bandman

Okay, you may not care, but I'm a huge Bergeron fan. I may visit the devil for saying this, but he is my all-time favorite big band player so this matters to me.


On the new Gordon Goodwin CD/DVD it doesn't look like he is playing the same horn he is holding on his website. The horn he is playing looks older and worn a bit from use. It also has different water keys and body type than the Yamaha.


I wonder if he is still using his Kanstul, or is it a Yamaha prototpe?


I guess it doesn't really matter what he uses because if I used the same horn I sure as heck would not sound like him. He is so great!

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Mikey

Oops.........

Maybe he forgot to switch back to the Yamaha for the video.........



(His Kanstul has a silver plated body with a raw brass bell).

tom turner

Yamaha has been throwing money at popular trumpet artists now since the mid-1970s, with lots of artists who have come and gone. Why? It makes folks want to buy their horns of course.

The fact that they don't all end up playing 'em all the time, night after night, really isn't that big a deal, as far as impacting potential sales. The few trumpeters in the crowd on a given night that are also looking to buy a new horn statistically isn't that great . . . and the chances of them being close enough to ID a horn as not what the artist is endorsing is statistically even smaller.

Yamaha makes fine horns indeed, but the main thing to them is getting the "buzz" and the firepower to use the artist's name in ads, brocheres, programs, etc. In that light, Yamaha is benefitting mightily for an artist like Bergeron to be endorsing their horns.

None of the American companies . . . companies without the huge finances and clout of the mega-corporation of Yamaha, simply cannot compete to buy artist endorsements. In my case, Yamaha's decades pursuit of lining up scads of artists has actually just made me want to buy American even more!

In the case of Bergeron, he may slide back over to his Kanstul from time to time . . . a horn made by a small, privately owned company that makes one hell of a horn . . . and a brand most kids have never heard of or played.

The only instrument company that literally refused to allow their artists to play another brand was, and probably still is, the Baldwin piano company.

T.

GordonH

When John Wallace "joined" yamaha they had to make a four valve Eb trumpet because that was what he was known for playing.
If the truth be told its a mere shadow of the Schilke equivalent whoich is sad because they could have made a much better instrument.

I heard that Hakan Hardenberger had to get a rotary pic made by yamaha when he joined.

Mind you there was a time when onbe trumpet superstar played one brand of instrument engraved with the name of another and supplied through them so he could still say "instruments supplied by....".

Scott Apelgren

I agree with many of the statements made by Tom. However another point of view is that Yamaha is more than willing to take input from professional players and actually follow up on the suggestions to make better horns. Certainly the smaller companies have done this for some time but Yamaha has enormous resources with which to work and they have the ear and lips of some of the greatest players of our era. We can only benefit from the result. The fact that the Bergeron horn has taken (is taking!) so long to get to the open market is some evidence that they are not just throwing his name on a horn and putting it out there. They seem to want to get it right!

Other large companies (please make your own assumptions here!) have only rehashed older models or done nothing at all new in the last 20-30 years.

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Scott Apelgren
The Horn Section
Melbourne, FL

regularsopguy

Why, exactly, do players "join Yamaha"? for the money, of course.

Naturally Yamaha is "willing to take input from professional players" because they have to incorporate the qualities of the artists existing horn into the new model. if a top symphony or studio player already has a horn that works, why look for a new one? because a relationship with yamaha has many benefits (marketing, money, etc) so if yamaha makes an artist happy ("new horn") and the artist is happy (money for a few clinics) and yamaha can sell more horns ($$$) then everyone is happy i guess.

with the WB, Yamaha took a couple of years to make it to wayne's satisfaction. why so long? seems like with all their resources and knowledge they couldnt easily duplicate what a little company like kanstul managed to do.

MJ

What money? I have asked some of the Yamaha Artists I know about what they get and they tell me

Big discount on horns.

If they do masterclasses Yamaha might chip in $$ to help out.

If their horn gets lost or stolen they will have one the next day.

Maybe some people are getting big bucks. Like those artists who have helped to design the horns. But I don't think any of the Yamaha Artists are making their living by being "artists"

In the past maybe Yamaha has thrown trumpets and some money at people just for names.

The thing is these days they are making some of the best trumpets out there. They have Bob Freaking Malone designing trumpets along with some of the best pros in the business. You can go to NYC and get your artist model tweaked by Wayne Tanabe.

Yamaha is killing Bach right now. IMHO This strike might be the nail in their coffin.

bandman

That depends 100% on the level of the player. Yamaha, and many other companies, have had guys out on the road doing clinics for years. Yes, there is a stipen involved along with a clinic fee. In the past there were some free horns, but in many cases they were in exchange for the first couple clinics you may do for them.

Clinics and master classes are not new since Yamaha became a player. Yamaha goes to places where it is obvious that the name recognition will do them the most good. The people in the R&D department at Yamaha are genius, but they are at least a whole level of genius below the people in the Yamaha marketing department,

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rowuk

Yamaha makes student and professional models that you can buy blind. They all seem to work extremely well - unlike most other mainstream manufacturers. I have never had to send back a Yamaha trumpet buit in the last 15 years because of manufacturing quality, intonation or playability. I won't buy a Bach unless I have played it first.
If Wayne Bergeron likes a hand built trumpet with individual character, it is tough for any mainstream manufacturer to fill that order.
I have a lot of respect for any company that can get it so close to right 99% of the time.
The fact that many Artists do not have a problem being associated with Yamaha is because their playing does not get worse when they switch! I think world class players would not accept 80% playability for any amount of money. Yamaha will give Bach a hard time but never Eclipse, Kanstul, Monette, Callichio or the likes.

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

tom turner

You are absolutely right! Yamaha makes very fine instruments, in great quantities, that play quite well!

You are also absolutely right about Yamaha giving Bach a run for the money right now, but not Eclipse, Kanstul, Monette, Callichio and the likes. This is comparing apples to oranges, especially with the names you mentioned.

These other companies you listed aren't even trying to compete to sell the largest mass quantities of units to the band market. These companies don't really care about impressing "junior" by sponsoring some hot shot just so "junior" will decide to ask momma to buy a horn "just like _______ plays."

However, these other companies make wonderful instruments too, but mainly for the adult-centered markets. It's a completely different clientele.

Then again, McDonalds has a different market too than a steakhouse chain like Outbacks. Again, a different target market. Both food companies are quite successful in their target areas too!

Yamaha went after Bergeron simply because of his Grammy-nominated record. It took Bob Malone and crew three years to get Wayne's new model working well enough that he could reliably use it on concerts . . . while Wayne continued to record with his Kanstul trumpet.

That's no slam against Yamaha, OR their hot-shot creative American designer who was brought in because he could, and would, "get out of the corporate box."

It is no slam against Bergeron either, for enjoying the fruits of all the years of hard work . . . FINALLY getting noticed by the school kids who are the market for autograph model horns.

However, it also shouldn't be a slam against Kanstul . . . a little company whose only goal is to build the best dang horns they can. They simply made a horn that a guy with serious chops would fall in love with . . . WITHOUT having to go and beg him to play their horns. Zig Kanstul was making serious trumpets for Olds in the early 50s . . . back when Yamaha instruments were total crap, like the Chinese instruments are today.

It is great that we have a choice!

We don't HAVE to buy high-volume made horns . . . from America, from Japan, or from China.

Instead, we can buy horns from America or England that are made for serious pros by companies very, very responsive to the adult working pro and serious amateur market . . . human beings who will pick up the phone and do their best to build YOU the trumpet that YOU want, not just sell you some cookie-cutter horn.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Sincerely,

Tom