| The most obvious difference between a Chicago Benge and all the rest happened when the valve port design was changed. The original port design required some deflections where two ports 'cross' in the valve. This is seen with the bump where the two ports lie next to each other.
Sometime early in the Burbank era, the valve ports were moved farther apart. The effect on the player is that the valve's stroke is longer, i.e. it travels a greater distance between the up and down positions. Also, when looking at the valve ports, the bumps are much smaller, i.e. they deflect less into the port.
Benge also began offering different lead pipes and bells. While I profess to know a lot about Benges, I do not know the specifics of the pipes. All I know is that the 4x and 5x differ only in the lead pipe.
The 5x bell diameter is considerably smaller than the bell diameter of the 2c+. It is also smaller than my friend's Bach (bell designation unknown, but nothing special so it is likely a 25 or 37).
I've never even held a Chicago, much less played one, so I'm not able to give you anything other than these dry statistics. |