Anthem A-5000 ?

[n9yty]

Hi!

By way of introduction, I played the Euphonium when I was in high school, using a school instrument, and now, around 25 years later, have the bug to pick it back up again. I am very pleased to find this excellent resource of information and discussion!

After looking at the costs of used instruments with potential costs to give them a "tune-up", I ended up over at Mack Brass looking at what seem to be quite a decent value for the money, probably the best bang for the buck.

In the interim (he is out of stock for about a month), I called local music dealers and found one that had a decent deal of a rental for three months for $50. The instrument is an Anthem A-5000. Web site is here: http://www.anthemmusic.com/brass.htm#a5000_4v_euphonium

For the three month window it is a great deal to get my hands back on an instrument and get back into things, but they are selling that for about $1700, maybe up to $1900 if I used the two-year payment plan. Seems like a purely student model, and probably inferior to the one Mack Brass is selling.

Anyone have any more information on this instrument?

Thanks, --Steve

[RickF]

Anthem A-5000 ?

Hi Steve,

Welcome back to playing. I know a bit what you're going through as I came back to playing after a 33 year break. Been back to playing now for 12 years (gosh, I sound old).

The Anthem A5000 looks like a pretty good horn and a knock-off of the Yamaha 321... which is a good instrument. The bore is .570 which is very decent (.590 is usually the bore of professional / compensating horns).

[Roddrick113]

I've got an Anthem A-5000 in my shop. It was traded because it was damaged in a car accident. My repairman made it look new again. His opinion was that it was put together pretty well. The brace receivers were not as deep as a Yamaha 321 but were adequate. He complained about the metal being heavy gauge and hard to work with to take out the dents. Not sure if that's a bad thing though. I played the horn. It sounds good, projects well. Has a deep, dark, big sound for a .507 bore and small shank mouthpiece receiver. The intonation is pretty good provided you're using a bigger, small shank mp like a Yamaha 48. The standard 6 1/2 AL was too small and the horn wouldn't play flat enough to be in tune. Once I had the 48 in place, the intonation dropped down to being in tune through most of the standard Bb concert scale notes. It's non-compensating as you go down below low F so you have to be more creative with fingerings to get the notes to pitch. I don't like the big finger buttons but that's just because I've played on an old Conn Connstellation for the past 50 years, lol. I've got serious reservations about Chinese horns. Seems there's always intonation problems and valves that wear out way too early. My Conn's valves are just as fast as they were 50 years ago while the Chinese horns I've had to repair have worn out valves after 1 year of playing. This is a newer manufacture Anthem so I'll wait and see how it holds up. Overall, good horn for student to intermediate if the price is below $1000 for a clean horn in my opinion.

[Snorlax]

Welcome back to playing!
73 de N9EJR