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Thread: Doubler videos & final report

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Red face Doubler videos & final report

    Hi, all!
    It was a distinct pleasure for me to have the ACB Doubler for a week. It is a very fine instrument that I'd have no hesitation recommending to a serious player.

    Please see my earlier post on the Doubler for some specifics I noted. Generally speaking, my experience matches Dave's and John's pretty closely.

    *After playing it an hour or so every day over and above my NEO, I am quite fond of the Doubler's tone. To my ears, it comes closest to a Besson Sovereign 968--that's great!
    *Some things I found to be more pleasant on the Doubler over my Neo. Dave also heard this in a couple of cases.
    *I feel more comfortable with lighter musical fare, and I didn't want to duplicate anything John and Dave did, so my examples reflect that. Perhaps that's another place where the Doubler can double--let the $8-10K horns take care of the heavy concertos, and use the Doubler for lighter fare. I tend to favor the upper register, and the demos do as well.

    The videos can be found at my Dropbox- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g1m00am0a...1HZX_-tMa?dl=0 The videos are in .MOV and .MP4 format, so Mac and PC users should be fine.

    To keep matters in perspective, please listen to the demos tune by tune on the Neo and on the Doubler.

    *One demo is a snippet from Mario Bros. BOB-OMB Battlefield
    *One is a snippet from PANACHE by Robin Dewhurst (one of my favorite composers for euph)
    *The last is a holiday wish for everybody.

    *The Doubler is a real upgrade from a Yamaha 321 for less money.
    *Having owned a Mack 1150, a good instrument, I would judge the Doubler as a much more strong and robust horn for a small amount more than the Mack.
    *For Rich Matteson-type stuff, he played a 321 for a reason. It's a lot of work on ANY Compensating horn, and the sound isn't what I want, so I will stick to the 321 for faster jazz things and extreme "lead euphonium" stuff, but I do use a compensating horn for ballads, and the Doubler would be a fine choice there.
    *The Doubler responded well for me in all registers with a full "968-ish" sound that I like. The upper register speaks well for me, but see note below
    *My intonation profile on the Doubler was quite close to Dave's, except I ran sharper on the B flat above Middle C. That's a me problem.
    *The high B and D, two of the squirreliest notes on ANY compensating instrument, are somewhat better than my NEO, but harder to center than the 5050 and Mack 1150 I used to own. I don't know how fixable that is, or what the tradeoff is for fixing those two pitches. To me, that's important because band, brass band, and solo literature go up there and beyond. Maybe offer the Doubler with a set of LeFreques in strategic locations (only kidding!!!--not needed!!!)
    *I see no need for the lyre box. Others do, but if you decide to keep it, PLEASE get a screw that fits. I pick horns up the same way Dave does, and I darn near lost my left ring finger when my wedding ring got caught on the screw!!!
    *I am not a fan of the fourth-valve holder...unless a player is conscientious about screwing it tightly after opening the fourth valve, the cover will slip and block the fourth valve downstroke. Happened to me a couple of times.
    *The build is nice--I saw no lacquer smudges or solder blobs on the places I could see, unlike some other $6K horns I've owned.
    *How much does it cost to vent valves? While I had no trouble slurring, some people like vented valves; I've had it done on every horn I've ever owned--all 583 of them.
    *All mechanical aspects were fine except that the first-valve back compensating slide was frozen shut. I have no way of knowing whether that was unique to that instrument or whether it's systematic.

    SUMMARY: The ACB Doubler is a fine instrument worthy of serious performers. THANKS to Trent and Josh at ACB for this opportunity, thanks to Dave for video help and for this forum in general, and thanks to the lovely and talented Suellen Williams for shooting the videos and playing the organ.

    Later this week, I will move the Videos to YouTube and try to stitch them together piece by piece. Thanks for reading & listening!

    Jim
    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

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Location
    Summerfield, Florida Sturgis, SD (summers)
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    Great review, Jim. And nice videos. Even though you say the 321 works better for you for faster jazz, any jazz still sounds pretty good on the Doubler. For those of you who haven't heard Jim playing a little "screech" euphonium and other styles, give a listen to some of his videos on the soundcloud link at the bottom of his signature block. Some nice work there.

    I think it is apparent that the Doubler is a very capable compensating euphonium and certainly worth looking at if someone is in the market for a doubling instrument, or even just a primary euphonium. It is a very solid instrument.
    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)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Indianapolis area
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    Thanks, John, for your kind words and your previewing the videos. I’ll get them stitched together & placed on YT tomorrow or Wednesday.

  4. Really useful videos. I appreciate your work.
    Two technical things I just can't let pass without saying thank you for:

    1. Thank you for keeping the clips short. When I'm trying to watch A/B clips, anything past 30-45 seconds and I forget the finer points of the A during the B. That's on me, but it is what it is.

    2. Thank you for posting two file formats. I could run both, so no problems at all, but when people only post one, I'm inevitably the poor blighter who moans that he can't get it to play.

    What a joy to just click a link and open up a bunch of truly useful files.

  5. #5
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    Shawn,
    Thanks for noticing that! It was intentional, as was not trying to duplicate musically what John and Dave did so well. Having said that, I'd welcome knowing what you heard across horns. I can say that they FELT different!
    As to file formats, I have long been a staunch supporter of batch processing!
    I'm nowhere near as skilled as Dave in putting videos together, but I took this as an opportunity to learn, and will continue to do so.
    Jim
    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

  6. Jim,

    Interesting that I felt I could hear a bigger difference between the ACB Doubler and your Yamaha NEO than I heard between the ACB Doubler and Dave's Adams E3. The ACB definitely was brighter than your NEO. A distinctive difference to my ear. I certainly would prefer the NEO sound for classical euph literature, but the Doubler sounded great in your hands as well. Your clips were more focused on high range, so I don't know if this would change a bit if I had heard something in the lower range.

    BTW, I love your high chops! Mine have significantly deteriorated in the last year of no performing. Great job.

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

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Indianapolis area
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    Thanks for the kind words, Doug! Check your PM for additional details...

    Jim
    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

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