Mapex has been pushing for them for awhile now. They put out a pretty good product and I hope they get a corps like Phantom.

Any chance that there's a corps using Dynasty horns that's not using Dynasty drums and might switch? I assume that if they use the same brand of brass and percussion, the corps gets a better deal out of it, and the company gets better exposure.

It'll come down to deal vs preference. In 2004 at Madison word on the street was a switch to pearl was happening before march. Yamaha (Madison is their oldest customer) Stepped up to the plate and pretty much made anything Mcnutt wanted. Ranging from maple drums, wider basses with more vents, deeper shelled tenors, thinner snare guts. Then on top of that it was new drums every year, and a new pit every 2.
Remember when Cadets switched to Yamaha? or Devs to Dynasty? those were 15+ year relationships. Dev's leaving Vic?
What thpse tell me is that when a caption head makes that decision, previous relationships don't matter all that much.

Lets look at the other side of the coin for a minute, who gets the phantom gig? And does the membership stay or or follow to SCV? My money is on follow.

Business is business.

SCV is an awesome corps, and many people love them. But, fact of the matter is Blue Devils are world champions this year and representing their product amazingly. Remember when Devs switched to Dynasty? Oh my God. All of a sudden Dynasty drums were the best thing since the drumstick.

Now, Dynasty is in those "what's going to happen to them?" conversations.

A corporation is going to follow what sells. A 30 year relationship means nothing when it comes to money. So SCV switching to Dynasty, knowing that the only have 1 other top 12 group (assuming Phantom switches to Mapex) is almost a given.

Dynasty will be doing everything in their power to keep their name in the top 6. They're doing fine in the Indoor world with finalists and medalists in each class. It's just a bit tougher for them now since big names dropped them.

(I remember getting into trouble with my old corps for talking about Dynasty once....it's amazing how things change.)

I have a feeling it's going to be another switchero like when Cavies and SCV switched staff. SCV's staff goes to Phantom and vice versa. Who knows, Maybe Bret Kuhn will move from Colts.
That's a long way to go for anyone that goes to Phantom. At that point all the people from Phantom would have to fly out there unless they're already flying to Phantom. That's a hefty fee on top of dues. I agree some would follow, but I don't expect a full transition of members.

Most members of top 8 corps are not locals, save for maybe the West coast guys, with an abundance of talent and corps in the same region. Most corps in the midwest (Phantom, Bluecoats, Cavaliers, etc) have talent flying in from all over.

My point is, I don't see a huge shift FROM Vanguard due to this staff change. Most of those guys will likely stay marching in California. The Phantom clan, however, are very loyal to Rennick (with lots of them being North Texas students) and are more likely to jump ship. I'm very curious to see what Phantom's talent level is like next year without Rennick's army.

-Zach

That's true, I didn't think about the U of T factor. SCV kinda got screwed with kids this year because of the Pulse fiasco. Hopefully they fixed that.

That's UNT.

You mean the SCV/Pulse fiasco, right? Where Vanguard would not allow their kids to march indoor, so all the SCV/Pulse guys left and became Pulse/Blue Devils, Pulse/Academy, etc.

Regardless, with Paul taking over that rule will likely no longer be in effect. I have very high expectations of the V team this year.

I just talked to Paul on Sunday; congratulated him on the Sanford trophy. He's keeping his cards close to the vest. He just helped the Vigilantes get an entire new Dynasty drum line. It sounds like he's looking forward to going out to California and is very proud of his years with PR. It's just time to move on. He mentioned how unstable the corps life is and how things change quickly, year to year.

I think most of the PR line that Paul was bringing from UNT just aged out. I know he'll bring at least one guy with him, I think Johnny Leal from the snare line and maybe a couple kids in the pit.

Anyway I wished him the best of luck. I doubt he'll be back to work with the Vigilantes next season, (they're a DCA class A corps that practices 15 miles from UNT.) I think they're in line for the top drum trophy again this year - watch for the results next week from Rochester.

My question now is will Paul be working with Murray or is he out too?

I think Paul can actually bring SCV back to being relevant again. I'd love to see SCV back to their late 80's powerhouse status once more.