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So I know everyone's talking about the new Shires euphoniums this week, which have debuted at ITEC, but another one that had a much quieter introduction was the new compensator from B.A.C. out of Kansas City - a maker of some pretty ostentatious custom trombones and trumpets. I had heard a few weeks ago (I think) that B.A.C. had purchased tooling from the now-seemingly-deceased Kanstul factory. A rep had their brand new prototype euphonium in the large vendor room for the first few days of the conference.
As our friend Snorlax can confirm, I was extremely impressed with this horn. I played it three times over a couple days - once side-by-side with my Geneva Cardinal. Very easy response in all the registers, good note slotting, and the sound, to me, felt like a more "focused" version of the Besson sound, which I quite liked. I would've loved to get it in a practice room for a couple hours and REALLY test it, especially for intonation.
It looks like the horn is *probably* based off a Besson design? It's got the "kink" in the main tube where it approaches the tuning slide, that I have only seen in Besson and Geneva horns.
Everyone's different, obviously, but to me, this was one of two favorite horns that I tried at the conference. (The other being a particular Adams E1, but for a completely different reason.)
Anyone else get to try it out? Thoughts?
PS - The guy informed me that the pre-order price until June 1 is only $3995, which is confirmed on the B.A.C. Facebook page, and the price will go up to the $5000+ range once production starts. Looks like they might be really pushing to get those first few horns out into the community. And if the production models are at LEAST as good as the prototype, it's certainly worth every penny.
As our friend Snorlax can confirm, I was extremely impressed with this horn. I played it three times over a couple days - once side-by-side with my Geneva Cardinal. Very easy response in all the registers, good note slotting, and the sound, to me, felt like a more "focused" version of the Besson sound, which I quite liked. I would've loved to get it in a practice room for a couple hours and REALLY test it, especially for intonation.
It looks like the horn is *probably* based off a Besson design? It's got the "kink" in the main tube where it approaches the tuning slide, that I have only seen in Besson and Geneva horns.
Everyone's different, obviously, but to me, this was one of two favorite horns that I tried at the conference. (The other being a particular Adams E1, but for a completely different reason.)
Anyone else get to try it out? Thoughts?
PS - The guy informed me that the pre-order price until June 1 is only $3995, which is confirmed on the B.A.C. Facebook page, and the price will go up to the $5000+ range once production starts. Looks like they might be really pushing to get those first few horns out into the community. And if the production models are at LEAST as good as the prototype, it's certainly worth every penny.
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