Larry Gianni

Hi all,

Jim New and the whole Kanstul team have really brought these Monette's and other pieces that are either out of production or hard to get to the trumpet masses at an affordable price and no " Svengali " to deal with.

Kanstul has always been on the cutting edge of technology in every aspect. Trumpets, flugels, cornets, marching brass , tuba's , etc. check out the website , it's enormous with both in the variety of the products and the amount of description and info it provides.

The technologically ingenious " Mouthpiece Comparator " which we all now take somewhat for granted was done by manipulating CAD 2000 programs , which is an aerospace designing tool and adapting it to mouthpieces, just for all of us to sit and overlay our favorite pieces.

Jim New actually wrote the program that " tweaked " the original program and then adapted it so the " overlay " function " could be used. I think this is remarkable, I just bough a DVD player for my home studio system and figuring that out is driving me nuts. ( I'm also told on good authority that Jim , did all the programming of this very complex computer system on his own time at night's and weekends because Jim is also the Kanstul Plant Manager, and has all the responsibility that goes along with that job and couldn't find time in his days at the plant to sit and develop the " Mouthpiece Comparator " Again, just for a bunch of us trumpet players?

I didn't see anyone for a different line of mouthpieces that introduced us to the now infamous " Alpha Angle " get anywhere close to presenting the finicky trumpet community with this sort of technology. Just the same old call me, e-mail me, buy this mouthpiece , no you can;t return it kind of stuff.

Kanstul's has also invested over $ 500,000 ( 1/2 a million dollars ) in the CNC technology that scans the piece , encrypts the codes to a digital format and then transfers it to the computer driven CNC machine that actually cuts the rim, cup throat and back bore and now can copy and cut the exterior blank of choice as well, did I hear STC-3 anyone? Do you know how many mouthpieces you have to sell to break even on a situation like this.

Plus, I haven't talked about the highly skilled technician needed to operate the CNC / Scanning computer driven lathes and laser scanners. This kind of personal doesn't come cheap, but all this machinery is just a bunch or circuit boards and metal without the highly skilled operator at the helm. Again , more investment for a very low profit margin item.

All this just for trumpet players. Do you realize not so long ago, getting a copy of a mouthpiece , by the top mouthpiece makers , was done with either a lead template or a machine that looks like the one that copies keys at Home Depot were you put the original on one side and run a pointer over the variations and divots and a duplicate is being cut right next to it. Rims and cups were the easy part, backbores, "the Mystery Part " of the mouthpiece was all done by hand. Inserting a metal dowel, seeing where it hit the original wall, cutting it down very slowly, doing this over and over until it matched on all points,it was all done by feel and the touch of the craftsman., but if you took off to much, you had to start all over again.

The metal dowel ( cut long way in half ) was marked with ink and were the ink came off when it was inserted, then the mouthpiece maker would shave a couple of .001 off until it fit , doing this by feel , over and over trying to make a snug fit of the original backbore. Almost impossible to get an exact duplicate. Bob Reeves was the master of this ( he had the patience of Mother Theresa )art, still couldn't guarantee and exact copy. All this doesn't sound very scientific does it and it wasn't.

I'm writing so that we all don't take what Kanstul is trying to do for granted. If you like the original better, great ,buy the original ( it will be in a drawer in a month, trust me ), but if you want to try a " clone" at more than a 50% - 60% price differential,( plus a Prana backbore for the same price which makes it 2/3 rds less than the original Monette's ) then
Kanstul is the place to go.

if Kanstul never got into the mouthpiece game, they still have the best trumpet line going and none of the head-aches that go along with making mouthpieces for all of us. Mouthpieces are a low profit ( unless your Dave Monette ) item for any manufacturer, but it always comes with it's problems ( mainly us )

Larry,

Oh, before I forget, Charles is one of the nicest guys you'll meet in this business and has filled a very big pair of shoes at Kanstul's ( he's only been National Sales Manager for little over a year now ) working over and above what anyone has expected.( again, I get this on very good authority ). Charles is very approachable and will always give you 100 % when trying to help you out. Thanks for all your hard work and if you didn't know , Charles is a very good trumpet player himself ( he was pounding out these arpeggio's up to " Double C ' one day I walked in on the ZKT 1600 " Bergoeron " model, I thought Charlie Davis was in their because I could hear all this great playing from the parking lot ) so he knows what your talking about when you speak to him. He's always been a great help to me and I'm a " Numero Uno pain in the a** " ( " hide , here comes Gianni with his digial calipers again to show us where we might be .001 off on this trumpet leadpipe opening or that backbore, lock the doors and turn out the lights before he see's us " ) when I get a chance to visit any Manufacturer's showroom. Great work Charles, keep it up.



Larry