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I received the new Austin Custom Brass (ACB) Doubler's Euphonium today by UPS so that I, and others, can play it and report back all of our observations, likes and dislikes, and overall satisfaction with this euphonium. I will be evaluating the horn for a few days, then will send it off to the next person in the evaluation queue. I will probably make two or three posts during this time.
The euphonium arrived in excellent condition. It was well packed and looks like folks should not be worried about having a horn shipped to them from ACB. There are three finishes available for this euphonium, namely clear lacquer, silver plate, and satin lacquer. The euphonium that I am evaluating has the clear lacquer finish. For pictures of the horn and case, I direct you straight to this page on the ACB website which has many pictures of the horn, including the various finishes:
https://www.austincustombrass.biz/au...l-new-in-2020/
The case is quite functional and nice. It has wheels so that you can roll it, however, with all cases this size with wheels, the wheels are pretty close together so you have to be careful about not tipping it to one side or the other when pulling it using the wheels. But it works nice. The case is well padded on the inside and has room for one mouthpiece and nothing else (now you could put a cloth or rag inside, but there are no compartments). Where you would put your supplies is on the permanently attached pouch on the outside. This would provide enough room for valve oil, grease, toothbrush, and music, although it is not large enough for the actual music folders like those you would use in band or orchestra. Overall the case is attractive, well made and quite nice. It is not compact like a Marcus Bonna case, but rather similar to the more puffy cases coming from manufacturers in the Far East.
I won't review all of the horn's specific characteristics in this post, rather just detail what I did with the horn today. I own three euphoniums, an Adams E3, a Boosey & Hawkes Imperial and a Wessex Dolce. Today I had the Adams, the Dolce and the ACB Doubler (Trent - you need a "name" for this euphonium!) all sitting at the ready in my music room. My plan was to play them all. I used only my everyday mouthpiece on all three horns. The Doubler comes with a mouthpiece with no name, but it looks to be smaller than a Wick 4AL, perhaps close to the size of a Bach 5G, but it didn't matter to me, as I used my regular mouthpiece, which is the Demondrae Thurman Warburton signature model.
I played the Doubler first and my initial impression is positive. It blows nicely. I played it for 20-30 minutes all up and down the horn. I then played the Dolce. Then I played the Doubler. Then I played my Adams. I wanted to get a feel for how this horn plays in relation to these other two which I know pretty well. The Doubler is in the same relative price range as the Dolce (under $2k), and the Adams I own is north of $10K. I will not be doing a comparison review here, I only plan to review the Doubler on its own merits.
One of the ways I evaluate a horn is by playing melodies that I know well. To me, the absolute number one thing I look for in a horn is how the horn sounds, the tone. If a horn does not have a good tone, then NOTHING else matters. So by playing melodies in various ranges, I get a really good understanding of how the horn will sound, not just the horn, but "me" playing the horn. There are two components to sound and tone - the horn and the person behind the horn. So I played many melodies today. And when I would play a melody on the Doubler, I would sometimes play it on one or both of the other horns to help get better definition regarding feel, resonance, singing quality, sonority, fullness, darkness, brightness, etc.
I'll close out this post by saying that the Doubler plays fairly easy and has a nice sound right out of the box. Dave Werden has maintained that new horns usually need a break in period before they really start sounding like they eventually will. I never thought about that much until I read those types of comments from Dave, but I believe that is true. Dave relates how he has a horn he has been playing for a while, then gets a new model from a manufacturer he is an artist with, then has to go through a period where the horn gets broken in to realize the horn's full potential, that it doesn't always sound better than the horn it is replacing right off the bat. I hope I characterized that somewhat correctly. I think this will be true for this horn as well. I think part of the new equation with a horn is also the player getting used to it. I played some pretty melodies today on the Doubler, and it sounded quite nice.
From this point on, I will only be playing on and reporting on the Doubler. More soon.
Scroll on down to see the final part (in two posts) of the review - ready NLT 11/13/2020
The euphonium arrived in excellent condition. It was well packed and looks like folks should not be worried about having a horn shipped to them from ACB. There are three finishes available for this euphonium, namely clear lacquer, silver plate, and satin lacquer. The euphonium that I am evaluating has the clear lacquer finish. For pictures of the horn and case, I direct you straight to this page on the ACB website which has many pictures of the horn, including the various finishes:
https://www.austincustombrass.biz/au...l-new-in-2020/
The case is quite functional and nice. It has wheels so that you can roll it, however, with all cases this size with wheels, the wheels are pretty close together so you have to be careful about not tipping it to one side or the other when pulling it using the wheels. But it works nice. The case is well padded on the inside and has room for one mouthpiece and nothing else (now you could put a cloth or rag inside, but there are no compartments). Where you would put your supplies is on the permanently attached pouch on the outside. This would provide enough room for valve oil, grease, toothbrush, and music, although it is not large enough for the actual music folders like those you would use in band or orchestra. Overall the case is attractive, well made and quite nice. It is not compact like a Marcus Bonna case, but rather similar to the more puffy cases coming from manufacturers in the Far East.
I won't review all of the horn's specific characteristics in this post, rather just detail what I did with the horn today. I own three euphoniums, an Adams E3, a Boosey & Hawkes Imperial and a Wessex Dolce. Today I had the Adams, the Dolce and the ACB Doubler (Trent - you need a "name" for this euphonium!) all sitting at the ready in my music room. My plan was to play them all. I used only my everyday mouthpiece on all three horns. The Doubler comes with a mouthpiece with no name, but it looks to be smaller than a Wick 4AL, perhaps close to the size of a Bach 5G, but it didn't matter to me, as I used my regular mouthpiece, which is the Demondrae Thurman Warburton signature model.
I played the Doubler first and my initial impression is positive. It blows nicely. I played it for 20-30 minutes all up and down the horn. I then played the Dolce. Then I played the Doubler. Then I played my Adams. I wanted to get a feel for how this horn plays in relation to these other two which I know pretty well. The Doubler is in the same relative price range as the Dolce (under $2k), and the Adams I own is north of $10K. I will not be doing a comparison review here, I only plan to review the Doubler on its own merits.
One of the ways I evaluate a horn is by playing melodies that I know well. To me, the absolute number one thing I look for in a horn is how the horn sounds, the tone. If a horn does not have a good tone, then NOTHING else matters. So by playing melodies in various ranges, I get a really good understanding of how the horn will sound, not just the horn, but "me" playing the horn. There are two components to sound and tone - the horn and the person behind the horn. So I played many melodies today. And when I would play a melody on the Doubler, I would sometimes play it on one or both of the other horns to help get better definition regarding feel, resonance, singing quality, sonority, fullness, darkness, brightness, etc.
I'll close out this post by saying that the Doubler plays fairly easy and has a nice sound right out of the box. Dave Werden has maintained that new horns usually need a break in period before they really start sounding like they eventually will. I never thought about that much until I read those types of comments from Dave, but I believe that is true. Dave relates how he has a horn he has been playing for a while, then gets a new model from a manufacturer he is an artist with, then has to go through a period where the horn gets broken in to realize the horn's full potential, that it doesn't always sound better than the horn it is replacing right off the bat. I hope I characterized that somewhat correctly. I think this will be true for this horn as well. I think part of the new equation with a horn is also the player getting used to it. I played some pretty melodies today on the Doubler, and it sounded quite nice.
From this point on, I will only be playing on and reporting on the Doubler. More soon.
Scroll on down to see the final part (in two posts) of the review - ready NLT 11/13/2020
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