Willson 3-valve comp'er

[warumtobendieheiden]

Idly clicking through the Willson website, I stumbled across the Willson 2750TA, a three-valve compensating model. The text there reads, "New! Available again!"

Any interested parties?

[fsung]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

The 2750 is the "big brother" (310mm bell) to the 2727 (290mm), which is also a 3-valve comper). As best as I've been able to determine, the 2750 was discontinued around 2002-2003. Production resumed about the middle of last year (2009).

I suppose the fact that they've resurrected it indicates that there's a market for it, though, for me, the inability to play the notes in the compensating range would be a deal-breaker since I occasionally cover the tuba part in my church brass ensemble; and if the Singapore price (SG$6992 = US$5150) (lacquer) is any indication, I do have to wonder how big that market would be.

[JTJ]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Now that interests me a lot, especially the 2727. Wonder if they are available in the USA?

John

[Snorlax]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Originally posted by: JTJ

Now that interests me a lot, especially the 2727. Wonder if they are available in the USA?



John

There seem to be a couple models that are available in Europe but not here. It was that way with my now-departed Willson 2905. There were only a couple of 2905s and a couple of 2955s I know of in the States. Since I can read German, I saw that models such as the 2905 had been listed by vendors like Thomann, but they were never really marketed here. the only way I knew about them was from looking at Thomann.de.

In fact, the 2905 is described by a couple of German-language sites as "abgespeckt"--a "slimmed-down" version of the 2900.

They had also discontinued the 2975 front-action compensator for a while. I'm not sure what its current status is, but I think it may be available on backorder.

[fsung]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Originally posted by: JTJ
Now that interests me a lot, especially the 2727. Wonder if they are available in the USA?

I'm sure you could special order one, but you'd probably be paying close to list price and have to wait up to a year for it to arrive.

Dave Surber is Willson's contact person for the US ( davesurber_AT_getzen_DOT_com).

[daruby]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Willson may have a factory delivery program. You ought to see if you could arrange to pick up the horn in Sqitzerland. Have a nice vacation! I bet that could speed up delivery somehow...

Doug

[JTJ]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

I like the vacation idea best!

But I just sent the person at Getzen an email.

John

[davewerden]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Originally posted by: JTJ I like the vacation idea best! John

So MY question is:

If we all wrapped a vacation to the factory in with buying a horn, for how many of us would our choice of brands be influenced by the attractiveness of the country?

[RickF]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Originally posted by: davewerden

Originally posted by: JTJ I like the vacation idea best! John

So MY question is:



If we all wrapped a vacation to the factory in with buying a horn, for how many of us would our choice of brands be influenced by the attractiveness of the country?

Hmm? That's for sure. I may not want to come back home.



"The Hills are Alive..."

[Eupher6]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Those hills may be alive, but so is everybody who provides a service.

A visit to Switzerland means, "Dig deep in your pockets, boys. There's a whole lot of payin' to do."

[daruby]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

You have to decide ahead of time what you are looking for. All of the below appear to have formal or informal factory tour programs available.

Choices include:
England - Sterling - Beeston, Bedfordshire (central midlands)
England - Geneva Instruments - Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Yorkshire (north England)
Switzerland - Willson Band Instruments - Flum (approx 60 Km ESE of Zurich)
Germany - Meinl Weston - Geretsreid (south of Munich)
Germany - Miraphone - Waldraiburg (east of Munich)
Germany - Besson - B&S Factory - Markneukirchen (south of Leipzig and just west of the Czech Republic)
Czech Republic - Cerveny - Hradec Kralove - approx. 100km east of Prague
USA - Kanstul - Anaheim, CA.
Hirsbrunner is no longer producing euphoniums as far as I know so that takes one possibility away from Switzerland. With Adams purchasing the Hirsbrunner factory, I am not sure where the Adams horns are being produced. York is gone so a vote for Markneukirchen goes away. Also, several of the other marques such as Geneva and Cerveny don't actually build their own horns from the ground up. Instead, they use a "kit" that is a clone of the old Besson 967. Geneva will do much customization. I believe Cerveny builds to specification. For those of you not interested in visiting a factory building in Anaheim, CA in person, a virtual tour of the Kanstul factory is here: Kanstul Video Tour. A Kanstul 975 euphonium appears on the video.

Having already done the "factory tour" in order to purchase my Sterling, I would like to make the following suggestion. Arrange a factory tour in order to audition and select the best horn for you. In some cases, you can insure any customizations you want. If you can also use the visit as part of a vacation or business trip then do so. Don't make your selection based on where you want to vacation!

If I were inclined towards a Willson (other than standard 2900/2950), Sterling, or Geneva, the factory visit might be the best way to go. Some tubists have reported on visits to Meinl-Weston and Miraphone with success. I tried to see if I could arrange a tour in Markneukirchen through Besson a year ago and had no luck (no response at all). B&S does have a form for factory tours on their web site, but given the current economic situation and the demise of York, I suspect that Buffett do not want outsiders knowing when and how much production is going on at the B&S factory.

Doug

[RickF]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Interesting video tour of Kanstul. Thanks Doug. I think it would be great to hand pick your horn like you did your Sterling.

There's a video tour of Miraphone factory that runs about 17 minutes here:

Miraphone factory tour

scroll down some till you see the video player. There's a full screen button in the lower right-hand corner. I searched YouTube, but couldn't find this video anywhere else.

[bbocaner]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

I've been to B&S in Markneukirchen and Melton (Meinl Weston) in Geretsreid. There isn't an awful lot to see in either town, although they are both fairly close to major cities. In either case, when I was there, neither factory had ANY euphoniums in a finished state that could be auditioned. Nobody spoke any English at Melton. They were very friendly at Melton and generous with their time. It's a VERY small operation there. B&S is a much bigger setup, and they are much busier. Still very friendly, but they do have a lot less time for you. B&S's web site says they don't have time for plant tours for individuals, but when I showed up and asked about it they were happy to let me look around. Melton replied to my email and told me it was fine to come on over.

Switzerland is EXPENSIVE!! You need a $100 sticker on your car just to drive there, and I've spent $20 just on WATER with lunch there!

[bbocaner]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

I've been to Kanstul, too. They were super nice when I was there and Jack Kanstul spent probably an hour with me showing me how all the work was done at every station. There are few to no instruments you can try at the factory, but they also have a showroom that's a half mile or so away from the factory. They don't have too much at the showroom -- they didn't have their "pro" euphonium and maybe only a quarter of their trombone models. It was mostly trumpets and student instruments.

If you want to pick out a new Besson, your best bet is the distributer in florida.

[highams]

Willson 3-valve comp'er

Sue & I finally got too the Willson factory after many years of saying 'we must'.

Willi Kurath gave us sooo much time and we strolled around the very compact factory unit. Everything is done in-house apart from the final plating & lacquer finishes, plus some special options which mostly seemed to be orders from Japan.

Of special interest is their bell forming maching for the 1 piece seemless construction, and huge rotating drum shaped cleaning/polishing machines, again custom built for Willson.

Yes it's expensive, but you get what you pay for, Sue & I never left a meal table hungry (lol). The village of Flums is itself picturesque too with the remains of a Castle overlooking your exit from the autobahn.

CB