King good?

[Bobby G]

There's a couple of King altos on ebay at the moment, both Zephyrs, from the same seller about 20 minutes down the road from me. Should I be interested at just under ?500 apiece?

I've heard good things about these horns, my main question is about the keywork - how does it compare with more modern horns? Does it have, for instance, a >ahem< articulated G#? Also is there much difference in the workings of the l.h. pinky keys? I remember having a blast on a 20's Martin, and there was, as I remember, no interlinking of those keys.

Cheers, Bob

 

[saxismyaxe]

Hi Bob,
King Zephyrs and Super 20s are FANTASTIC horns. I'm particularly fond of the 40's and 50's era Zephyrs and Zephyr specials and pre Eastlake Super 20's. Their keywork is quiet civil for the period, but the left hand pinkie table key action can be greatly improved with some careful tweaking and liberal use of Teflon. The G# is indeed articulated.
The sound is just amazing, and will motivate anyone to work around any keywork quirks that he/she might find, trust me.
Definitely give a few a test ride if you have access to them.

 

[saxismyaxe]

And Charlie Parker & Cannonball Adderly didn't have any trouble playing them at greased lightening speeds, that's for sure!

 

[Bobby G]

I know Cannon played a Super 20, but didn't realise Bird did.

What differences are there between a Zephyr and a Super 20 apart from the 20 on ebay being five times the price :whistle: ?

Cheers, Bob

 

[saxismyaxe]

The later (Mid 40's through 1950's Cleveland made horns) Zephyrs are based on the Zephyr Special which is what the same era Super 20s are based on. These later Zephyrs (with Super 20 style, eyebrow sheet metal keyguards [not the wire ones], double socket neck etc.) share the body tube, bell and keywork of their Super 20 brethren (with a few changes in the keywork and cosmetics), and sound superb.
I would spare myself the added expense, and get a mid period Zephyr rather than spend the extra on the Super 20 if money is an issue. During this era, the Zephyr was H.N. Whites professional model, and the Super 20 was their deluxe pro model. Rather like the relationship between the 10M/6M "Artist" and the 30M/26M "Connquerer" models offered by Conn.

Some King collectors/players firmly believe that the later, Eastlake era horns are just as nice sounding & playing, and this is true to a point, but I can't dismiss the fact that these later horns are not as well made, and this is due in no small part to the fact that by this time in the H.N. White production (1960's), the Zephyrs were relegated to a student level offering. I wouldn't poo poo the later horns, but given a choice.........

I have examples of both the Zephyr (and Special) and the Super 20's, and love playing both with equal zeal. That says a lot for the less expensive Zephyr.

Parker played a Conn 6M (among MANY other horns, for well publicized reasons) throughout the 40's, but switched to the H.N. White King Super 20 in the early 50's, and became a King endorsing artist, along with Cannonball, Charlie Ventura, and many others.

Every maker wanted a piece of Bird to past on their advertising, so I'm certain he had his pick of horns, yet he stuck with the Kings. If you try one, I think you'll see why.

 

[Bobby G]

So, you like 'em, Michael! There are two on offer, a late-30's model and an early-40's silver-plated one, with wire keyguards and double-socket crook.

What is tempting me, among other things, is that they are local to me and the vendor is quite happy for me to have a blow. Also, and this seems a bit odd, they were up on ebay a couple of weeks back and got no bids whatsoever.

Cheers, Bob

 

[saxismyaxe]

The fact that no one bid on them MIGHT be nothing more than simply the possibility Kings aren't well known in the U.K. like Selmers, Conns etc are. I don't think that they were as heavily distributed in Europe, like some of the other makes were.

By all means, you should try a few out and see what you think of them yourself.