Wessex New Chicago Showroom open to visit

[Jonathantuba]

Steve Marcus playing a Wessex “Prokofiev” in the new Wessex Showroom in Roselle, a western suburb of Chicago. It’s close to several major highways with no need to drive through the City of Chicago. It’s a short drive from the terminals at O’Hare. If you are coming from the Loop, the Milwaukee West METRA train brings you from Union Station to Roselle Station—just a few steps from the Showroom.

We’ve arranged a special corporate rate for Wessex guests at the full-featured Holiday Inn Chicago-West (Itasca), which is 5 minutes from the Showroom via their free shuttle or your car. There are also some fine restaurants in the immediate area.

Hours at the Wessex Showroom are by appointment only to avoid the “elephant room syndrome,” to assure that the model(s) that you wish to test-play are on display, and to offer privacy while you enjoy the Wessex instruments.

To schedule an appointment, please call (616) 843-6888 or email SteveM@Wessex-Tubas.com.

The aesthetics and acoustics at the new Wessex Showroom are attractive and inviting. Come and visit us for an enjoyable musical experience.

[bbocaner]

Hey Jonathan - congrats on the new showroom. Two years ago you said you'd get me the next time you went to the factory new silver-plated top valve caps for my Wyvern tuba in order to to correct the design flaw that the holes for the stems to go through were made too small. I've seen you've been there multiple times and I've gently reminded you several times but I still don't have them. I congratulate you on making some excellent instruments and with all the success you've been having, but can you please take care of following up on this? Thank you.

[Jonathantuba]

Hey Jonathan - congrats on the new showroom. Two years ago you said you'd get me the next time you went to the factory new silver-plated top valve caps for my Wyvern tuba in order to to correct the design flaw that the holes for the stems to go through were made too small. I've seen you've been there multiple times and I've gently reminded you several times but I still don't have them. I congratulate you on making some excellent instruments and with all the success you've been having, but can you please take care of following up on this? Thank you.

Barry, I thought that had long since happened. Wessex now has a team of people, and I don’t generally get involved with the small details so much myself now. Chuck Nickles is handling parts supply. I will copy this message to him, so he can either send you the parts if he has, or collect on next factory visit in April.

[Jonathantuba]

Just spoken with Chuck. The valve caps will be in the mail tomorrow

[bbocaner]

Thank you!

[DaveBj]

Congratulations on the new facility, Jonathan.

[aroberts781]

I was fortunate enough to visit the new Wessex showroom earlier this week and I wanted to share what a great experience it was. First of all, huge thanks to Steve Marcus. He was a wonderful host and I very much enjoyed talking about the different horns with him. He encouraged me to bring my own horn for comparison, and I was very interested to see how the Wessex Dolce played in comparison to my Schiller that I've played on for the last 5 years. Steve pulled out Dolces in silver plate and in silver plate with the gold valve accents. They both played and sounded great, it was interesting to see how two horns of the same model can have subtle differences between them.

One pleasant surprise was how much I enjoyed the Festivo. Steve had one in lacquer and one in silver plate for me to try. I only played the one in lacquer. I went in thinking I would play it just since I was there, but I kind of assumed it would be just like the Dolce with valves on the front. It really does play like a completely different horn (which it is, silly me, ha). To me it had very good clarity (i.e. slurs worked well, tonguing was clear), the low range had a lot of punch, slotting seemed easy (i.e. it felt like my intervals were somewhat easier to hit, arpeggios, 6ths, 7ths, octaves), the valves felt really good.

The showroom had nice acoustics and the big mirror was nice for watching for ergonomics of the horn, and from a vanity standpoint it is nice to see yourself holding shiny new instruments! I spent almost an hour and half there, most of which was spent on the Dolce, Festivo, and my Schiller. However I also played the Kaiser baritone and dabbled on a couple tubas (the 4-valve BBb Dragon and the 3+1 compensated Eb Champion). It was very interesting to feel the differences in the Eb and BBb tubas. I brought the only tuba mouthpiece I own, a Kellyberg, and Steve was kind enough to let me try the tubas with a couple of his mouthpieces as well. The both looked and played great, although I prefered the BBb over Eb.

In our conversations, Steve mentioned that they may be hosting masterclasses and such in the future, which would be wonderful.

If anyone is considering visiting the showroom I highly recommend it.

[guidocorona]

Thank you so much for the excellent report ARoberts....

Could you contrast the tone and playing characteristics of Dolce, Festivo, and your Schiller?

I have Festivo, which is the only euphonium I ever played, and admittedly, I love it!

Guido

[Himura]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6771[/ATTACH]

Steve Marcus playing a Wessex “Prokofiev” in the new Wessex Showroom in Roselle, a western suburb of Chicago. It’s close to several major highways with no need to drive through the City of Chicago. It’s a short drive from the terminals at O’Hare. If you are coming from the Loop, the Milwaukee West METRA train brings you from Union Station to Roselle Station—just a few steps from the Showroom.

We’ve arranged a special corporate rate for Wessex guests at the full-featured Holiday Inn Chicago-West (Itasca), which is 5 minutes from the Showroom via their free shuttle or your car. There are also some fine restaurants in the immediate area.

