On Sunday my wife and I decided to take a drive down to Brooklyn and meet with Felix and his wife. Felix had some visitors from Europe who brought some horns with them and he thought that I might like to play them.
I was about a half hour late so when we arrive it appeared that they were waiting for me. When I walked into the room there were 8 of the most beautiful trumpets waiting for me as well as a flugel horn, 3 strange guys and a woman who I have to say had pretty good english considering where they come from.
The gentlmen from Europe were Mr. Anton Possegger from Possegger Brass and man by the name of Johan from Austria(Great Jazz Trumpeter).
Anton had 2 of his horns named "New Generation" lite and heavy.
Both had 5 1/2" Bells with bracing that allowed you to interchange lead pipes according to your taste. The bell bow & tuning slides on both were shaped in a way that gave the horn a sex appeal if you will! The valves were just amazing, in fact unlike anything I ever felt!!!
Great job Anton... By the way, Felix is the exclusive dealer in the USA for these absolute masterpieces!
Next was the Eclipse LR & MY. I had the opportunity of playing these horns a few years ago thanks to Bruce Lee from Northern Brass... Thanks Bruce, that was a hoot!
Again, beautiful in a way that just makes anything else I've ever owned look up. Both played great and the valves were tremendous!
The Taylor Chicago Custom and The Taylor Chicago ll 46 Lite were another animal not seen to much in this part of the world! The Custom was the heaviest horn I've ever held. The valves again were a cut above what ever horn builders are using over on this side of the pond! The Lite was really nice, at half the weight it was still the next heaviest horn there... These horn builders above deserve so much credit in there "Out Of The Box Thinking" it's not even funny!
Next was a Spiri Vario - Swiss made, this horn had the ability of interchanging bells as well as lead pipes... Again, great great valves...
The last trumpet was a Yamaha 734 Zenith with a Taylor Conversion. I believe this involved the bracing and the lead pipe. Best Yamaha I ever played and in it's price point a real steal!
The playing aspect of each of these horns without making this an all out review was fantastic yet different for each horn! The slotting and intonation are far superior to those horns that I've owned over the years from our "Biggies"...
The build quality is what really impresses me. I have spent probably $12,000.00 in 7 years on what I and most of you feel to be the best horns available!! My reasons for this is because I have been unable to find that horn that suits me. Some around here and other places claim that the horn doesn't make the player yet the player makes the horn! While I agree to an extent I now believe that anyone of these great horns above made a difference in my thought process, approach and attitude which equated to sound, power and a good attitude...
My next comment may ruffle some feathers but having spent that amount of money above has spawned it! I have owned most of the "Biggies" if you get my drift with the exception of Monette! Why are these European horns so far and above the products (Same Price Point) that are put out over here? The valves , the bracing, the workmanship, the fancy caps...I could go on and on. With the exception of Mr. Taylor's horns these were all priced similarly yet I left Felix's scratching my head! Basically it's like this, Lincoln or BMW for about the same dough? I now know what I would pick, hands down..
This is really not to slight any of the trumpets made here in the US but simply to get some people to take off the blinders and make judgements based on quality and thought... Afterall, these Horn makers have taken the extra time and care for our benefit! They deserve that in return...
Playing them was another enlightenment. I am not a consistent Dubba C player. In fact, I have always had a problems getting the high B just below to slot or center. With the exception of the Custom Taylor(Heavy) because I did not bother, every note slotted to super C and above on all of these horns.... In fact, I played more dubba "C's" in 30 minutes than I have in 5 years combined! Again, walking out of Felix's house scratching my head! These were real notes with volume and tone..I'm still scratching!!! The tone in the mid to low registers were as even as it gets! The double pedals even sounded impressive...
I can't forget Felix's baby The Stage 1. I had that horn a few weeks back for 1 week and it gave me the same feeling. He has a Lightweight version coming out in April that I can't wait to play, Hurry up!
If any of you are in the market for a great horn(A keeper so to speak) you have to try some of these or you'll be cutting yourself short!
I was in a room with about $30,000.00 worth of pride, it was evident beyond a shadow of a doubt!!!
The pleasure was all mine in meeting the fine people I met on this day.. I am better for that.
Thanks for reading!
Peace,
Tony G