Hi Valerie, I've got lots and lots of old King parts if your friend would like to get in touch with me I'm sure I could find all the bits needed. Most of those old Kings were school horns it seems and they're usually beat up and almost always repaired badly. I've actually gone as far as totally unsoldering everything and reassembling them with all the dents taken out, bad connections fixed, valves rebuilt etc. and the resulting horns were excellent. Unfortunately, they don't command a high price so financially it's not worth putting that much work into them. Just something to do in my spare time ha ha! One thing about the old Kings is the receiver really only fits a King mouthpiece. The shank is extra small, they copied the early Kruspe small shank. The ones made before, I think, somewhere in the late 50s have a better valve design. I've had a couple from the 30s come through here that were some of the best sounding and playing horns I've ever tried. They weren't quite as good in the 50s, but still pretty good if they're in good mechanical condition, which never happens. The mouthpiece fit problem can be a little bit of an advantage when the valves are worn out on an old King, which seems to be 100% of the time. Since a standard mouthpiece doesn't fit in far enough, it makes the horn play tight. Now that the valves leak and the horn plays way too loose, that can actually make it sort of play.
- Steve Mumford _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
