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Thread: The Austin Custom Brass Doubler's Euphonium - A review in several parts

  1. #1
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    The Austin Custom Brass Doubler's Euphonium - A review in several parts

    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
    Last edited by John Morgan; 11-12-2020 at 11:28 PM.
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Indianapolis area
    Posts
    1,003
    So far, so good...but make it snappy since I'm close on the list!!
    Unfortunately, the Indiana Wind Symphony December concert just got
    corona'ed out.
    Jim Williams N9EJR (love 10 meter CW)
    Formerly Principal Euphonium in a whole
    bunch of groups, now just a schlub.
    Shires Q41, Yamaha 321, 621 Baritone
    Wick 4AL, Wessex 4Y, or whatever I grab.
    Conn 50H trombone, Blue P-bone
    www.soundcloud.com/jweuph

  3. #3
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    I will be sending the Doubler off tomorrow afternoon by UPS to the next up. I should be able to complete the review before the end of the day tomorrow.

    Sorry about your Wind Symphony cancellation, Jim. I am off to Gillette, WY to play in their symphony for a concert this weekend. First music gig, rehearsal or concert, since March. Hopefully it will go well.

    Look for my comments on the ACB Doubler in this thread by tomorrow evening!
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Summerfield, Florida Sturgis, SD (summers)
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    Second and Final Part of My Review of the Austin Custom Brass (ACB) Doubler Euphonium - Part One

    I spent two good days with the Doubler, probably played it for more than 8 hours. I have a pretty good idea about this new and relatively inexpensive euphonium being sold by ACB as a "doubler" for folks whose main instrument may not be the euphonium. Being a former Army officer and having taken the Oath of Office, I will use part of that oath to say here that this review "is done freely, without any mental reservation of purpose of evasion". Or in other words, these are my honest to goodness thoughts and opinions, and I have nothing at stake here but fairness and integrity.

    The Build of the Doubler

    The euphonium is very nice to look at. The construction seems sound, the joints look good and solid, the finish is very nice. The lacquer job on the horn is very good. I can't say how long it will last, time will tell. On my Wessex Dolce, there are a couple or three spots where the lacquer has worn off (mostly where I hold the horn). This after three years, and it wasn't my full time horn. But I understand that aspect of the Wessex horn has improved. Nevertheless, the Doubler looks very smart. I pulled all the slides and they fit exceptionally well. In taking some out, I got a very decided pop telling me things were done well. Sometimes slides on inexpensive instruments can feel sort of "cheap" and clangy when you close them. The Doubler does not feel like that at all, the slides are very nice, fit well, and move like those on high end horns. I couldn't get the 1st valve compensating slide out and did not want to force it, so I could not look at valve alignment for that valve.

    I took off the upper and lower valve caps to check out the infamous "hard to screw in" valve cap phenomena that seems to permeate horns coming from the Far East. These worked quite well, I had no trouble getting any of them screwed back in whenever I would undo a cap. The valves are not vented, and with the amount of compression I observed when pulling out a slide, this might be something to think about including in future production. I did try to see if I could get any popping noise when playing softly and slurring notes, but I did not notice any popping.

    The valves all worked quite well. As with any new horn, they get better after break in and multiple cleanings. They are not clanky. The springs seem on the stiffer side, but I like them fine.

    The fourth valve lock is accomplished by having the locking mechanism attached right near the top of the 4th valve casing, unlike many others where the locking lever is attached to the outer branch of the horn. It works quite well, you unscrew it a little to release the lever, and you tighten it when putting it away.

    One unusual thing I noticed is that the tubing that runs from the 3rd valve casing to the 4th valve casing is very close to the bottom of the 3rd valve cap. This may make it hard, if not almost impossible, to put a drip catcher on the bottom of valves 1-3. I checked my other horns, and that tubing on all of them winds its way such that it leaves room for drip catchers on the bottom valve caps. It might be possible, but it would take a very carefully engineered drip catcher to fit in there. The good news is that after playing for hours and hours, it seems that there is not much of anything coming out of the bottom of the 1-3 valve caps. I recall having a horn in the past that virtually did not drip out of any of the bottom valve caps.

    The overall horn feels fine ergonomically. It seems to fit the mold of most 3+1 compensating euphoniums, nothing really unusual about it. I can hold it easily and comfortably, and I am 6 feet tall and weigh just about something more than I used to. The horn seems about average weight, although I did not weigh it. I am allergic to scales.

    The horn has a lyre receiver on the first valve tubing so you are good to go when marching down the street and you haven't memorized your music (for shame). Water keys on the main tuning slide and the 1st and 3rd valve slides. This horn is reminiscent of my several Bessons where the 2nd valve slide fills up a lot.

