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Today I have just recieved a Schiller Elite Compensating Euphonium. Other than the issue with purchacing the instrument under the idea that JimLaabs had the instrument in stock. Well after a month and a half of waiting it has arrived.
When I had arrived home from work I was pleased to see a big box on my door step. The instrument was packaged very well, an instrument in a case in a box in a box. Well with that said, I found that my first assesment of the instrument was "WOW".
Alright down to the real assesment of the horn.
Looking at the horn in the case, I examined what I could without touching the horn. The sodering points seemed to be well done, the finish seemed on par with a previous instrument I had purchased. The mother of pearllooked good, no scratches or cracks that were visable. I then picked up the horn out of the case, I was astonished at the weight of the horn. I expected it to be less in weight as compared to YEP-642 and YEP-842, very sturdy of a horn and I do not suspect there to be a problem with damaging it terribly with normal use. The horn felt as though is was about the same weight if not close to what I remember from Yamahas I have held and test played before. I then inspected the rest of the parts I could not see before. The sodering looked great, the only issue I found was small areas on the back of the valve casing to have unpolished look to them. This is not a problem as I believe I may be able to polish those areas. The over all aesthetics of the horn were very well done, I would have to say about a 9 on a scale of 1-10.
Now onto the mechanical aspects of the horn. I first started with the inspection of the slides, they seemed to be right on alighnment with slide receivers. The part of the slides that went into the receiver part of the horn looked very smooth, as it looked like they MFR took time in making sure the fitment was right on. All the slides were able to move with barely any pursuation yet seemed sable and not going to slip out when playing. I then moved my attention to the mouthpeice receiver, I looked to be made very good as the mouthpeice was very secure while in. Now the valves, as many have noted how they are gritty ect... I would have to say at first they were a little noisy, but upon further inspection upon removing the valves they look the way they sound, in that they do not look on par to the rest of the instrument with construction of the horn. The laping of the valves looked to be off a little, yet the valves as a whole were true, I believe that the valves look to be worse than they truely are. The springs were as others have said about this horn, just a standard spring, yes they were loud to hear when compressing the valves and decompressing the valves. On the fourth valve there seemed to be more noise than the other valves, when looking closer I saw that the fourth didn't have a great damper felt on the inside of the valve, this could be easily fixed. Over all feeling about the mechanical aspects of the horn I woulod give it and over all score of a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Now for play ability. At first I started with some long tones, My tone quality was severly off as I haven't played for about seven month's, and before that for about seven years. the notes seemed to carry very well and sounded more full the more time I had on the horn. Second I played some lyrical peices along with some scales varying between them. after fiddeling around with some crazyness as going to the lowest I can play and the highest I can play, which isn't to far off from when I played every day, there didnt seem as to be much resistance to the horn or the ability to make the horn sing if you need it to. After playing for about a hour I found that yes my tone improved but I do have a very good feeling that this horn has much more to show me. The over all soundness of the horn was great, there weren't to many notes I felt that needed to be lipped up or down, and the intonation on the horn is very close if not on par to playing the Yamahas. My over all score for playability is a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
My over all impression of this horn is great, the intonation is great, there doesn't seem to much of a problem with the durability of the horn, and there is more that I haven't experienced with this horn as I suspect that every report I have now will increase as I get some face time on the horn. My over all score for this horn is a 7 1/2 to 8 on a scale of 1-10.
This is my interpretation of this horn for just the first time playing it and inspecting it. I am very critical with my instruments and have in the past made the improvements I needed to do to my instruments in order to have them where they need to be for me.
Richard
When I had arrived home from work I was pleased to see a big box on my door step. The instrument was packaged very well, an instrument in a case in a box in a box. Well with that said, I found that my first assesment of the instrument was "WOW".
Alright down to the real assesment of the horn.
Looking at the horn in the case, I examined what I could without touching the horn. The sodering points seemed to be well done, the finish seemed on par with a previous instrument I had purchased. The mother of pearllooked good, no scratches or cracks that were visable. I then picked up the horn out of the case, I was astonished at the weight of the horn. I expected it to be less in weight as compared to YEP-642 and YEP-842, very sturdy of a horn and I do not suspect there to be a problem with damaging it terribly with normal use. The horn felt as though is was about the same weight if not close to what I remember from Yamahas I have held and test played before. I then inspected the rest of the parts I could not see before. The sodering looked great, the only issue I found was small areas on the back of the valve casing to have unpolished look to them. This is not a problem as I believe I may be able to polish those areas. The over all aesthetics of the horn were very well done, I would have to say about a 9 on a scale of 1-10.
Now onto the mechanical aspects of the horn. I first started with the inspection of the slides, they seemed to be right on alighnment with slide receivers. The part of the slides that went into the receiver part of the horn looked very smooth, as it looked like they MFR took time in making sure the fitment was right on. All the slides were able to move with barely any pursuation yet seemed sable and not going to slip out when playing. I then moved my attention to the mouthpeice receiver, I looked to be made very good as the mouthpeice was very secure while in. Now the valves, as many have noted how they are gritty ect... I would have to say at first they were a little noisy, but upon further inspection upon removing the valves they look the way they sound, in that they do not look on par to the rest of the instrument with construction of the horn. The laping of the valves looked to be off a little, yet the valves as a whole were true, I believe that the valves look to be worse than they truely are. The springs were as others have said about this horn, just a standard spring, yes they were loud to hear when compressing the valves and decompressing the valves. On the fourth valve there seemed to be more noise than the other valves, when looking closer I saw that the fourth didn't have a great damper felt on the inside of the valve, this could be easily fixed. Over all feeling about the mechanical aspects of the horn I woulod give it and over all score of a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Now for play ability. At first I started with some long tones, My tone quality was severly off as I haven't played for about seven month's, and before that for about seven years. the notes seemed to carry very well and sounded more full the more time I had on the horn. Second I played some lyrical peices along with some scales varying between them. after fiddeling around with some crazyness as going to the lowest I can play and the highest I can play, which isn't to far off from when I played every day, there didnt seem as to be much resistance to the horn or the ability to make the horn sing if you need it to. After playing for about a hour I found that yes my tone improved but I do have a very good feeling that this horn has much more to show me. The over all soundness of the horn was great, there weren't to many notes I felt that needed to be lipped up or down, and the intonation on the horn is very close if not on par to playing the Yamahas. My over all score for playability is a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
My over all impression of this horn is great, the intonation is great, there doesn't seem to much of a problem with the durability of the horn, and there is more that I haven't experienced with this horn as I suspect that every report I have now will increase as I get some face time on the horn. My over all score for this horn is a 7 1/2 to 8 on a scale of 1-10.
This is my interpretation of this horn for just the first time playing it and inspecting it. I am very critical with my instruments and have in the past made the improvements I needed to do to my instruments in order to have them where they need to be for me.
Richard
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