l] Another Kanstul question

[Chris Tune]

I've played litterally every horn that Steve Ferguson brings out to shows, 
so I'm sure I must have played one of these horns.

Since it's been months since I chimed in on Kanstul and Zig Kanstul, I'll 
reiterate what I said then.

They are EXCELLENT.  And I really mean this.

Each has it's own character, but I must say that one serious problem I had 
was figuring out which was my favorite.  They are all great, great playing 
horns and have wonderful manufacture (aided by Ferguson who simply will not 
show something he doesn't think is great. . .mind you!).   There is a 
tendency for them to hark back to great models of the past, although they do 
also have modern twists.  The quality of manufacture is really very good. 
[of course, no manufacture is perfect. . .unless infinite cost . .but that 
is another issue]

Zig makes models that ape the famous Bass Bone Model 62 from Conn, the 
famous Williams model 6 and another relatively unknown model which he used 
to produce a phenomenal step-up horn, that is simply fantastic.  It is their 
small bore all brass horn in the entry level price. Also, there are more 
Bach-like and more-Conn-like models in the Symphony tenor range.  By that 
I'm saying that there are horns that speak with darker tonal qualities and 
ones that are more broadranged in tonal character (Conn).

KANSTUL:
Zig Kanstul has a long and worthy history in brass manufacturing.  My 
knowledge of his background begins when he takes over as manager of the 
manufacturing at Conn's Abilene, TX plant.  As you may know, Conn's Texas 
plant had a reputation for putting out inferior quality instruments. I've 
not seen any studies of rates of defect on this, but I've seen a few of the 
horns with problems, so I think it was certainly one of these "where there 
is smoke. . .there is fire. . ." kind of situations.  There is always an 
issue in manufacturing of the location of a factory and the workers. . .what 
is the work ethic?  . . . how much experience is there in similar 
manufacturing? . . .apparently the Abilene plant had some good abilities and 
some not so good.

Anyway, Zig came in to fix what was broken in the Abilene operation.  He 
started doing this in around 1977 or 1978.  I've got a 1978 or 1979 Conn 
model 6H.  The horn is really wonderfully well made.  Now, I've been over 
some criticsms of the horn with John Sandhagen.  John feels that the 
"stamped out" flanges on the braces are inferior to ones constructed out of 
two pieces and silversoldered together.  I can truly see why he says that. 
The truth is that it would be possible to make a much more precise set of 
parts using the two-piece method.

The alternative chosen by Conn, is not without some merit, if done right. 
The single stamped part would need to be made from a grade of metal that 
will likely survive the extreme stretching that occurs to take a flat piece 
and extrude part of it about 1/2 inch.  Given using a proper grade of metal 
and conducting rigorous QC on the parts, then quickly and efficiently 
machining them into good specification, I don't see this as a deal-breaker 
in making a good horn.  Now, from what I can see about late-model Conns and 
what I can see about Zig (I've not really gotten a chance to talk to him. . 
.always too busy. . .both of us) he is just AR enough to have done all this.

The only few flaws in the 6H I can detect in close examination are:

1. A hair or a ripple in a small patch of lacquer where you can see that the 
coating is not totally smooth.  This is on one of the hand barrels.

2. A slight abrasiveness to, most likely the inside of the outside slide 
tubes (this probably can be remedied. . if I get a decent tech on it. . 
.Sandhagen or Chris Gonzales. . .Belo. . .someone like that can polish the 
heck out of the inside) which shows itself in a slight ringing as the slide 
is moved---movement is very good and smooth, but slightly resistant.

3. Slide lock needs to be unscrewed a turn or two in order to not press down 
on the slide in closed position. . .this is extremely minor since I can 
simply unwind the lock one or two turns and "voila!"


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Albert" <jeffalbert.smb at gmail.com>
To: "Peter Soukup" <psoukup at mindspring.com>
Cc: "Trombone-L List" <trombone-l at server5.samford.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 5:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] Another Kanstul question


>I played one at the ITF in New Orleans...actually, you might have been
> standing there at the booth when I did.
>
> It's hard to judge a horn in those noise rooms, but I liked what I could
> judge about the Kanstul.  I actually prefered the bell tuning version that
> Steve had there over the slide tuning one, but I think they had different
> bell styles, so that could have been a factor.
>
> If I were in the market I would check those out.
>
> Jeff
>
> On 11/30/06, Peter Soukup <psoukup at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>> Has anybody here played the Kanstul 1688?
>>
>> TIS, .547, 3 leadpipes, etc?
>>
>> If so, what did you think?
>>
>> Reply either on or off list, thanks.
>>
>> --
>> Pete Soukup
>> psoukup at sbcglobal.net
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> www.jeffalbert.com
>
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>
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