    And finally the drop test - when going from room to room in my house to play in more resonant spaces, I slipped and fell, and as I was going down, I tossed the Doubler to the side so I could just worry about myself. It probably sailed 10 feet in the air and then fell on our front entrance floor which is tile. Happy to report that the horn still plays sort of, but doesn't look too good. Okay, Trent, no worries, just kidding.

    Intonation

    In checking intonation, I used two good tuners simultaneously. I warmed up the Doubler for quite a while. In general, this particular horn tends to play on the flat side. My own very high end Adams E3 also tends to play on the flat side, I have to thoroughly warm it up and then only have the main slide out just a bit. With the Doubler, I tuned up Bb (I will be talking Bass Clef here) on the top of the staff. I then tuned up each of the individual valves on notes just below the original Bb. Then I checked the tuning by playing the Doubler from a low F (below the staff) to a high Bb (octave above the tuning Bb). I basically had all of the slides on the horn all in after I did the original tuning of Bb and each valve. So that worked for most of the notes in a Bb scale (from Bb in staff to top of staff). When I went above the Bb top of staff up an octave, most of those notes were sharp. If I pulled the main tuning slide out an inch or more, I could get most of the notes above tuning Bb close, but then the notes below the Bb tuning note were mostly flat. There is probably a happy medium point for the slide placement such that you lip up lower notes and lip down higher notes. This is not too unusual on some horns. One note that really seemed flat was the high A just below high Bb. I don't have nearly the patience that Dave Werden does when it comes to checking the intonation on horns. He is the master, and I hope he does a thorough look at this when his turn for the Doubler happens. I will defer the intonation review happily to his findings. When I play the Doubler through many melodies, it seems to sound pretty good regarding tuning. I am one who listens as I play, and I sort of know what the notes should sound like, so I have a tendency to put the notes where they belong pitch-wise as I play, sort of automatically.

    Part Two (tone and other things) to Follow.....
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  5. Quote Originally Posted by John Morgan View Post
    Second and Final Part of My Review of the Austin Custom Brass (ACB) Doubler Euphonium - Part One

    I spent two good days with the Doubler, probably played it for more than 8 hours. I have a pretty good idea about this new and relatively inexpensive euphonium being sold by ACB as a "doubler" for folks whose main instrument may not be the euphonium. Being a former Army officer and having taken the Oath of Office, I will use part of that oath to say here that this review "is done freely, without any mental reservation of purpose of evasion". Or in other words, these are my honest to goodness thoughts and opinions, and I have nothing at stake here but fairness and integrity.

    The Build of the Doubler

    The euphonium is very nice to look at. The construction seems sound, the joints look good and solid, the finish is very nice. The lacquer job on the horn is very good. I can't say how long it will last, time will tell. On my Wessex Dolce, there are a couple or three spots where the lacquer has worn off (mostly where I hold the horn). This after three years, and it wasn't my full time horn. But I understand that aspect of the Wessex horn has improved. Nevertheless, the Doubler looks very smart. I pulled all the slides and they fit exceptionally well. In taking some out, I got a very decided pop telling me things were done well. Sometimes slides on inexpensive instruments can feel sort of "cheap" and clangy when you close them. The Doubler does not feel like that at all, the slides are very nice, fit well, and move like those on high end horns. I couldn't get the 1st valve compensating slide out and did not want to force it, so I could not look at valve alignment for that valve.

    I took off the upper and lower valve caps to check out the infamous "hard to screw in" valve cap phenomena that seems to permeate horns coming from the Far East. These worked quite well, I had no trouble getting any of them screwed back in whenever I would undo a cap. The valves are not vented, and with the amount of compression I observed when pulling out a slide, this might be something to think about including in future production. I did try to see if I could get any popping noise when playing softly and slurring notes, but I did not notice any popping.

    The valves all worked quite well. As with any new horn, they get better after break in and multiple cleanings. They are not clanky. The springs seem on the stiffer side, but I like them fine.

    The fourth valve lock is accomplished by having the locking mechanism attached right near the top of the 4th valve casing, unlike many others where the locking lever is attached to the outer branch of the horn. It works quite well, you unscrew it a little to release the lever, and you tighten it when putting it away.

    One unusual thing I noticed is that the tubing that runs from the 3rd valve casing to the 4th valve casing is very close to the bottom of the 3rd valve cap. This may make it hard, if not almost impossible, to put a drip catcher on the bottom of valves 1-3. I checked my other horns, and that tubing on all of them winds its way such that it leaves room for drip catchers on the bottom valve caps. It might be possible, but it would take a very carefully engineered drip catcher to fit in there. The good news is that after playing for hours and hours, it seems that there is not much of anything coming out of the bottom of the 1-3 valve caps. I recall having a horn in the past that virtually did not drip out of any of the bottom valve caps.

