Posted by Mark on March 15, 2003 at 01:52:40:
In Reply to: Diameter Sizes on Detachable King Bells posted by Young Jenkins on March 15, 2003 at 01:10:13:
Hey, Young Jenkins,
I've seen lots of the King uprights in a 22" diameter.
They were/are pretty vulnerable to damage. As uprights, they get rested/dropped on the bell pretty often. Despite their decent construction, the wide flair eventually "pancakes" on virtually every one that's school owned. I'm sure that fact played a role in the conversion to the smaller size in more recent years.
Whether the bell is original or not seems to make no difference on these horns to my ears. One could even argue that a damaged one sounds better because a good crease or three kills the ringing you often find in a wide flair bell.
The 22" sounds broader than the 18"/19", but the new fixed-bell King sounds bigger than any size on the older models.
-- Mark