Hi there,
I played euphonium throughout middle/high school, and in my college concert band. It was something I enjoyed a lot, but I never owned my own horn because I couldn't afford one. As a result, I haven't played for several years, but I have been wanting to get back to it.
Now that I'm an adult with a job and some money saved up, I recently decided to join a community band, and have been looking around for a horn to buy for the past month or so. At the advice of my former music teachers, I am hesitant to order anything online without being able to try it first, so instead I've been visiting every Denver-area music shop looking for used horns, and scouring the local craigslist postings.
I have it narrowed down to a couple options, all of which I think sound fine, and will work for my purposes (non-professional, but a bit beyond beginning player). At this point, I would love some advice from people who know more euphonium/baritone makes and models, to see if there are any specific pros & cons to the following models, all of which are comparably priced and within my budget:
Jupiter CEB-460
Jupiter JBR 462 U
Jupiter JUR 402 (this one is $200 cheaper than the others)
Gerzen 570 (this was my favorite of all the horns I've tried out in terms of sound, so I've been renting this one to practice on/play in the community band while I continue looking for one to buy).
Thanks for any advice anyone has on how to decide between these options--or if I should just keep holding out for a diamond in the rough to show up on the local craigslist.
Joel