Nirschl I-800 brief review

[Maestro]

Hi all,

I just wanted to post a brief review of the Nirschl I-800 euphonium that I recently acquired.

First of all, my undergrad was in euphonium, but I did a master's in choral and orchestral conducting, and my conducting schedule has kept me so busy that I haven't played seriously in about 10 years. I even sold my Besson 5 years ago.

I decided that I truly missed playing and wanted to get an inexpensive instrument to get my chops up. The reviews on this horn are mixed, but I decided to give it a try. I was absolutely amazed with my results on the Nirschl I-800. I've been playing it with the Denis Wick SM4 Ultra.

The first thing that I noticed is that the tone is solid, full, and dark. The response is fast, and all of the registers really sing, ESPECIALLY the lower register. Nothing about the horn feels tight in any register. In fact, I find it quite easy to achieve extremely soft dynamics in most any register without sacrificing any tone color.

I am still working on some small intonation bugs, but this horn plays very well in tune when I really center the pitch.

The construction seems sturdy and the valves are fast and quiet. The rubber pads on the valves are interesting, but I guess they work as well as felt. Some reviews said that the horn is awkward to hold, but I did not experience that at all. (For the record, I am pretty tall and have long arms, so that may be the difference.)

The I-800 is not a bad option for a fully compensating euph under $3000. It may be worth your while to try one if you have the opportunity. It is certainly meeting my needs at this point in my musical career.

[JBrassLee]

Nirschl I-800 brief review

I was initially satisfied with mine until I took it to rehearsal. The intonation was not good. I spent a week with the tuner then took it back to the store.

[YOOF]

Nirschl I-800 brief review

I have been playing a I-800 for about 3 years now, it has served me well in my later years of high school and the first year of college. It has been a really great horn for me in developing good sound and technique.



Some of the problems I have encountered with it:

The first few months having the horn, the valves were fine, after awhile, they started to wear down, not because I was doing anything bad with it, they just seemed to warp. I had them lapped a few times over the years and they are fine now.

There was another time when the upper brace that connects the main tuning slide pipe with the bell disconnected and I had to get that fixed.



Apart from thos small issues, it was a great horn for me. Being in high school, it wasn't a crazy expensive instrument that the pros play, but it was good enough that there wasnt any repetoire that I couldn't play because of a lack of ability of the instrument. Now that I am a college student, I have sort of grown out of it. But for intermediate players and high school students, I think it is a great horn for the price.