trade...

[bloke]

...involving an old friend and a new John Packer JP274 compensating euphonium - a trade we set in motion - today - that's going to end up in some amusement/fun and enhancement of my OTHER "for when I have to play high on euphonium" euphonium (a old "red-painted-on-logo" Yamaha 321 - back when they were really made well).

I'll post pics (maybe a demo reel) when this all shake out.

For some of you older guys, this will be nothing new.
I've already told Wade (p.m.) about it.

[the elephant]

It's gonna kick a$$, y'all…

[bort2.0]

Convert to a double bell, but the second bell is another euphonium bell?

[bloke]

Convert to a double bell, but the second bell is another euphonium bell?

' pretty good guess, but it's not quite that useless.

[arpthark]

Aftermarket fifth valve thingy?

[bloke]

Blake guessed it. These are pretty rare, and don't come up for sale very often. If anyone manages to talk someone into building one, that repair guy is going to want quite a bit of money.

For those who've never seen one, I'll put some still pictures and possibly a demo, they convert a four valve inline euphonium to fully chromatic via a dependent fifth valve.

With really good Yamahalternatives out there such as JP that might only cost $1,300 bucks or so, with most any good repair guy probably wanting at least $1,000 to build one of these things, and with good Asian compensating euphoniums available (ex. JP again) for well under $2,000, they just aren't going to be common anymore, if they ever were - which they weren't.

I guess this isn't much different from the old BMB system, other than the fact that it's removable/reversible, and that there's no rubber band.

[bort2.0]

I knew that the 5th valve thing had to be the actual answer... Which is why I guessed the stupidest possible thing.

Joe likes that instrument very much, and there's no way he'd put a bunch of work into some kind of maybe modification.... nor would pretty much any other mod be worth huge effort (dollars to hours making dollars playing it). This is no harder than changing a slide.

Now, I'm sure he'll remark about how poorly aligned the slide was...

Congrats, Joe. Is this a Yamaha original, or the more recent short-lived Horn Guys reboot?

[bloke]

I knew that the 5th valve thing had to be the actual answer... Which is why I guessed the stupidest possible thing.

Joe likes that instrument very much, and there's no way he'd put a bunch of work into some kind of maybe modification.... nor would pretty much any other mod be worth huge effort (dollars to hours making dollars playing it). This is no harder than changing a slide.

Now, I'm sure he'll remark about how poorly aligned the slide was...

Congrats, Joe. Is this a Yamaha original, or the more recent short-lived Horn Guys reboot?

It's a real one.
Since the Yamaha fourth slide has a cross brace, my guess is that this thing will slide right in, particularly since this instrument was made during Yamaha's golden age - when they were trying to establish a reputation, rather than riding on the coattails of one...

...speaking of which, did y'all watch Svengoolie tonight?
Batman's coming on right now, so I need to stop typing and watch Burgess Meredith play the Penguin.

[bloke]

I know people are probably tired of me saying it, but if my King 2280 had the tone of my Packer 274 or my Adams, it's the only euph I would ever need. It's perfect for me, great intonation, 4 quick and light valves in the right hand, and it has a fully independent 5th valve that I added to it.

It's not a bad tone, but it's not "classic British", I still play it when I can, like on 4th of july concerts with a lot of marches

[bloke]

I know people are probably tired of me saying it, but if my King 2280 had the tone of my Packer 274 or my Adams, it's the only euph I would ever need. It's perfect for me, great intonation, 4 quick and light valves in the right hand, and it has a fully independent 5th valve that I added to it.

It's not a bad tone, but it's not "classic British", I still play it when I can, like on 4th of july concerts with a lot of marches

Those have their following; I'm going to have to admit that I haven't spent much time with them. I restored one - one time - and put silver plating on it so it would pop eyes and sell faster, but - honest to goodness - I didn't play it very much, because - after I shined it up and silver plated it - I didn't want to put my hands on it.

Most of those that are seen were made back when King was still a pretty conscientious factory.

As far as a classic British compensating euphonium sound is concerned, my huge Meinl-Weston sounds more like a small tuba (which is how I typically use it), and of course the Yamaha is a bit undersized, but maybe (??) closer to that type of sound.

Wow.. both the Penguin and Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) are on this episode.

[LeMark]

Our friend Joe Baker just picked one up super cheap and he's raving about it. I'm like "yeah Joe, I've been saying for years how good they are, and nobody ever listens to me"

Perfect doublers euph. If I could get Miel Adams to create a 4+1 non compensating version that sounded like the rest of his line, I would sell my prized E3.

[bloke]

I think I've told you that twice a year - Christmas Eve and Easter - I play (mostly) euphonium next to John Mueller, retired principal euphonium of Pershing's Own - who is playing trombone on those same gigs. It's pretty weird, but - over the years - I've grown accustomed to playing next to my betters. He tells me that I'm producing a nice sound, and - well... - I'm playing the same make of instrument that he owns...

I really need to finish building my 4+2 B-flat bass trombone cimbasso, because I'm covering bass trombone parts on those gigs with the euphonium...
... yeah, and about a third of the stuff I have to play on those gigs are tuba parts - that I play on Fat Bastard.

[bloke]

This thing pulls out BARELY enough for an adjusted whole tone, and the (fixed) 5th slide on the YEP-381 (E-flat) doesn't even pull out far enough.

"but bloke, the slide on both of these models is supposed to be an adjusted SEMITONE"

Nope. Neither model's slide pushes in anywhere close to far enough for that.