Howdy folks! I had taken about 15 years hiatus from the horn, and have been playing again for about a month and a half. I have fallen in love with playing euphonium all over again, and have been doing some research on the current brands since I've been feeling like I want to move on from the rented jp174il.
As luck may have it, I had already planned to fly into Baltimore for other reasons, so I took the opportunity to visit Baltimore brass (whom I see is one of the forum sponsors) and Chuck Levin's to play their horns and possibly purchase one to ship home.
Both stores were great experiences! BB was very chill, they let me browse around, pick up and play whichever horn, and answered any questions I had. At Chuck Levin's, Aaron gave a very friendly and personal experience. He essentially pulled out and oiled up the 4 horns they had available, gave the run down on each of them, and just let me play them to my heart's content.
So, the horns I was able to play:
At BB
-A used meinl weston model
-A b&h sovereign (a 1979 model, if the serial number doc on the forum is correct)
-And a jp 274, just as a sanity check
At Chuck's
-An Eastman model
-A willson 2900 (I had to use a small shank to medium shank converter to try, so it may not have been a fair shake)
-An Adam's e3
-A shires q41
Of all those, my too favorites were the sov and the q41.
The sovereign had really nice, light valves, if a little sluggish on the upstroke which could probably be fixed with a new set of springs and a good oiling. It felt like an absolute dream to play! High notes just popped out effortlessly (I hit the high d# in morceau symphonique no problem or strain), vibrato came so naturally, but even with my so-so ear, I could tell the upper register intonation was awful.
The q41 felt ALMOST as good as the sovereign, but maybe had a slightly nicer tone to my ears. Valves felt great, sounded great, etc. High notes were a little more of a struggle, but that might have been tired chops as it was the last horn I played.
I liked the shires so much, I almost bought it on the spot, but figured I should probably give it a little time and thought and weigh it against grabbing the globe stamp.
If you were in my shoes, what might you do? What are the potential drawbacks of buying a 43 year old horn vs a newer horn? Is $4200-4300 a good price for a Globe stamp sovereign?
As a side note, I was a little sad that I didn't get along with the e3 that well. It sounded good and felt ok, but the shires and the b&h felt so much better to me.