Kanstul 1688. Thoughts?

[JKBone]

Hi friends,

Quite simply, who’s played one?
Any thoughts or comments... likes or dislikes?

I play a Kanstul 1662 and I love it. Hoping to hear similar comments about the 1688

Thanks in advance

[hyperbolica]

I've got a 1662i and I've always wanted to try a 1688 or the straight version which was odd-looking. I'm not sure I want it enough to pay for the opportunity. I've got an 88h that I'll never give up, but the 1688 and 1608 really fascinate me. I'm not 100% on the 1662i, although there are a lot of nice aspects. I really didn't like the 760 I played. Kanstuls can be all over the map because they were trying to copy aspects of many different horns. If you get your hands on one, box it up and send it over to me

[Burgerbob]

I've played a 1608 (the straight version, I think) that blew me away. Amazing instrument, except so front heavy as to be useless. I think I've played 3 1688s that didn't do anything special for me.

[DougHulme]

Ziggy made me a bigger counter weight and soldered a 'lug' on the end of the neck pipe of the straight version - it balanced perfectly after that.

[JKBone]

Thanks for your replies

[hornbuilder]

Play one and see how you like it. It really doesn't matter what anyone else on a forum says or thinks about a horn, because they will all have their own biases influencing those thoughts. The only one that knows if you will like it is you.

[JKBone]

Of course I agree. If I like it, I certainly don’t care what ANYONE says
But, when considering buying a horn sight unseen, a few personal opinions never go astray.

[BGuttman]

Just to sum up:

Is it awful and to be avoided at all costs? NO

Is it remarkably better than anything else on the market? NO

You would not be making a grave error buying one. It may work great for you. It may not. Or maybe you aren't sophisticated enough to see any problems.

I doubt you can get a more succinct statement from anybody else here.

[Posaunus]

If you like your Kanstul 1662 bass trombone, you will likely get along just fine with the 1688 tenor trombone.

It's certainly worth a try - these instruments are rather rare, and will never be made again.

Dillon Music has a used 1688 for sale at a price that indicates they think it's a pretty good value, just not top of the line:
https://www.dillonmusic.com/used-kanstu ... -trombone/

If you obtain a 1688 and are not overwhelmed by it, you should be able to re-sell it fairly easily.
[Kanstul has lots of fans on this forum.]

[mbarbier]

a friend of mine had one that he sounded great on (and I enjoyed playing too), but he had a number of problems with it that would be good to check out if you get one.

the big one is that playing it for extended periods really hurt his hand cause of the ergonomics (I forget the specifics cause this was like 8-9 years ago). he got a bullet brace for it and that helped but he eventually moved off it because it just wasn't sustainable as a daily work horn because of that. a lot of people didn't seem to have that issue, but it's kind of a make sure you play test it for a longer period of time to see if it bothers your hand or not. Basically it was the kinda thing if you play test it for a few minutes you won't notice and if you play it longer you.... will.

the other issue he had with it is that his horn didn't have an anywhere near useable seventh position. I don't know if it was a specific horn issue or a general model issue, but he had to have Kanstul build a new slide (twice) before it finally had a seventh.

so if you get one is check for that. but I also enjoyed playing it- they sound nice.

[JKBone]

Thanks again for all your input.

matt, yes the 7th position on my Kanstul bass isn't great. Not quite long enough. I've gotten used to it and manage to avoid it where I can. But occasionally it is a nuisance, and is the only thing I don't like about my 1662. (I'd forgotten about it until you mentioned it.

thanks again

[hyperbolica]

The TIS does make 7th position a little squirrelly, but it works. I don't use 7th much, but I do use it, and it works (1662). It does take some time to get used to the way the inner bore of the outer slide works on the TIS.

[mbarbier]

The TIS does make 7th position a little squirrelly, but it works. I don't use 7th much, but I do use it, and it works (1662). It does take some time to get used to the way the inner bore of the outer slide works on the TIS.

I don't know if it was a manufacturer error, but on his it wasn't squirrelly- it just wasn't even close to there. He eventually made Kanstul make him a new slide, which was a bit of a chore, but it did solve the issue. I don't know if it was just an random one off issue, or an earlier production thing they fixed (he got the horn around 2008 I think), though. But he sounded lovely on it.