Hi Folks - on another thread, I revealed about my newest acquisition, the 2017 Schiller Elite in lacquer. Last year I had a Wessex and a Yamaha Neo that I sold for non-musical personal reasons. I kept the Olds Ambassador that I picked up a couple of years ago that Dave alerted the list to on ebay. For 98% of what I do these days, amateur community band playing, my Olds is plenty good enough to get the job done. Unless I was alone, I doubt anyone would notice whether I had a bigger compensating horn or not. For solos and especially for the Bach cello suites that I love, the Ambassador just can't get it done there. I've written about how I played a student's 2017 base model Schiller and how amazed I was at how this seemed to indicate that all of the Chinese manufacturers (not just Wessex) have raised the bar since I first picked up an early Schiller in 2009. That was 4 months ago, and two weeks ago I pulled the trigger on one of the ebay offerings. It arrived this past Monday, and I've been playing it for nearly a week.
I think it is a very good horn, regardless of the price. As I mentioned previously, Schiller addressed all of the old mechanical issues I had with the 2009 model. Gone are the clanky valves, cheap thin metal valve caps, and crude lacquer finish...all nicely addressed here. Unlike every Chinese horn I've ever owned (yes Wessex, that includes you too), I haven't felt the need to switch out the springs at all nor do I intend to at this point. The lacquer finish is very good...I've seen better on some Yamaha and Shires trombones and Besson lacquer euphs I've seen on display, but those are premium instruments. The finish is far far better than the 2009 offering. The tone appears to have slightly more heft and color compared to the 2009 model, based on my memory, but that might be due to differences in mouthpieces...as you can see the best two I've found so far are the SM3 and my Doug Elliott 104/J/J9...the Wick may be a touch more colorful and the Doug Elliott is slightly easier to play.
This will obviously bring up a question about how does it compare to the Wessex. I wish I had the silver Dolce I had to compare against this, but I don't. My impression in terms of overall playability is that they are nearly identical. Once I switched out the stock Wessex valve springs with Yamaha coated springs (that I didn't have to do with the Schiller), I'd give a slight edge to the Wessex when it came to valve action, as they include Besson style valve dampers which does make a slight difference. The Wessex has the wider valve buttons whereas the Schiller has the Yamaha 642 style buttons. I slightly preferred the Wessex buttons. In terms of tone, the Wessex seemed to be a Besson-Yamaha hybrid whereas the Schiller is all Yamaha 642 (old style)...they were very close though. I'm sure the floating leadpipe that Wessex includes might contribute to this. All in all, I couldn't be more pleased with the new Schiller, especially considering the cost. I think Jonathan and Wessex deserve alot of credit for raising the bar across the board for all of these instruments. I wonder whether this more budget friendly axe would play as well as it does were it not for their involvement. I still say individuals who will be purchasing a horn like this as their primary euphonium should pay the extra money for the Wessex. Piece of mind with their quality control and the upgrades they provide are worth it for those cases IMHO. If you are just needing a secondary instrument, back up horn, practice horn, etc, IMHO, I can't justify spending the extra money on the Wessex. Again, these are my opinions here, and I'm just an amateur.