ScreaminTrumpet

Ok, as many may know, the Cannonball Music Company is now producing a trumpet. They are renowned for making a sax that is quickly taking over a large part of the saxophone world. My question is...has anynoe played the trumpet. A better question may be...Has anyone who has had the opportunity to play this horn given it a chance or just passed it up as another marketing game?

Chris4

I've never played one but my guess is it's a marketing game. Cannonball claims that "A Cannonball trumpet never leaves Salt Lake City(where it's made) until it surpasses all expectations and is so fun to play it is hard to put down." The precious stones and the finishes make the trumpets look like they are for show. I could be wrong though....

trickg

From what I have heard and read, Cannonball trumpets are probably made by B&S in Germany, shipped over either as parts, or horns that have been basically assembled, but the final assembly and hand tweaking happen in Salt Lake City.

The stone? I doubt if the stone itself has anything to do with the sound or focus, but I do believe that the added weight at that location could possibly alter the way that the trumpet resonates, so while I believe the semi-precious stone part of it is more or less a gimmick, I think that the mounting where the stone is located could be the real McCoy.

I've chit-chatted online with a guy who has played one, a college student majoring in music, and he swears they play great, (his favorite model was the raw brass model) so I don't think they are just for show.

To me, from what they look like, it looks like a Strad with a stone on it. If they really have gone to great lengths to make sure they are assembled with care and adjusted for best resonance, they could very well be real players. Just for comparison's sake, we've all heard the stories about someone who took an old Strad, had it more or less rebuilt, (disassembled and reassembled with care) and it turned into a wonderful horn once the process was complete.

That's my take - the Cannonball is more or less a handbuilt Strad that plays very well, and has a gem stone stuck on it as a gimmick to make it distinct.

ustacouldplay

The theory behind the stone is that same as that for adding a heavy valve cap to the third valve: Adding mass to the horn near certain nodes in the standing wave supposedly keeps less energy from "leaking" out of the air column into the metal of the horn. Remember, you want to vibrate air, not the trumpet. Nick Drozdoff said it best:
It just so happens that there is a major node near where the air enters the third valve. That is why some people place a heavy valve cap on the third valve (even if they don't know that's why they're doing it)... It's also why some company has decided to put a dumb-looking stone on their horns. But hey, a lot of people play ugly horns because they sound great. So if it works...

BPinard

IU played one at Sam Ash in Manhattan. It was a raw brass model. It was very free blowing, perhaps too open for my taste. The tone was good from what I heard, although keep in mind that i was playing in a room that was about 9'x9'.

I honestly canb't say that I know about it enough to give enough of an opinion on it, but it certainly looked nice!

(It had what looked like a jasper stone and o-rings on the 1st and 3rd slides.)

-B

Chris4

I didn't know that. Thanks for correcting me.

silverstar

I've played three of their horns. I didn't particularly like them...and the stone in the main tuning slide was just...weird.

They really didn't play very well. I don't know, they really weren't anything special.

Lara

trickg

Yeah, but Lara, you own an Eclipse!

I've had a couple of situations where I played a trumpet that I thought was just going to be great, and I didn't like it at all. One that immediately comes to mind is a Callet Superchops. Another one was a Schilke X4.

And then there were the Bachs here and there that just didn't impress me at all.

Over the years, due to some personal experiences, I have come to believe that if the mouthpiece doesn't fit correctly in the receiver, even the best of horns can feel like a clinker to those play testing them. I once had a mouthpiece adjusted for gap, and it made a sudden and dramatic improvement in how MY trumpet played, and I didn't realize how much I was fighting with it until the gap was properly adjusted.

But then there are horns that seem to play really well no matter what mouthpiece is stuck into them, so that somewhat blows that theory out of the water.

I'll continue to keep an open mind about the Cannonball until I've had the chance to try one, but at this point, my personal setup is so good that it's going to take one heck of a trumpet to be better than what I currently have.

rabidkat

I tried out about 12 different horns around the $900-$1800 range (Conn Vintage 1, Getzen 700, Yamaha Custom, Cannonball (brass finish) were among the horns). I definitely have a preference for a darker sounding horn and I am a pretty new player, so I did not test anything above the staff. I selected the Cannonball (silver finish) because of its beautiful tone and ease of playing. I am very happy with it, and I paid $1200.

I don't like gimmicks, so I bought the horn in spite of the stone.

-rabidkat

ustacouldplay

Ooh, man! After watching Scorsese's "No Direction Home" about a billion times over the last week, I've got Bob Dylan on the brain, right now. As such, please forgive me when I say perhaps these Cannonball folks should do an "Everybody must get stoned" marketing campaign.