Hours at the Wessex Showroom are by appointment only to avoid the “elephant room syndrome,” to assure that the model(s) that you wish to test-play are on display, and to offer privacy while you enjoy the Wessex instruments.

To schedule an appointment, please call (616) 843-6888 or email SteveM@Wessex-Tubas.com.

The aesthetics and acoustics at the new Wessex Showroom are attractive and inviting. Come and visit us for an enjoyable musical experience.

You're not too far from the 390 Tollway, it looks. I might have to seriously consider making an appointment (but not taking the overpriced toll road to get there) for when I'm hiking up to Rosemont for Anime Central in May. My only concern would be that I'd spend so much time test driving euphoniums that I'd skip the convention!

Also, from the small world department -- Steve might know my high school band director......

[aroberts781]

Thank you so much for the excellent report ARoberts....

Could you contrast the tone and playing characteristics of Dolce, Festivo, and your Schiller?

I have Festivo, which is the only euphonium I ever played, and admittedly, I love it!

Guido

I am by no means an expert, either in playing the euphonium or describing them, but I'll do my best to answer some of your questions. In terms of sound and playability the Festivo was distinctly different from either of the Dolces I played and my Schiller. Considering it is such a different instrument, I guess that could be expected. Intervals felt easier than the Dolce or Schiller for me. For instance when I played slurred passages that were very scale-based, like some of the Bach cello suites I had brought to play, the transition between notes within a line felt very clean. I also felt like some of the intervals in the Bordogni etudes I was playing seemed easier for me to not crack than on the Dolce or the Schiller. I think that's what people call slotting. It's at least what I call slotting.

The sound on the Festivo seemed really clear, perhaps it had more focus. I suspect some of that has to do with the different wrap on the Festivo vs the Dolce or the Schiller, as well as the difference in bell size (11" on Festivo vs 12" on Dolce, the Schiller is I think less than 12" but closer to 12" than 11"). I wasn't aware of the difference in bell size at the time so I wasn't really focusing on that while I played.

The differences between the Dolce and my Schiller were a little more subtle to my ears. You could tell they were based on the same type of horn, although obviously the Dolce has had design changes. My first impressions after warming up on the Schiller and then playing the Dolce was that the Dolce had a somewhat bigger sound, and the blow felt different, I think I would say it felt a bit more open. One thing that I did notice playing somewhat high notes, like a high Ab (bass clef), was a somewhat more sizzly sound. I had the impression that if I pushed on that note a bit I got a sort of color that I don't recall hearing when I play the Schiller. Worth noting that my horn is lacquer and I was playing silver-plated Dolces, so not sure how much effect that has.

I also thought there were subtle differences between the two Dolces I played, which I guess it is true no two horns are exactly alike. The one I played the most on was very nice, and then I played around a bit on one that was silver-plated with gold accents (I think just the valve caps). The second one sounded to me a bit clearer. I asked Steve about it and his opinion was that my sound was slightly more focused with more core to the note on the second Dolce, although as with a lot of these types of comparisons it was subtle.

All in all I would say the Festivo plays and sounds like a totally different horn, which it is, and it was a lot of fun to play. I really liked the Dolce, and to my ears there were some subtle differences in sound compared to my Schiller. One of the things I was really interested in was whether or not flexibility and intervals would feel any different to me on the Schiller vs the Dolce, and I would say that to me those sorts of "playability" differences were less noticeable than the sound differences.

Again, I'm no expert and I very much enjoyed the experience.

[guidocorona]

Thank you so much Aroberts for your insight on the three horns... Will you be upgrading to a Wessex?

Regards, Guido

[aroberts781]

Good question, Guido!

Without rambling, the simple answer is I don't know, haha.

And now to ramble, after playing the Dolce back to back with my Schiller, I do think the Dolce offers some things in terms of tone that my Schiller might lack. However some of the things that I hoped to be magically cured by the Dolce were still issues for me, specifically flexibility and slotting. So I guess to fix those I'll just have to practice!

The other complicating factor for was how much I enjoyed playing the Festivo. Of course the Festivo is a bit more expensive, so that muddies the equation for me. And from talking to Steve at the showroom the handmade EP-600 might be out later in 2019, so maybe I just save even more for that one. (You can see where the spiral is heading!)

For now I will keep playing my horn and weighing my financial priorities.

[guidocorona]

Hello ARoberts, looks like you might have developed a minor case of Euphophilia Gravis... Often this syndrome has complications, leading to attacks of Euphophrenia Furiosa with episodes of Upgraditis Brassica *Grins!*

More seriously, I heard a while ago that an EP600 prototype might be shown at the upcoming ITEC conference in Iowa City... I for one am looking forward to playtesting it.

Saluti, Guido

[aroberts781]

Hello ARoberts, looks like you might have developed a minor case of Euphophilia Gravis... Often this syndrome has complications, leading to attacks of Euphophrenia Furiosa with episodes of Upgraditis Brassica *Grins!*

The only prescription, is more cowbell! (and more practice)

[lzajmom]

The only prescription, is more cowbell!

Oooh boy.