I am on day five of ownership of a Sinfonico, so I will share my initial impressions.
My background, I have a degree in music, and played in championship bands, so professional standard, but not career building good if that makes sense… but haven’t really played for the last 8 years and only spent the last few weeks getting my lip back in, so I am very rusty…
Played on 1920s Solbrons, 70s imperials, lottery funded and globe/round stamp sovereigns Besson Prestige’s Yamaha Neo’s and a sterling virtuoso, so will compare the Sinfonico to these past experiences.
This is an amateur and rusty embouchure based review, so please bear that in mind…
All my previous Euphs were built before 2008 and it is likely that new instrument advancements in other brands offerings has since changed.
Build:
Seems as good as any other euphonium, I think that people confuse a lack of weight with poor quality, but all new instruments are lighter than the oldest ones, my 1920s euph was much heavier than even the much lauded 1970s Imperials, I expect that improvements in machinery and silver application is a big factor in the reduced weight in newer instruments. The Sinfonico is about the same weight as a Neo, so it’s not something that concerns me.
Threads for valve screws do seem a little harder to get on compared with any other instrument I have used, non have which have been factory new, but if I use my left hand to screw they go on fine? I think that will improve over time, but to be honest it’s not something I would send the euph back over.
Finish on the silver was to my eyes perfect, seems as thickly plated as newer instruments.
Compression is insane, it’s actually quite difficult to pull tuning slides even after plenty of slide grease, never experienced this before on other euphs, even on a 6 month old sterling virtuoso, I assume this is a good thing.
Valves are good, but put some Mead springs in them as the standard ones are plain metal and noisier than the Mead ones. The tolerance is so tight so will require more breaking in and cleaning etc. before they are as smooth as I would like.
Ergonomics: the Sinfonico is narrower than other Euphs, which my short arms are loving, especially when standing.
Intonation:
It comes with two main tuning slides, I have to use the bigger slide to be in tune, I can have every note in the lower register perfect, but the dreaded sixth partial F F sharp etc is currently 20 cents flat!
I have a theory that my embouchure is so used to compensating for Besson sharpness that I will have to get used to the instrument and then it will resolve itself enough to lip it when back in ensembles.
After a 8 year break I resumed playing 6 weeks ago on an borrowed 80s Imperial that had been abused by students, within a few day I was getting top Cs, my range had never been higher than a top D on any instrument including cornet, so I was really surprised when on the Sinfonico I got a super C! Albeit it was extremely weedy, but it was refreshing to not have the instrument fight me to get there…. I am guessing this responsiveness comes from the handcrafted single sheet brass?
Or is it just generally new instrument have improved that much?
Tone:
While the design of the Sinfonico is very unique, I would liken it to the core of an 70s Imperial, with some of the slightly extra resonance the globe stamp sovereigns have, I really like it because of the uniqueness, but if your idea of a sound profile is vastly different you might not.
That resonance isn’t consistent, but I blame my rusty embouchure for not being used to this instrument.
I have not played it in any ensemble so can’t comment how it blends in a British brass band, though I have heard cornet sections all on Prestiges that didn’t blend, so I would say that blending is more down to player than instrument….
Will it last long term?
I don’t see why not, if you look after it. I will let you know in 50 years time…
Final thoughts:
How did I find the other professional euphs?
Note all borrowed from being in bands, never owned one, except the 1920s one.
Besson prestige’s: stuffy and very resistant to being played
Neo: loved this instrument easy to blow, didn’t have it for very long, if I had a bigger budget it would have been a contender…
Virtuoso: adored this, felt familiar to other besson designs, it was what the prestige should have been, if I had the money for new this would have the number one choice.
Lottery sovereign and globe stamp: lovely, both of them, I think I had very good examples of both, only the logo seemed to be the only difference?
80s imperial: leaky air bucket hadn’t survived the abuse from students
70s Imperial: heavy, marching was back breaking! But loved it…
20s Solbron: A literal Tank, got me through the last year of uni with a distinction in final performance, originally in high pitch, red rot killed it hence the new purchase.
Why did I buy a new Sinfonico rather than an equivalent 3k sovereign?
COVID means you can’t drive around having a go on instruments to find good examples, especially used ones which need more care to find a decent surviving example of.
Instrument wear and loss of compression on an older instrument, so you would pay 3k then possibly need another 2k to get it restored, and full restorations including rebuilding valves can go well, or badly and not liking how it plays afterwards with no way of telling until after the work is done and paid for, expensive gamble, not prepared to risk it. If your experiences of restoration instruments is different from mine, you might disagree here…
Improved range… super C! Pieces that have top Fs and Gs should be possible once my embouchure is restored, never really realised how much my older euphs restricted my playable range, I guess from air leakage??
Returns policy: if I decide I don’t like it in a week or so it can be returned, used instruments don’t have that policy, so this was a good gamble.
With a much bigger budget I guess I would have had different options, Geneva, Sterling Neo etc. But saying that, I do think that the Sinfonico is shaping up to be a unique, and dare I say it , a professional level euph. I hope it breaks in the way I think it will, then I can keep it and enjoy it.