    The overall horn feels fine ergonomically. It seems to fit the mold of most 3+1 compensating euphoniums, nothing really unusual about it. I can hold it easily and comfortably, and I am 6 feet tall and weigh just about something more than I used to. The horn seems about average weight, although I did not weigh it. I am allergic to scales.

    The horn has a lyre receiver on the first valve tubing so you are good to go when marching down the street and you haven't memorized your music (for shame). Water keys on the main tuning slide and the 1st and 3rd valve slides. This horn is reminiscent of my several Bessons where the 2nd valve slide fills up a lot.

    And finally the drop test - when going from room to room in my house to play in more resonant spaces, I slipped and fell, and as I was going down, I tossed the Doubler to the side so I could just worry about myself. It probably sailed 10 feet in the air and then fell on our front entrance floor which is tile. Happy to report that the horn still plays sort of, but doesn't look too good. Okay, Trent, no worries, just kidding.

    Intonation

    In checking intonation, I used two good tuners simultaneously. I warmed up the Doubler for quite a while. In general, this particular horn tends to play on the flat side. My own very high end Adams E3 also tends to play on the flat side, I have to thoroughly warm it up and then only have the main slide out just a bit. With the Doubler, I tuned up Bb (I will be talking Bass Clef here) on the top of the staff. I then tuned up each of the individual valves on notes just below the original Bb. Then I checked the tuning by playing the Doubler from a low F (below the staff) to a high Bb (octave above the tuning Bb). I basically had all of the slides on the horn all in after I did the original tuning of Bb and each valve. So that worked for most of the notes in a Bb scale (from Bb in staff to top of staff). When I went above the Bb top of staff up an octave, most of those notes were sharp. If I pulled the main tuning slide out an inch or more, I could get most of the notes above tuning Bb close, but then the notes below the Bb tuning note were mostly flat. There is probably a happy medium point for the slide placement such that you lip up lower notes and lip down higher notes. This is not too unusual on some horns. One note that really seemed flat was the high A just below high Bb. I don't have nearly the patience that Dave Werden does when it comes to checking the intonation on horns. He is the master, and I hope he does a thorough look at this when his turn for the Doubler happens. I will defer the intonation review happily to his findings. When I play the Doubler through many melodies, it seems to sound pretty good regarding tuning. I am one who listens as I play, and I sort of know what the notes should sound like, so I have a tendency to put the notes where they belong pitch-wise as I play, sort of automatically.

    Part Two (tone and other things) to Follow.....
    John,

    Thanks so much for taking the time and effort to write such a detailed review of the horn. I am very appreciative of these and as with all of our doubler products it does give us some things to think about how we can improve the instrument even more. I have some ideas on a possible mouthpipe change to help the intonation issues. Like I had previously mentioned not being able to take these horns to the big trade shows and have folks play them has left us at a bit of a disadvantage so this traveling trial is going to help out greatly. Big thanks to all that have signed up.

    Best regards,
    T
    Last edited by AustinCustomBrass; 11-13-2020 at 10:49 AM.
    Trent Austin
    Owner
    Austin Custom Brass
    www.austincustombrass.biz
    I started on Baritone BTW in 3rd grade band

  6. Quote Originally Posted by John Morgan View Post
    Second and Final Part of My Review of the Austin Custom Brass (ACB) Doubler Euphonium - Part One

    Intonation


    One note that really seemed flat was the high A just below high Bb. I don't have nearly the patience that Dave Werden does when it comes to checking the intonation on horns. He is the master, and I hope he does a thorough look at this when his turn for the Doubler happens. I will defer the intonation review happily to his findings.
    John,

    When I get the horn, I will do a very intense tuning effort using my hour long daily routine. By the way, the high A (usually 2nd valve) is often flat, particularly on my English baritones. I sometimes use 1-3 to bring the pitch up. I will spend quite a bit of time on that aspect of the horn.

    Doug
    Adams E3 0.60 Sterling bell - Prototype top sprung valves
    Concord Band
    Winchendon Winds
    Townsend Military Band

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Summerfield, Florida Sturgis, SD (summers)
    Posts
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    Quote Originally Posted by daruby View Post
    John,

    When I get the horn, I will do a very intense tuning effort using my hour long daily routine. By the way, the high A (usually 2nd valve) is often flat, particularly on my English baritones. I sometimes use 1-3 to bring the pitch up. I will spend quite a bit of time on that aspect of the horn.

    Doug
    Excellent. I am about to finish my write up now, then pack the horn up for shipment this afternoon.
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Summerfield, Florida Sturgis, SD (summers)
    Posts
    1,867
    Second and Final Part of My Review of the Austin Custom Brass (ACB) Doubler Euphonium - Part Two

    Tone and Sound

    This is to me the single most important aspect of a euphonium. What does it sound like? What is the tone? What is the timbre? Is it bright/dark? Mellow? Full/thin? And one important aspect of this evaluation is that horns tend to break themselves in over time, so the sound you eventually get is usually better than when you first played it when new.

