Introducing a new Euphonium to the market the ACB Doubler's Euphonium

[AustinCustomBrass]

Hey everyone!

I do hope everyone is safe and well. I wanted to let you all know about a new offering we have been working on here at ACB for a bit over one year now. We are pleased to expand our super popular Doubler's line of instruments with the newest offering the ACB Doubler's Euphonium! If you are not familiar we have been selling our Doubler's flugelhorns and high brass instruments for about 10 years. I am a trumpeter (I'm sorry! ;-) so I started with the high brass line. A few of you might know me from the big trade shows working with Adams as I was the first US dealer for their brass. While I love the Adams line (that's what I play of course) I also know not everyone can afford them.

The Doubler name is meant to for our series of horn that are a high quality and consistent and designed to be at a price point for people who need a professional horn but do not play one regularly enough to justify an investment of the sort you’d need for many of the pro quality horns on the market. This series gives people the opportunity to “double” on another horn without breaking the bank and without sacrificing quality.

Our Euphoniums are professional quality instruments. We go through each one and optimize each instrument prior to shipping to the customer. That includes a precision valve alignment, leadpipe adjustment, deburring of slides, deep clean and valve optimization (including oil lapping), and other proprietary adjustments we have been doing to our high brass line for years.


Here's the listing of the Euphoniums on our site with some introductory pricing. Videos of the instrument will be up shortly but feel free to ask any question you might have!

https://www.austincustombrass.biz/au...l-new-in-2020/

Best regards,

Trent

[Beef]

How is the thickness of the brass? Is it thin like Wessex or much thicker like John Packer? Another question would be are you using stainless steel or monel valves? Is this more of a Besson copy, Yamaha copy, or somewhere in between?

[AustinCustomBrass]

How is the thickness of the brass? Is it thin like Wessex or much thicker like John Packer? Another question would be are you using stainless steel or monel valves? Is this more of a Besson copy, Yamaha copy, or somewhere in between?

Great questions! Thickness is in between the Wessex and Packer but a bit thicker like the 374. Stainless valves and it's definitely inspired by the Besson.

We have a video launching in an hour with my assistant playing on the instrument. Here's the YT link:

https://youtu.be/xd-7XVDmWVA

More videos coming this weekend after Dr. White has more opportunities to practice on the new euphonium.

Best regards,
Trent

[spkissane]

As a slight aside, I'd like to add a post here just to sing the praises of Austin Custom Brass's world-class customer service. The transactions I've had with them over the past year have been great, and they helped me locate and procure the horn I fell in love with even though it had made its way back overseas in the time it took me to make my mind up to buy it. Very communicative, very easy to work with, and very obviously passionate about brass instruments.

[davewerden]

Trent,
Thanks for the info! I think I understand most of it, but what is (sometimes?) needed for "leadpipe adjustment?" (Everything else you mention strikes me as being in the "mechanical" category, so those things are easy to envision.)

[Beef]

Great answers! Here are a couple more questions.
So the horn is yellow brass all throughout, including the lead pipe too?

You have also said that this is a more Besson inspired horn, do you know by chance what model this is inspired by and what changes you have made to make the horn still different aside from the price?

Are the valve guides nylon or plastic?

How many microns thick is the silver plating? Is it on the thicker side or more reminiscent of yamaha horns?

Why .580 for the bore?

And finally, are replacement parts going to be easy to find?

[Sara Hood]

More questions - Where are these horns built? Where were they designed? The case in the video is very similar to what many JinBao produced horns are coming with. Are these horns made by the JINBAO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS factory in Tianjin?

- Sara Hood

[AustinCustomBrass]

More questions - Where are these horns built? Where were they designed? The case in the video is very similar to what many JinBao produced horns are coming with. Are these horns made by the JINBAO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS factory in Tianjin?

- Sara Hood

This instrument is not Jinbao. While they are good factory we do have a few factories in China who make instruments for our doubler line and produce much better results for us. We also have factories in Taiwan and Adams who do other OEM projects for us. We used them on our first generation of flugelhorns from 2011-13 but were not pleased with the overall durability of the instrument's replaceable parts like springs, corks, valve guides, etc. The Metal was also a bit too thick for us.

