Posted by Wade on August 28, 2003 at 18:57:01:
In Reply to: Kings new BBb Contra posted by Peter G. on August 28, 2003 at 18:29:29:
The K-90 started as a set of eight 2341s purchased from Hutchinson High School in Kansas. These tubas were bought by the Sky Ryders in 1980 and sent to the factory to be made into a prototype GG Contrabass with the then new-ish two piston configuration. I do not know whether or not this was some kind of deal struck by Rainbow Boosters with King in conjunction with the purchase of a full set of new Kings for the other sections, but we had them first. The corps first showed up with these new horns in 1981 and blew everyone away with the sound quality, which was excellent when compared to the Olds and Dynasty "instruments" everywhere else.
The problem was that, as prototypes, each one was very different from the other. The pistons were at differing angles, the braces were in different places, and the things were wrapped by hand, leading to differences in height of nearly two inches from horn to horn. But they all played MUCH better than any other contra made at the time, and were the only alternative to the Dynasty hegemony (unless you wanted late 1960s Olds Ultratones and Duratones).
I played on several of the Blue Devils contras in 1984. They were from the first production run of the K-90 in 1982, and they kinda sucked compared to ours. They were lighter and smaller, and the half-step slide (while having a better stop) did not function properly.
Ours were bigger, heavier, had better intonation, and made a much more even sound. (I say "ours" because I was a member of that fine hornline (stated without any irony at all), but in 1984, not in 1981.)
And that, my friends is my contribution to the oral history (now typed) of the King K-90 GG Contrabass Bugle. It was the first time that a tubist could march in DCI and feel that he or she were playing a musical instrument rather than a bugle.
Wade "had to do some serious brain dredging for that information" Rackley