    Before I forget it, the high B natural on this horn was fairly easy to get and play. The high D was a little sketchy as it is on most horns. High C fine, high Db fine, high Eb fine.

    This horn plays fairly consistently up and down. On most horns, including my Adams, there are usually some notes or a note that just don't sound quite the same as the surrounding notes. The low B natural on my Adams has a slightly different timbre than the notes just above and below it. More than likely due to the use of the 4th valve and 2nd valve to play B natural. On the Doubler, I found a small range of notes that did not resonate/project as much as most of the other notes. These were around the low E (on the staff) down to about the low C on the staff. They tended to be a little bit stuffy and less resonate than most of the other notes. I tried these notes with two other mouthpieces as well with the same result. When playing higher, the notes sang out more. I sometimes have a difficult time with the terminology to accurately describe what I hear. I would classify the general sound of the Doubler as solid. Think of more rigid steel as opposed to thinner steel. Heavier than lighter. I wish I was better at recording than I am. I tried a couple recordings with my camcorder mic, and the results just did not adequately capture the sound as I was hearing it. Perhaps someone in the review chain will make a good recording.

    [Edit: I have posted a video below of a few excerpts taken from my camcorder. I think the recording is good enough to get an idea of the Doubler's sound. Dave will do better I am sure.]

    I played through Bydlo and Mars (from The Planets), because if you are a doubler, then these two are certainly likely pieces you may play. Mars sounded fine to my ears. Nice and strong. Bydlo was fairly nice, except the low D# and E natural at the beginning and elsewhere tended to be a trifle on the stuffy side to me. I think with these notes that the horn may possibly "open up" a bit more in time as it is broken in. I then played the last part of the Lord's Prayer (Bb version which goes up to high Bb), and it was strong and quite nice. All of the notes were tuning Bb (top of staff) and up.

    Other Things

    I already mentioned that high B natural was fairly easy to play. The horn seems to slot well. The valves are quite nice. I did not do much to them but did add a bit of oil one time. Notes are easy to hit, both high and low. Slurring is as easy on this horn as other horns. My mouthpieces fit in the receiver just right with no bottoming or wobble (I did have that experience with one of my klunker Besson horns - I did have good Bessons, also).

    Summary

    For a 3+1, compensating euphonium under $2K, the Doubler has a lot going for it. It is well less than a fourth of what one would pay for a top of the line brand. It is nicely made, appears very durable, and plays well. This horn could be quite satisfactory for a doubler.
    Last edited by John Morgan; 11-13-2020 at 11:46 PM.
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  9. Quote Originally Posted by John Morgan View Post
    Second and Final Part of My Review of the Austin Custom Brass (ACB) Doubler Euphonium - Part Two

    Tone and Sound

    I tried a couple recordings with my camcorder mic, and the results just did not adequately capture the sound as I was hearing it. Perhaps someone in the review chain will make a good recording.
    John,

    I am hoping Dave Werden can do some A/B recordings with his Adams E3. He has done a very good job with comparisons of mouthpieces, horns, and bell covers. He also has access to better facilities and the experience to make it work. I know I will be focused on Pitch, response and ergonomics since those are issues I am quite sensitive to. Also, I will listen for sound, but I don't have access to a large enough room to be able to feel and or record resonance in the tone.

    Doug
    Adams E3 0.60 Sterling bell - Prototype top sprung valves
    Concord Band
    Winchendon Winds
    Townsend Military Band

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by daruby View Post
    I am hoping Dave Werden can do some A/B recordings with his Adams E3. He has done a very good job with comparisons of mouthpieces, horns, and bell covers. He also has access to better facilities and the experience to make it work. I know I will be focused on Pitch, response and ergonomics since those are issues I am quite sensitive to. Also, I will listen for sound, but I don't have access to a large enough room to be able to feel and or record resonance in the tone.
    I'm going to try to do some kind of quality recording. I may need to keep the sample they send me a little longer, until the church and Sara are available.

    I may choose to do a piece I have also recorded on my Adams, but I'm not sure I'll do a real-time A/B comparison. That would not be a fair comparison and not really what people might care about themselves if they are potential customers. More valuable would be an A/B test with, say, a Dolce and a Doubler, but I can't do that. I think most of us know that horns in this class are perfectly fine for performance. This one, based on a Besson concept, would sound different from a $2k horn based on Yamaha, right? But either would be fine for a player who likes that particular concept.

    My main thought is to show how it sounds in a real situation. My own church may still not be available by the time I get the horn, so I'm kinda assuming we need to record in Sara's church again. If practical we'll record something we've already recorded on my Adams there so a non-real-time comparison can be done at least.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

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