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Thread: amazing ophicleide!

  1. #1

    amazing ophicleide!

    just discovered this video - this guy is amazing given the reputation of the ophicleide

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKwd_8ts9Zc

  2. #2
    Patrick Wibart is one of the best! Nick Byrne is the other really amazing player that I like. It is a very beautiful instrument. Nick's CD, in particular, I think is a great example of some of the very best brass playing OF ANY INSTRUMENT that I own.



    I think the bad reputation is because of two things:

    1. so many crappy players who would sound bad no matter what they are playing have been interested in the instrument.

    It tends to attract a certain type of person who often is more an instrument collector and hobbyist than a serious performer. Often this is the audience's only exposure to this instrument. We need more Patricks and Nicks out there as ambassadors for the instrument, showing what it can do.

    2. so many of the instruments are in such poor states of repair that they just don't play the way they are intended to. You really need a very special repairman to keep them running properly.

    For instance, the ophicleide I own was sold to me as a "fully restored, playable" example, yet it still took 45 hours (!!) worth of work by my very skilled (and expensive) repairman to make it play the way it's supposed to.

    All of the brand new chinese-made examples I have tried were pretty much unplayable, also. THey would require at least $1000 worth of work to get them to the point where they were usable. I realize there are people who can play pretty well on clapped out pieces of trash, however this instrument has a knife edge between sounding really amazing and lovely and sounding absolutely awful. If the instrument's not working 100%, you tend to drift into the awful category a little more often than is comfortable!!


    By the way, if you think Patrick's ophicleide playing is spectacular, you should hear his unbelievable serpent playing! Audio only on this one, but it's pretty special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eafB4QqziA
    Last edited by bbocaner; 06-22-2015 at 09:01 PM.

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