Any opinions on Andreas Eastman instruments?

[Bennim]

I'm still looking around for my own instrument and I was wondering what any of you have to say about the brand Andreas Eastman. I've heard that they're a brand that refines instruments from China and markets them as their own similar to John Packer or Wessex. I remember using a small 3 valve student-level Eastman euph briefly in high school because that was the brand my local music shop rented out, and it wasn't very good. The valves were often sluggish and it didn't feel great to blow into, but it sounded fine enough. What are your experiences with Eastman instruments? I'm specifically looking at the 4-valve non-compensating EEP426 model, so any thoughts specifically about that euphonium or other intermediate-level instruments would be very much appreciated.

[spkissane]

Eastman is a little different from typical "stencil" brands because although they do produce their instruments in China, the factories are owned by Eastman themselves, and they do a LOT of R&D on their instruments. The Eastman-branded euphoniums are probably geared more towards the beginning-to-intermediate player, since the company also owns Shires. Their tubas are fantastic, and priced well below brands of instruments that (in my own personal opinion) are outperformed by them.

As for the valves on the student instrument, it's possible the valves still had some "factory gunk" on them, or weren't broken in. In my experience, student instruments in general aren't inspected/finished as closely and carefully has higher level models. Probably due to price and sheer volume.

The Shires Bravo and Yamaha YEP321 are also very fine options for a non-compensating, intermediate horn.

[stevevaughn]

I'm still looking around for my own instrument and I was wondering what any of you have to say about the brand Andreas Eastman. I've heard that they're a brand that refines instruments from China and markets them as their own similar to John Packer or Wessex. I remember using a small 3 valve student-level Eastman euph briefly in high school because that was the brand my local music shop rented out, and it wasn't very good. The valves were often sluggish and it didn't feel great to blow into, but it sounded fine enough. What are your experiences with Eastman instruments? I'm specifically looking at the 4-valve non-compensating EEP426 model, so any thoughts specifically about that euphonium or other intermediate-level instruments would be very much appreciated.

I suggest the Eastman 800-level euphoniums for some of my undergraduate students who want a solid horn that will last them as music teachers and won't break the bank, great sounding horns at a really great price. I played the EEP426 briefly and found it to be preferable over the Yamaha 321, especially since it has the 3+1 setup as a non-comp horn, valve guides that won't break all the time, and a warmer/bigger sound since it takes large shank (for better or worse...Yamaha 321 takes small shank). Although, be aware that the Eastman receiver is a bit bigger than other large shank horns, and therefore denis wick/alliance mouthpieces will go in too far. Eastman/Shires are best matched with Schilke/Bowman mouthpieces in terms of insertion depth/gap, so if you play something like a 51D it will work great. Hope that helps!

[sgarcia315]

I have a 526S that I'm looking to move on from. If your interested message me!