Upgrade from Adams Sonic

[Mitch]

Hello Friends,

I took up the euphonium later in life.

At present I own an Adams Sonic.

I want to upgrade to a compensating instrument.

What are some brands and models I should consider? What are some of the instruments typically played by the best players?

Mitch

[John Morgan]

If you like your Sonic, look at the Adams E1 or E3. The best players play the whole variety of top brand instruments including Besson, Adams, Yamaha, Willson, Geneva, Sterling. A top or next to top model in any of those brands well get you a very good euphonium. But again, if you like your Sonic, why not step up to an E1 or E3?

[ann reid]

I’m also very interested in your desire to “upgrade”.

I’m playing advanced band music (working on Pineapple Poll, Toccata Marziale, etc. (tough stuff), the Horovitz and Vaughan Williams Concertos, probably starting the Gordon Jacob Fantasia in January, play my Willson uncompensated horn with decent or better intonation and solidly developing tone.

I’m very very serious about what I’m doing. I’ll never want to be a soloist, and playing high and very high level wind ensemble music is my highest goal.

I am very eager to make a “step up” too, but also very concerned about making a bad and expensive mistake as I choose.

I too began playing VERY LATE in the game, and I want to progress as quickly as possible. At this point I can afford whatever I want.

I have the breathing capacity to fill a compensating horn, but arthritis in my hands and wrists has to be a consideration for me too.The Sonic would be lighter in overall weight. If you wind up planning to sell yours, please PM me.

Hope you’ll get some helpful answers, Mitch.

[iMav]

I'm quite happy with my Adams E3. That being said...the Schiller Elite (3+1 compensating horn) I bought back in 2011 is still in great shape (looks and plays like new, actually). Upgrading was more of a want than a need.

For Ann, the compensating stencil horns are inexpensive enough that you could pick one up and decide later if you wanted to invest the "big bucks". (and, honestly, you might fall in love with it and have no desire to "upgrade") But, you already know this.

[ann reid]

Funny, I’ve already tested my husband’s tolerance with at least one disastrous experiment, and that’s what I’m hoping to avoid!

[iMav]

You may have seen the thread on FB where one quite happy John Packer owner (believe he owns the 274) was adamant that his horn was better than the Besson it was a clone of (based on his first-hand experience). He got some flack for it...but it sounded like, if given the choice between a "real Besson" and his JP, he'd stick with his JP274.

[comebackplayer]

With brass instruments, I tend to buy opportunistically, buying used if I can. The options seem to be the Chinese stencils ($600-$2000), lesser professional or up-and-comer professionals (two or three times as expensive), or the top tier of instruments ($7000+). I'd first check what's available locally and start to get an idea of what you're looking for.

[iMav]

Spit balled examples for 3+1 fully compensated horns (NOT comprehensive!):

Bargain basement stencils (not, necessarily, any less than the more expensive ones)
- Monzani (Music Store) - $550
- Schiller Elite (Jim Laabs Music) - $885
- Radiant Brass - $895

Mid-tier (?, more reseller service) stencils
- Mack Brass - $1350
- Wessex (Dolce) - $1895
- John Packer - $2000

"cheaper" pro horns
- S.E.Shires - $6k-ish
- XO - $6k-ish

The rest of the pro horns.

[UglyGrayDuck]

I recently had the pleasure of going to Baltimore brass and Chuck Levin's and was able to compare 7 or 8 compensating horns. I was actually very surprised to find out I REALLY like the S.E. Shires Q41. Going into it, from everything I was reading, I thought for sure I would be ordering an Adams, but the Shires was love at first blow! Don't get me wrong, the Adams was a lovely horn, but for ME, the Shires really just felt right. As a side note, often if you work with a dealer you can get a better price than they have listed on various websites,

[comebackplayer]

There are a lot of other instruments in that mid-range. I think Geneva euphoniums are around $6000 and Eastman is somewhere in there. There's a separate Jupiter compensating euphonium and there are upper level Wessex and Mack Brass (ZO) instruments ($4000-5000). I did three tiers, but I like Larry's list too, and I feel like now there could be a tier that's over 10,000.

It's interesting to come to euphonium from trumpet. On trumpet there are sort of classic orchestral instruments and then there are a mix of commercial and jazz type instruments and a set of custom instruments (often very heavy and distinctive looking). For euphonium I still feel like the look and use is pretty similar for any compensating euphonium. Some have triggers and there are definitely differences between models, but there doesn't seem to be the idea of niche horns. On trumpet, I also feel like the most common professional instruments are Bach and Yamaha and maybe Schilke and then there's a mix of everything else. On euphonium, it feels like Besson, Yamaha, and Willson are the main modern mainstays, but maybe I'm wrong about that.