Last week I took delivery of a new Sterling Virtuoso euphonium.
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As far as the specifics of this instrument, I made a number of choices that don't appear to be that popular here in the USA:
No trigger. When I've played these in the past, I thought the intonation was plenty good enough without it. I found the trigger action on the ones I had played previously to be extremely heavy, and that was also a contributing factor. The cost savings made it a no brainer.
No gold accents. I'm a traditionalist, and I've never been completely comfortable with the two tone look. The savings by not getting the gold accents also made this choice a no brainer for me.
A single water key on the main tuning slide ONLY. For the valve slides, I have never been previously satisfied with emptying water through the water key. Not only is not as effective as pulling the slide and dumping directly, but if you don't get the angle right, you'll spray water all over the horn, which is very annoying. If you plan to pull the slides anyway, my logic was to eliminate the water keys on those slides entirely. Although probably a theoretical advantage, I also think the lack of water keys may afford a smoother airflow through the valve slides.
A 305 mm heavy red brass bell. The heavy red brass bell is certainly very popular here in the USA, but the 305 mm size appears to be rarely seen over here. It is halfway in between the more commonly seen 300 mm (the size of the Yamaha 642/842 bells) and 310 mm (large York Eminence) sizes. I consulted with Dave extesively before deciding on this one, and we both felt that this selection would be a nice compromise between the two.
I had the position of the leadpipe raised 1 cm above standard posiiton. You can see in Doug's write up that Sterling's standard position is just a touch higher than the newer Bessons. Although I felt the standard position for Besson and the Yamaha 642/Schiller (but NOT the Yamaha 842) was almost perfect for me and don't require a pillow/device for raising the instrument, I reasoned that this modification would further improve my posture since I am 6'5". Had I seen Doug's write up prior to sending the order, I may not have done this, but I do think the ergonomics are even better than the newer Bessons/Schiller in that regard.
Besson Prestige floating leadpipe affixed by a single stud.
Besson style bracing of the rest of the horn.
I ordered a single heavy valve cap for the 4th valve
I ordered a deluxe case with the horn.
Here are my initial observations:
As advertised, the sound and tone are better than I could have hoped for. If there is a better euphonium in this regard, I would be shocked. What a glorious sound! What impresses me most about the tone is that it is dark and rich, yet also remains very centered and is easily controlled....a combination of positive attributes that I haven't seen in other horns. I found a setup with the newer Bessons that was nearly as dark, but I had to use a heavy weight mouthpiece, and the sound was very uncentered and harder to control.
High register responsiveness, as reported by others, is amazingly open and free.
Low register responsiveness is not quite as open as the newer Bessons or Schiller...but it is only slightly less so.
The valves, although still scratchy sounding, are amazingly quick and light. This was the nicest surprise of all, as I felt the examples I had played previously had slightly heavy action (Virtuosos) to completely dreadful action(previous Sterling-Perantucci's). I would rate them as 97% as good as the German Besson valves, the gold standard IMHO, and are better than just about anything else. Once they break in, I would anticipate the action to improve even further.
The intonation is getting better with each use. The first time I played it, I felt the intonation was really no better than the German Bessons (with a very sharp 6th partial), and noticeably inferior to the Willson and Yamaha. Now I would rate it almost as good as the Willson/Yamaha and superior to the newer Bessons.
The playing angle/ergonomics are better than anything else I've experienced. The high leadpipe placement encourages great posture.
About the only negative I can write about after a week's time is the "deluxe case" that I purchased with the instrument. From the outside, it looks to be nearly identical to the Schiller case, although a closer inspection will reveal that it is longer, slimmer, and significantly heavier. The increased weight certainly indicates more robust construction, which I would expect for protecting such an instrument. In my opinion, the negative is that you have to insert this cone shaped object into the bell to keep the instrument from significantly moving while inside the case, indicating that the case certainly wasn't designed for this instrument....at best, such a remedy seems crude and very annoying.
I haven't had a chance to try the standard 4th valve cap yet..will report on that later
Overall, I'm very pleased with the instrument....the most important facet of the horn for me is the sound, and this horn delivers everything that I've ever wanted, and then some. I will write more once I become more acquainted with the instrument.