ADAMS
ALEXANDER
ANTIQUE / NOT MADE NOW
BESSON/BOOSEY
CHINESE CLONE / STENCIL NOT WESSEX
CONN
COURTOIS
HIRSBRUNNER
MIRAPHONE
MEINL WESTON
STERLING
WESSEX
WILLSON
YAMAHA
JOHN PACKER OR JP STERLING:
KING:
CERVENY
KANSTUL
GENEVA
JUPITER / XO
B & S
OTHER
YORK
Ok my main horn of favour at the moment is a York Eminence......I think that's a main contender still, very popular in the UK still and getting harder to find. Sorry Dave!
Current Euphs:
York Eminence
Boosey & Hawkes Sovereign (Round Stamp/ Globe)
Boosey & Hawkes Imperial
Plus an attic of old classics in various states of repair!
Previous Euphs:
Besson Prestige (German)
Geneva Symphony
Wilson 2900 with Eminence leadpipe
Sterling Virtuoso (300 mm heavy red brass bell)
Cortios 167 II
'Gob Iron': Doug Elliott Euph 104 I 9s (plus a few others!)
Dave Werden (ASCAP)
Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
Adams Artist (Adams E3)
Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
YouTube: dwerden
Facebook: davewerden
Twitter: davewerden
Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium
Dave... thanks for adding York
BooBoo..... I used to know a Booboo that played in the NY (That's North Yorkshire......a small minority seem to think it stands for New York!) county wind band in the eighties..... I'm guessing it wasn't you?
anyway comparison in a nut shell:
roundstamp: owned from new and some slight improvements, still my favourite sound and across the board, but you have to be playing it all the time to be used to lipping it... intonation way out....but when your used to it its fab. Only reason i dont use it anymore is that I dont want to wear the valves anymore..... however I have recently aquired a few sets of over sized besson valves that I may get around to lapping in for it.
German Prestige: Generally a little easier to play than the Emminence and a lot easier than the Roundstamp, Upper reg sings out / easier and surprisingly the pedal register is bigger sounding, where it lets itself down is the middle reg on the treble clef stave is a little bright/ small sounding for me... especially for slow melodies and supporting Brass Band stuff. Also at extreme volume it gets harsh a bit soon for me/ breaks up. Having said this its probably the best alrounder for me at the moment.
Emminence: this is my go to euph at the moment because it has a large dark sound, takes lots of air without breaking up so its got bags of volume and projection. Because it is so dark I put the more focused Doug Elliott 8 shank on my MP to focus it a little. The Prestige needs the larger sounding 9s shank to darken it but it still isn't quite there for me. Interestingly because of this shank change on the MP to put the two Euphs closer to my sound... the off shoot is that the upper reg playing levels out! Intonation and valves are similar, valves are grand and intonation is sharp in the usual places but not completely all over the place like the roundstamp! The downside of the dark sound of course is that fast stuff has to be very precise so it doesn't get muddy.
My favourite instrument so far for a big singing roundstamp sound was the Geneva......but the early version I had was let down by its valves.....some thing that has now been improved.
Ill get round to doing a comparison post update of my euph journey in the near future....
All the Best
Dave
Last edited by ydave; 07-02-2017 at 09:01 PM.
Current Euphs:
York Eminence
Boosey & Hawkes Sovereign (Round Stamp/ Globe)
Boosey & Hawkes Imperial
Plus an attic of old classics in various states of repair!
Previous Euphs:
Besson Prestige (German)
Geneva Symphony
Wilson 2900 with Eminence leadpipe
Sterling Virtuoso (300 mm heavy red brass bell)
Cortios 167 II
'Gob Iron': Doug Elliott Euph 104 I 9s (plus a few others!)
Thanks for taking the time to post that Dave. Not your NY booboo I'm afraid!
I find my experience of the round stamp and German besson very much the same as yours which makes me regret never having tried the York. I suppose it's sad that ultimately there was perhaps not enough room in the market for both to exist for longer. The competition may have kept besson on its toes and enhanced consumer choice. Hopefully Adams will manage this.
Still no Alex, Courtois, or Jupiter.
Where are you guys?
DDG
Bumpity-bump.
Enter your horn(s)!
I entered other as my primary axe, and Olds, was not listed.
- Scott
Euphoniums: Dillon 967, Monzani MZEP-1150S, Dillon 1067 (kid’s horn)
Bass Trombones: Greenhoe GB5-3G, Getzen 1052FDR, JP232
King Jiggs P-bone
This is really interesting to follow. Thanks for doing this poll.
I remember back 20-25 years ago when i was in college, seemingly everybody played a Willson 2900....and if they didnt, they wanted to.
I'm glad that there seems to be more choice in the market now and that there is a wide price range of horns to choose from.