I have enjoyed following this thread. When I was last in high school and college marching bands from 2000 through 2008 I always played that Yamaha marching baritone (YBH-301M) and have very fond memories of playing it in various shows and parades. I always thought they had a decent sound. I have mentioned on the forum that if money/space/practicality/logic were no object I would like to add an American bell-front euphonium to my lineup, and every time the YBH-301M gets mentioned I have the same feeling of wanting to pick one up some day to have lying around.
To Arnie, thanks for kickstarting this conversation and good luck with your purchase!
1976 Besson 3-valve New Standard, DE102/I/I8
1969 Conn 88H, Schilke 51
You're welcome. Kind of interesting that we decades-long humans still hearken back to those marching band or corps days and look for opportunities to rekindle the joy of that form of our music history. So many varied perspectives on this. I remember playing bell front CONNs for much of my junior-high and high-school and how novel it felt to handle my first Besson upright. I made second chair all region band and state in my junior year with a Besson. But in the Navy, getting to play a baritone bugle was another whole new experience that had its own rewards. And in Navy A school learning to be a morse code intercept operator, we formed a band to represnt our Pensacola base for Mardi Gras in N.O. and I had the memorable experience of marching with a forward bell baritone of some kind for 13 parade miles and playing Anchors Aweight probably about a hundred times.
Arnold (Arnie) Williams
Sterling Virtuoso Euphonium with Gold Brass bell (Capitol Pops Band, Capitol Pops Tuba Euphonium Quartet)
Yamaha YBH-831S Neo Baritone Horn (Joyous Brass, First Baritone)
Yamaha YBH-301M Marching Baritone (Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band and Temperance Society LMTD)
Yamaha YEP-830 Xeno Bass Trombone (Sacramento Concert Band)
Euphonium: DW Heritage 4AL (main); K&G 3D (Ophir Prison Band)
Bass Trombone: Ferguson M Series Jeff Reynolds
Not surprisingly I came across a John Packer verions of a marching euphonium, the JP2053. Here is a brief sound sample by a British fellow (who gets a pretty darn good sound out of it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7IGagAN10
Arnold (Arnie) Williams
Sterling Virtuoso Euphonium with Gold Brass bell (Capitol Pops Band, Capitol Pops Tuba Euphonium Quartet)
Yamaha YBH-831S Neo Baritone Horn (Joyous Brass, First Baritone)
Yamaha YBH-301M Marching Baritone (Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band and Temperance Society LMTD)
Yamaha YEP-830 Xeno Bass Trombone (Sacramento Concert Band)
Euphonium: DW Heritage 4AL (main); K&G 3D (Ophir Prison Band)
Bass Trombone: Ferguson M Series Jeff Reynolds
Thomann MBH-303s (Yama-clone) marching baritone is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.
UPS assessed modest brokerage & government import charges.
My employer provides each of us with an annual $500 "worklife balance wellness fund" whose remaining balance I applied to this purchase, so even if it's only a marginal player, it's cheaper, in better shape, and lower risk than what I was seeing on the used market. Best I can tell by the pictures, the Yamaha, JP, and Thomann look functionally identical (only difference I discern is the valve buttons).
Looking forward to seeing how it play-compares to the authentic Yamaha.
Last edited by tokuno; 05-27-2023 at 09:27 AM.