Originally Posted by
John Morgan
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.....