Hmm, I find it slightly amusing to see this post pop up along with four answers within an hour of posting. This is a euph-oriented forum with a very active community and a lot of knowledgeable members and interesting topics along with helpful comments, but when it comes to questions like these (“Should I buy *insert brand/piece of equipment*?”) you’ll most often get answers that are subjective, keep that in mind.
Coming back to your question; the list of euphoniums you said are available to you seem to be decent options, yet 2 of them caught my eye:
-Besson Sovereign 967T 180th anniversary edition - This is in essence nothing more than a normal 967T with 2 lines of extra engraving and a cosmetic that is very hard to maintain AND you pay extra for. These horns were also made in 2018 so the fact that this instrument has been laying on the shelf for a couple of years now and is still for sale doesn’t really predict that this is a very good instrument.
-Eastman 526S - I do not have any experience with Eastman brass instruments but I do know that they are made in China. Chinese produced instruments aren’t bad per se, but their European brand-name equivalents are regarded as better-quality instruments and retain their value way better.
And now for the actual question:
Originally Posted by
Woltz
So my question is this, would you buy an Adams Euphonium without having put your hands on one and played one?
Well that depends. Buying a euphonium is comparable to buying a car in my opinion. There’s a diversity of brands, qualities, price-points , etc. But would you ever buy a car without seeing it in person beforehand, let alone driving it before pulling the trigger? Right now you seem to be set on buying a custom BMW, which is fine if that is what you want, but even a high-quality brand like BMW can sometimes produce a turd of a car riddled with problems.
I noticed over the years that buying/ordering instruments off the internet seems to be way more common in places like the US compared to Europe where I live. That also makes sense considering the US is literally a country the size of continent where as in Europe you’ll have everything much closer by, including music stores.
To conclude this comment: please try the instruments out by yourself before buying if you are able to. A musical instrument is a tool that has to meet your requirements and style playing (“The wand chooses you, Harry!”). As others have already pointed out Adams is a very high-quality brand with great service if you decide to go that route, but consider the fact that if something is wrong it will be pain to get it sorted from Australia.
Music educator - Brass Instruments Enthusiast - Euphonium Player
2019 Besson Sovereign 967T-2 - Alliance DC3