Originally Posted by
Ajeasley
I was able to play the ACB Doubler's Euphonium today at the Austin Custom Brass shop in Kansas City today - perks of living in the area! Props to the folks at ACB for a great customer experience even in the midst of the pandemic. If I happen to find a few extra thousand dollars sitting around, I'll be back for the Adams E2 I was able to play at the shop!
They had three different horns, one each in lacquer, a brushed lacquer finish, and silver plate. Aesthetically, these horns look good! I like the brushed finish look myself. Fit and finish was good on all three, though the clear lacquer finished horn had the most fine tuning done to it and it was, consequently, the best playing and also had the best valve action. I played all three horns with my Giddings Kadja as well as a Wick Heritage 4AL, just to see how the horn played with a different mouthpiece.
Build Quality
Nothing with these horns felt cheap. My inspection wasn't especially thorough, but the construction felt solid. The silver plating on that horn looked pretty good - I believe that this has been an area of concern with Chinese imports over the last few years. I'm no expert, but everything seemed sturdy in my hands.
Ergonomics
Compared to my Yamaha 641, the ACB is more comfortable to hold and play. The leadpipe is farther up the bell and angled such that playing while sitting or standing felt reasonably good. In terms of weight, it didn't feel remarkably heavy or light - just like a 4 valve compensating horn. With that said, I'm a fairly average shaped adult male and made my living for awhile carrying a government-issued Willson around the parade field, so my tolerance for such things may be a little off. Your mileage may vary.
tldr - it felt fine.
Tone Quality/General Performance
I had better luck with the Kadja than the Wick 4AL, but the Kadja is my daily driver mouthpiece so that's not unexpected. I could hear the Besson influence in the horn, and the tone was generally pleasing. Response was pretty good and the horn was pretty consistent from top to bottom. The high register spoke very clearly. The compensating and pedal register were a little iffy, but I think that's on me rather than the horn. I played through several lyrical and not-so-lyrical excerpts and things seemed to work well enough. Dynamically, it handled the softs very well, and the loud's well enough - its dynamic tolerances reminded me of a Yamaha 842 army horn I had about 10 years ago. That wasn't a deal breaker though; I think I could take the horn to go play the Planets Suite with an orchestra or to a concert with my unit and it wouldn't hold me back much at all. Ultimately, the horn pretty much got out of the way and I sounded like me, so kudos there!
Intonation
I didn't go to the same amount of effort that Dr. Werden has put in to the intonation chart resources that we have on the site, but I did kick the tires with a tuner. For me, it was a struggle to get the horn to blow in tune without pushing the tuning slide all the way in. In hindsight, I think that my Yamaha blows sharp and I've likely gotten used to it over the years. At any rate, the 5th and 6th partials were pretty good - 6th was a bit high, but at the end of the day it's a brass instrument. There wasn't anything in that register that one couldn't learn to adjust to. The 3rd partial C and D were really flat with 1st, 2nd, and 4th valve tuning slides pushed all the way in.
Overall
I will admit that I have not played a Wessex, Mack, or any of the other budget conscious compensating euphoniums over the last few years save for what I think was a JP374 at the TUSAB conference back in like 2013, so I don't have much of a basis for comparison with horns at this price point. I think ACB's doubler's horn is a great new addition and should be on a buyer's short list if one is looking for a good horn with less than $2K to spend. I have colleagues looking for a horn like this, and will refer them here. Was it in the same ballpark as the Adams E2 that I played today? Not at all, but it comes in at less than a quarter of the price. If that Adams is a Mercedes or BMW and my Yamaha is a well-equipped Honda, the ACB is a Kia Forte - a great option at the price point that does about 90% of what the other offerings do.
Compared to the non-compensating Yamaha 321 and whichever model King it is that are both ubiquitous in American school band rooms, this horn definitely sounds more like a "grown up" euphonium sound. If I was sitting in for a wind band gig with professionals/good college players/equally strong amateurs, I would rather have the ACB horn than the non comp options. Also, my pinky dexterity is horrendous so I very much prefer the 3+1 configuration. The one area where I would give the nod to Yamaha and King is proven durability. They can take quite a beating and still play; we know that because they have. The Doubler's euphonium may be just fine handling the rigors of teenagers using borrowed equipment, but we won't know until we find out.
I would gladly recommend this horn for any trombone/tuba players that play euphonium often enough to justify owning a horn, as well as euphonium students in high school and up through college in music ed. If you have a little more cash to spend and have the luxury of patience in your search, you may be able to find a used Besson Sovereign/New Standard or older Yamaha (641 or the original 642) for a bit more that may suit your needs better, but the ACB euphonium is new and shiny and gets the once over from one of the best brass shops around. This horn is a tremendous value!