| Hi Bill!
Excellent post! It's good to see you posting on the TM site!
I agree that "tuning" bell horns have been around before but the Eclipse horns are much different than the traditional "tuning bell" horns because the actual bell is fixed as well as having all the bracing of a traditional "fixed bell" horn. This in my opinion is what gives the Eclipse both the amazing flexibility in terms of sound colors as well as amazing centering/projection.
I used to own a Yamaha Custom Bb that had a tuning bell and I really found the horn to be excessively "floppy" due to the lack of the bell brace in front of the valve chassis. I have found that pretty much with every "tuning bell" setup that you do lose some projection out in the hall.
I bet Leigh can shed more light on this as I'm probably making no sense (it is past my bedtime!)
Take care,
Trent |