mrmusicnotes

HI EVERYONE I,just made my my first buy on E-bay,A King cornet model 605.The serial # on middle valve casing is 5-652521.It doesn"t appear to be that old.Theres no lacquer or plating ware,not even on hand helds.It plays really nice but since I never owned a cornet,I have nothing to judge it too.I don"t even know what level horn it is.I am just looking for some feedback (positive I hope) on the horn.Also,I play a bach 1 1/2c megatone on my trumpet and would like a recommendation on what m.p. would be good for me on cornet.It came witha bach 5b which plays nice.

MFfan

Looks like a currently selling horn. There is an ad on "The Music Place" on line store.
King 605 cornet "British Style" features a short shepherd's crook bell and traditional compact design .462 bore, 4 3/4 inch seamless bell, Monel pistons, third slide with adjustable stop, rose brass leadpipe, original King British style #7 mouthpiece, advanced wood shell case, full warranty. starting at: $1795. Another free classified ad from Las Vegas advertised a silver one last October for $450. Lasvegas.olx.com.

Looks like you have a fine cornet. I am not a mp expert. I use a variety on my cornets incld the OE of the Roth, Jet tone on the Holton and a 5c or 10 1/2 C on the Olds. Mostly produce trumpet like sounds, I guess. A deep V cup mp produces a richer, mellower tone, but I haven't found one yet I was comfortable in playing for long.
I'm sure others cornet guys will respond, as well. You can do searches for other threads on MP's on this forum and Trumpetherald. There have been many discussions.

screamingmorris

The King 603 is a student-level cornet that everybody gave very good reviews to at
Brass Review.com - King 603

A few months ago I returned from trumpet to cornet for most of my playing because I love the cornet tone on low, slow ballads.
(And I discovered that the upper register is both easier to play and sounds more open on a cornet rather than on trumpet if I use my .460 bore Holton cornet that is approximately the same bore size as your cornet. I guess the upper register is easier than on trumpet because the cornet has a smaller backbore to fit the smaller cornet mouthpiece receiver.)

Hope you like your cornet as much as I love mine.

As for the best mouthpiece, it depends on what tone and what range you desire.
With a shallow cup it will sound like an excellent open trumpet.
With an extremely deep cup you can get a semi-flugelish tone.

Shallow cups would be something like Bach "E" cups.
For very deep cups you can look at Curry VC cups.
Or Yamaha short-shank cornet mouthpieces (like the 16E4) that have huge #16 throats and cups that are as deep as flugelhorn mouthpieces (those mouthpieces give a flugelish sound but will make it difficult to play above the staff).

On my Conn 5A which has a huge bore I have Bach 7 (no letter) and Bach 7E and Weril W46 (slightly shallower than the Bach 7E) so that I can play a variety of styles and tones on my cornet, from very mellow to brilliant.
If you know what diameter and rim you like, then you could get 2 or 3 cornet mouthpieces of differing cup depths and throats so that you could alter the tone and range for whatever style music you are playing at the moment, from mellow cornet to brilliant cornet.
It's like having 2 or 3 cornets for the price of one.

My favorite trumpet is a 1960 .460 Holton Super Collegiate cornet with shallow Weril W46 cornet mouthpiece, because it gives me the beautiful open high register that I always wanted on a trumpet but could never get on a trumpet.
Most listeners would never suspect that the beautiful upper register is coming from a cornet.

- Morris

MFfan

Hi Morris, I think he was referring to the 605 model cornet I described in my post. I couldn't get Brassreview this am.

I find my cornets play easier and open in the higher register than any of my trumpets, for some reason. Love that cornet sound also.

screamingmorris

You are right.
I had a temporary brain meltdown and I gave a link to the King 603 rather than to the King 605.

I assume that the King models are like the Holton models, both of which are Conn-Selmer instruments, in that all of the 600 model instruments are student-level, and the bigger the 600 number indicates the later version / model.
Just as the Holton 602 gave way to the newer Holton 605, the King 602 or whatever gave way to the newer King 605.
From what I can find, the King 605 and the King 603 are exactly alike in bore size, bell size, etc, but the King 605 has the added Shepherd's crook.
Theoretically the King 605 should be just as good quality as the King 603 which was given very good reviews in Brass Review.
I briefly owned a Holton 602 and it was the best student-level instrument I ever tried, better than the Bach 300 or the Yamaha 2320 I tried.
From what I have seen in other people's comments elsewhere, the Conn-Selmer-made King 600-level trumpets are the same great quality as the Conn-Selmer-made Holton 600-level trumpet I liked.

I guess the cornet mouthpiece and mouthpiece receiver are slightly smaller than for trumpet, which aids in the upper register, then the cornet's conical bore that immediately follows it gives that superior open tone.
As long as one has the cornet bore no bigger than .460 and the mouthpiece is sufficiently shallow, the tone can easily be mistaken for an incredibly beautiful trumpet tone rather than sounding like a cornet.
But then switch to a very deep mouthpiece and it is back to sounding like a cornet.
I love that versatility.
A student-level cornet that can provide a more beautiful sounding upper register trumpet sound than many professional trumpets, simply because it has a more conical bore than the trumpet.

I hope the original poster of this thread experiments with different mouthpieces and sounds and comes to love his cornet as much as I love mine.

- Morris

mrmusicnotes

MF Fan & Morris Thanks so much for your imput.I found the king instruments web site,but it states that it cant be reached by the server?Anyway I did some surfing and found out that its a Pro Horn!Musicalinstruments.com list five pro king cornets and the 605 is right in the middle of the lot.Guys your so right,the sound of this little bigger than a pocket trumpet is addicting. I can"t seem to put it down.I agree also that the upper register is easier attainable on the cornet.The smaller leadpipe diameter I think naturally speeds up the velocity of air.I went to mouthpiece.com and they have a nice comparison chart.I found out that bach trumpet and cornet mp"s are numbered exactly the same,so i"ll go with the 1 1/2c to start. Does any one know why the cornet isn't played much anymore?I love Nat Adderly"s improv on cornet,Jeannine is one of my favorites.Anyway thanks Both of you for your time and expert advise.

MFfan

You are welcome. glad to help. I had forgotten about mouthpiece.com Good to start with one you are familar with. The mp quest can be very taxing, if you read the other threads on the subject, or the MP threads.. I figured it was a pro horn, all right.
Your question about why cornets are not uses much anymore could provoke a dissertation.

We sort of discussed that before in various threads with a lot of input. Back when I started in 55, the cornet section in Junior High the HS was just that, all cornets. There were many band parts written for trumpet and maybe 3 or 4 students, who played them, that's where they were put.

After I got into college, it was quickly apparent about the shift to trumpets for marching and all-around use, so I went to trumpets of various sorts and the adult bands I have played in over the years were predomintly trumpets, with rare exceptions. I do recall an old musician in the Lansing VFW band played a beautiful gold plated Selmer, but that was the exception.

I got interested in them a couple of years ago after joining the forums and Ebay and Shopgoodwill A number of cornets have followed and I use them in the Swing Band and occaisional numbers in the concert band and noodling around the house.

I like Adderley also, plus Vache , Bobby Hackett, Ruby Braff and others. It takes a different approach to playing the cornet to get the most out of its qualities.