Hi everyone, I just purchased my Adams E1 SS .6mm Euphonium(mentioned to be the same specs as Dave's Euph, I just was lucky enough to acquire a free set of custom made mother of pearl concave finger buttons that matched the gold brass of the valve casing) on Tuesday and just wanted to let you know what I notice so far.
When I was comparing the Adams between my 83-86 Besson Sovereign 967, it was almost no competition, the majority of my notes are in tune, with some occasions of the 4th space G being 15-20 cents sharp. All of my other intonation fluctuations will likely be fixed or improved when I fine tune the instrument to myself as I get adjusted to the horn as well as it being broken in. I love how light the Adams is, and fits my frame better than the old Besson did, even better than the Sterling that my friend has, as well as one in the shop when I purchased the horn. Reason being the Adams seems to be slightly wider and taller, could just be a different placement of braces but I am unsure about those specifics. Holding position does not change at all from standing to sitting due to the larger frame of the Adams. It sings just like my sovereign does, but with even more volume control and pitch stability when pushing the envelope whether it be loud or soft. The adjustable receiver is nice for fine tuning a sound, I adjusted mine to be about 3 threads out, any less or any further and the tone began to be less desirable with the setup I was using. Another thing I noticed while test driving the Adams and the Sterling, was that in comparison to my Sovereign, the Adams took in more shank, and the Sterling took in less shank. Rumor said that the valves moved slower, but not bad or sticky than other horns, I disagree. I was unable to notice a difference between the valves of any Sterling, Besson, or Willson I have tried(all of the horns have been consistently played for at least 3+ years).
The only thing I personally would choose differently about the horn would be the finish. Because I did not order the horn directly from Adams, and wait X amount of time for it to arrive, I was not deciding based on finish, and by the way it does look amazing with the Sterling silver and Gold Brass finish, but I am not a huge fan of the lacquer coat on the horn, it seems to have visible bumps in the coat that you can feel, but this is a minor detail and I am overlooking this simply because the horn plays phenomenal!!! I will do another review for you all at the end of the semester in May to see the progress of the horn, and myself.
Hope this is helpful to everyone!
Justin