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Thread: New Chinese Rotary Euphonium Model - Copy of What?

  1. #1

    New Chinese Rotary Euphonium Model - Copy of What?

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional...-/131415942591

    What have the Chinese copied to come up with this unique looking Euph? I have no idea which manufacturer is making this, so I have no idea of its quality, but if someone imported this and it was good in quality, it might be a very interesting euph to play. Can anyone figure out what they're copying here?

    It comes with a main tuning slide that supposedly puts the instrument in C, too. I'm not sure how that would work out, though. I'm not sure of the reason for that, but it's interesting, at least.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    3-valve Blessing B-350 Euphonium

  2. #2
    I think it looks like this - Miraphone 56A Kaiser Baritone :

    http://www.hornguys.com/euphmir56a.php

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Rodgeman; 01-29-2015 at 12:38 PM.
    Cerveny BBb Kaiser Tuba
    __________________________
    “Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.”
    ― Ludwig van Beethoven

  3. #3
    No idea who they copy, but there have been rotary-valve euphonium around for a long time, especially from European makers. From Chinese sources, I've seen a few of the oval versions; not so many of the straight ones.

    A C/Bb slide is interesting. One might assume the valve slides are primarily tuned to C. Then with the Bb slide you'd pull each one a little bit.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
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  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Rodgeman View Post
    I think it looks like this - Miraphone 56A Kaiser Baritone :

    http://www.hornguys.com/euphmir56a.php

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Yup. That looks like it. I guess that's the model.
    3-valve Blessing B-350 Euphonium

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by davewerden View Post
    No idea who they copy, but there have been rotary-valve euphonium around for a long time, especially from European makers. From Chinese sources, I've seen a few of the oval versions; not so many of the straight ones.

    A C/Bb slide is interesting. One might assume the valve slides are primarily tuned to C. Then with the Bb slide you'd pull each one a little bit.
    Yes. I guess the double-wrapped slide would be the Bb slide. I wonder if the valve loop slides are marked to make it easier to set up in Bb. I've seen one historic baritone pitch instrument that had three sets of main slides, for A, Bb, and C. It's fairly common with 19th century cornets, which often come with a set of crooks and slides for the three keys, but I've only seen one for a tenor/baritone/bass horn.

    It seems like quite a few 19th century and early 20th century instruments were available in C-pitch. Since players were used to playing in transposed treble clef notation, they made it fairly easy for players to play with instruments like the piano and to read church music from hymnals and the like. I had an Albert system clarinet in C for a while, but peddled it for lack of any reason to play it. You can still buy C clarinets from some makers, and the C-Melody saxophone and C-pitch soprano saxes were also really common for a while. C trumpets are still around, too, along with the CC tubas.

    Anyhow, if this euphonium is being made by one of the better Chinese makers, we might eventually see them here as stencils.

    So many horns; so little money.
    Last edited by Garcky; 01-29-2015 at 02:20 PM.
    3-valve Blessing B-350 Euphonium

  6. #6
    these are made by huashen and have been sold by schiller, wessex, and others in the past. They aren't new, they've been around at least four or five years. I think these stencileers all stopped selling them because they just weren't very good. I don't believe they are a copy of the miraphone, alexander, cerveny, etc. because the wrap and proportions are different.

    the reason it is sold as a C instrument is that it was marketed to C tuba players who wanted to double without learning Bb fingerings.

  7. Does anyone know which brand(s) (regardless of $$) of these Bb/C instruments is/are the most reliable in terms of intonation when played in the C configuration? Any idea or experience with how one might blend with conventional Bb compensating euphoniums in an ensemble setting?
    Bob Tampa FL USA
    Euph -- 1984 B&H Round Stamp Sovereign 967 / 1978 Besson NS 767 / Early 90s Sterling MP: 4AL and GW Carbonaria
    Tuba -- 2014 Wisemann 900 CC / 2013 Mack 410 MP: Blokepiece Symphony American Shank and 33.2 #2 Rim

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by bbocaner View Post
    these are made by huashen and have been sold by schiller, wessex, and others in the past. They aren't new, they've been around at least four or five years. I think these stencileers all stopped selling them because they just weren't very good. I don't believe they are a copy of the miraphone, alexander, cerveny, etc. because the wrap and proportions are different.

    the reason it is sold as a C instrument is that it was marketed to C tuba players who wanted to double without learning Bb fingerings.
    Thanks. That's exactly the information I was looking for!
    3-valve Blessing B-350 Euphonium

  9. Quote Originally Posted by davewerden View Post
    No idea who they copy, but there have been rotary-valve euphonium around for a long time, especially from European makers. From Chinese sources, I've seen a few of the oval versions; not so many of the straight ones.

    A C/Bb slide is interesting. One might assume the valve slides are primarily tuned to C. Then with the Bb slide you'd pull each one a little bit.
    WRONG.

    I bought one of these from a fairly reputable music retailer which would want me to mention its name -- back in July of 2014.

    If this testimonial is written effectively, the fewer words used, the more likely those who read them will be convinced never to go near anything built by its manufacturer. So I'll use the "Bullet-Point" for the sake of brevity.

    - A very nice looking horn -- light, compact and a free-blowing responsive sound.

    - Absolutely horrendous intonation; even the primary 3-valve system had intolerable intonation.
    The 4th valve section: unacceptably sharp-- even with the 4th valve tuning slide pulled considerably.
    - Ergonomically very uncomfortable; after playing this instrment for only a few minutes, my right wrist and shoulder became intolerably sore
    because of the awkward position of the valve levers combined with the compactness of its design.
    - The alternate 'C' Crook provided was a ludicrously laughable faux pas. No indication (much less inclusion)
    of any means or method (nor instructions) for extending any of the valve tubing to compensate for alternating
    between what would have been a 'C' Euphonium and its 'Bb' sibling.

    Sorry, but I would be remiss in failing to underscore the inferiority of this, this... thing.
    (Does the so-called "German [Schiller] designer" know how horribly out-of-tune this horn was made?
    Doesn't anyone from Schiller try out their product before it's packed and shipped? This isn't even a good beginning student horn!)

    HOLY HELICON!!!

    This piece o' plumbing made my Couesnon's intonation, response and consistency sound as though it were a Besson, Boosey&Hawkes, Hirsbrunner, Meinl Weston, Miraphone, Willson or Yamaha. This abortion is among the last euphoniums anyone should consider playing, let alone buying... by far the worst (or perhaps I might say, WURST) instrument I've ever put up to my face.
    Fortunately, I was able to get a full refund from the place where I bought this brass commode. But not until my Discover Card 'Disputes Department' people put the screws on the vender.

    ((As a ridiculous-but-true anecdote/epilog to this caper, get this: When I talked to the owner of the retailer from which I'd purchased this crap-receptacle, his predictable tout was, "We just sold a whole bunch of these to the Eastman School of Music... Maybe it was just the particular horn you bought..." and, "Refund? Uh, well these things have to go through channels". Yeah: sewage conduits -- the Schiller Euphonium, that is!))

    GvK

  10. #10
    WARNING: this looks like a "tenor tuba" Chinese clone. I bought one of these thinking that it'd be the best of both worlds... use the C slide when I was playing non-transposed music, and switch to Bb when playing music written for treble clef Bb instruments. Intonation was absolutely terrible... not usable at all in "C" mode and clunky in Bb as well. So bad that the company initially selling these horns stopped carrying them.

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