I'll get to the other questions shortly but wanted to answer that one off the top!

Regards,
Trent

[AustinCustomBrass]

Trent,
Thanks for the info! I think I understand most of it, but what is (sometimes?) needed for "leadpipe adjustment?" (Everything else you mention strikes me as being in the "mechanical" category, so those things are easy to envision.)

Hey Dave! Thank you for replying. We make sure the leadpipe's gap and venturi settings are to our optimum specs. You won't be shocked to hear this is an easy thing for a lot of companies to have QC issues with.

-T

[Shawn]

Are there going to be bell options down the road?

[AustinCustomBrass]

Great answers! Here are a couple more questions.
So the horn is yellow brass all throughout, including the lead pipe too?

You have also said that this is a more Besson inspired horn, do you know by chance what model this is inspired by and what changes you have made to make the horn still different aside from the price?
Are the valve guides nylon or plastic?

How many microns thick is the silver plating? Is it on the thicker side or more reminiscent of yamaha horns?

Why .580 for the bore?

And finally, are replacement parts going to be easy to find?

Again thanks for your great questions! Pardon the randomness of my replies!

The horn's outer slides are nickel trim to add a bit more definition to the attack. We tried nickel silver mouthpiece receivers but did not like the results.


The mouthpipe is primarily composed of yellow brass but has 5% more copper content to help with any potential wear issues. We didn't the acoustic result with anything over that in terms of the additional copper % in the pipe.


We chose this bore as it is a bit smaller than the standard compensating euph as we knew the primary market for these instruments will be either students getting their first euphonium, moving from their small shank baritone, or trombonists looking for an affordable option to double (hence our doubler name). We hope that makes it an easier transition.
We are still considering doing something similar to the Yamaha 321 but I don't really see it in terms of the overall concept of what our doubler line is. In feel it's closest to a 967 with YB bell. Of course it's not going to have the refinement in the sound like an Adams, Besson, etc (we do sell both of those brands at the shop of course). With the bore we do the same on our high brass instruments with good success so our first factory order will be this bore. We can always change it in the future after some time on the marketplace and reviews.

The guides are plastic but I'm working on a metal option in the future although it's much louder in terms of the action and less smooth overall in the feel as well.



I've never been asked about the plating thickness so I'll ask the factory. It's robust on our high brass but I do not know the exact thickness.


Best,
T

[AustinCustomBrass]

Are there going to be bell options down the road?

Most likely no as we have gone that route already on our high brass with not much success. It could happen as there's far less options than all of the high brass products at the moment but right now we're refining our Bass Trombone and .547 tenor options (we wanted to get the euphonium done before focusing on the Doubler trombone line).

[AustinCustomBrass]

As a slight aside, I'd like to add a post here just to sing the praises of Austin Custom Brass's world-class customer service. The transactions I've had with them over the past year have been great, and they helped me locate and procure the horn I fell in love with even though it had made its way back overseas in the time it took me to make my mind up to buy it. Very communicative, very easy to work with, and very obviously passionate about brass instruments.

Sean,

Thank you for chiming in! We appreciate you! My staff is absolutely amazing and we work very hard to make sure everyone knows we are here for you. It's a huge passion of mine to ensure folks know that we are not a big-box store. Each call, email, and message are of paramount importance. We are finally dipping our toes into the low-brass world much more seriously than before. Most brass folks know our shop as being a trumpet specialty store but I am so thankful for these new opportunities to serve all of my brass family.

Best,
T

[AustinCustomBrass]

Here's a video from Dr. Chris White comparing his current Euphonium to the Doubler. What are your thoughts in regards to this video?

Thanks for watching!
-T

[Shawn]

The 321 for me, and it's not especially close.
Yours is less expensive--a better comp might be the entry level Yamaha.

The 3+1 will attract some people