Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 13

Thread: Unknown Euphonium Brand

  1. #1

    Unknown Euphonium Brand

    Hello Everyone

    Hopefully this is the right place to start this thread. I am new to this Forum as I am about to buy my first euphonium.
    So I was looking around in the web and found an used Euphonium - a compensating one. The seller named the brand "Sterling" and he told me it was made in England.

    On the photos in the internet the engraving on the bell was not really recognizable. But I was shure it looked not like JP, or at least not like a new one.
    I asked the seller to take a close up photography of the engraving, which I'd like you to show (unfortunately he has a very bad camera - I think he is an elderly man ).

    The typography of "Sterling" looks like the one from very cheap ones. (google for sterling euphonium and look for a black logo with a lion)

    Can anybody tell me something about this brand on the photo? I would be very pleased to get some further information.

    Greetings and thanks in advance
    Paleo
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 20180612_083501.jpg  

  2. #2
    Welcome to the forum!

    First, see if you can get the seller to get a clear photo of the valve buttons (that your fingertips contact). Early Sterlings had a unique shape that was hexagonal or octagonal.

    Here is the earliest brochure I have from Sterling, probably around 1990:

    http://www.dwerden.com/Special/Sterl...ngBrochure.pdf

    The text of the logo looks similar, but there is not lion shown.
    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

  3. #3
    Thanks for the fast reply.

    Well the valve buttons are round, and the font of the Sterling-logo seen in your brochure is quite different.
    The font seen on my picture looks more like the one you can find in the following Link to eBay.

    https://www.ebay.ch/itm/381041178137...203&rmvSB=true

    I hope that the instrument I'm looking at is not such a chinese one.

  4. #4
    Ah, that photo helps. It's a pretty sure thing that the horn in the photo is Chinese. Notice the 4th valve coming in between the large tube and 3rd valve slides. Sterling has never done that, as far as I know. I've only seen Chinese horns with that design.

    AND the horn pictured is NOT compensating.
    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

  5. #5
    Uh, I think I made some confusion in my last post, I'm very sorry for that.

    The one I linked is not the one I want to buy! It just has a very similar Sterling-logo.

    I'll attach the photos of the one I'd like to buy.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 1958556748.jpg   1960836576.jpg   1975603386.jpg  

  6. #6
    I hope Doug checks in for this one. He might have better recognition skills for a Sterling.

    However, I'm 95% sure this is a Chinese horn, so the quality would be unknown unless someone has had experience with this "Sterling" brand.
    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

  7. #7
    I have a vague recollection of Sterling UK-made instruments having a logo like that in the early 1990s, when Steven Mead was an endorser. I wouldn't write it off as Chinese so quickly as it doesn't have any of those hallmarks. Plus, the engraving does seem to say "made in Great Britain"

    Perhaps send Paul Riggett a query about it?
    --
    Barry

  8. The pictures of the compensating horn do not look like a Sterling made by Paul Riggett.

    Issues:
    1. The tubing ends on the slides have reinforcing rings. Sterling Musical Instruments does not do this.
    2. The valve section is not Bauerfeind.
    3. This is a lacquer horn. Almost all Sterling Musical Instruments instruments are silver plated.
    Adams E3 0.60 Sterling bell - Prototype top sprung valves
    Concord Band
    Winchendon Winds
    Townsend Military Band

  9. #9
    Thanks for all your replys and evaluations. I do now have some further Information:
    It was bought in 2001 and it was then priced around 3.500 - 4000 $. The owner turns 70 this year and I think I can trust him.

    Now I try to contact sterling. Maybe they can tell me something. I'll keep you up-to-date.

  10. #10
    My bet is it being a very early production Paul Rigget UK-made Sterling. The reinforcing rings Doug mentioned are present on a lot of the older Sterlings you see although Doug is right they aren't there today. Doug's right that it doesn't look like a Bauerfind valve section (I don't think the compensating loop connection between the first and second valves is the right shape) however the pictures aren't great and they may have also had a different design or a different source for valve sections way back when. The valve buttons and caps aren't the same either, but those could have been changed or they could have had a different design in the early days? There are some details that do scream Sterling, though. The most obvious to me is the shape of the 1st and 3rd valve tuning slides -- it has that elongated shape that you see on Sterling euphoniums and NOT on JP Sterling, any of the Jin-Bao instruments, or any of the other Chinese makers.
    --
    Barry

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •