Buying a Cheaper Professional Grade Horn

[NLumley]

I've been looking at a couple of different horns for myself. I currently play a YEP-321 that belongs to my university and had the luxury of playing a YEP-642II in my high school wind ensemble. I'm looking into getting a horn because I'm a music ed. major and figured I should have my own horn. But I can't drop $6000 on my own 642. I'm looking towards a Schiller Elite V and the Wessex Dolce. Any advice on what to look for?

[davewerden]

Welcome to the forum!

I recommend browsing around the forum, where you can find plenty of discussion about the Schiller and Wessex.

Bottom line: both are fine horns. The general feeling is that these horns approach 70-90% of a pro horn's characteristics. That kind of number doesn't explain a lot, but suffice to say the horns both have a nice tone, decent response and intonation, and blow pretty well. I believe the current runs of these horns will hold up well for years of playing, assuming reasonable care.

In the hands of a known-quantity player, that player will sound very similar to when they play their horn of choice. That would be the 90% part I mentioned. But to the player behind the mouthpiece, I suspect the Chinese horns will FEEL like about 70-80% of what their own horn feel like.

For your purposes, if you are a very good player you would probably notice that these are not quite the equal of the 642II, but they will surely help your sound to be similar. Both will feel nicer than your 321 - at least, that's how I would feel comping the 321 to a Wessex or Schiller.

Of the two brands I would suggest Wessex, because they have put a lot more sweat equity into making their horns better than the other Chinese instruments.

[John Morgan]

I would second the good advice and comments from Dave. I own a very high end horn AND a Wessex Dolce. The Dolce is a very good horn, no "except for" at all. You are not too awful far from Michigan, where Wessex has a store where you could check out their horns in person.

[opus37]

Wessex is an excellent choice for your needs. Since you are in Iowa, if you would consider a used horn, contact Lee Stofer over on the east side of the state. He is a first class repair and restoration tech. He frequently has horns available for sale. He primarily does tubas so he may or may not have a euphonium available. He will give you honest and trustworthy answers. It's worth the call.

[highpitch]

+1 Wessex.

I've played both.

Dennis

[dsurkin]

[snip] I recommend browsing around the forum, where you can find plenty of discussion about the Schiller and Wessex. [snip]

Don't forget Mack Brass. They sell the standard JinBao horn, like I believe Schiller does, but they have received more favorable posts about customer service. My own experience with their after-purchase service has been excellent.