| Just wanted to post a quick followup -- I've had it three days now and as others have submitted, it does grow on you. I only have two comments to make at this time, and I'll give a thorough review once I'm done with it.
1) The sound is quite nice. It's really growing on me. While I'm still having issues learning to enjoy the "feel" of this horn, the sound is very solid. I've had a hard time deciding if I like it better than my Getzen, but most other listeners do. It has a more solid or focused sound, more centered, whereas my Getzen tends to be a bit more broad. I hope that makes sense because it's the best description I can give. I guess I'd put it like this:
The sound from my Getzen is kinda like taking a bath in nice warm water -- it surrounds you, filling every nook and cranny, but doesn't really announce itself. You can see right through it, but it sure feels nice.
The sound from the Phaeton is kinda like taking a bath in nice warm melted chocolate -- it's a little heavier, you can't help but notice it, and while it may not be quite as clear, it sure does taste sweet!!
2) Intonation -- to be honest, and not to contradict Greg here, but I've actually found the intonation to be pretty decent for myself. I think the mouthpiece probably has a lot to do with it (as well as playing characteristics). To be fair, I didn't tune my middle C and go from there. I actually found the spot with the least resistance, and then adjusted my own playing until the C was in tune then went through the range and a lot of the notes just lined right up. Fs and As, notes that I'm chronically sharp on, came through quite well. The downside is that I had to focus the C a bit more.
Okay, so maybe I cheated a bit. If I had just tuned the middle C and gone from there, there would have been many sharp notes. But I mention this because I wonder if there maybe isn't a flaw in my approach to tuning my horns to begin with, and the Phaeton just woke me up to it. But when I try the same on my Renaissance, I really had to lip up the C, whereas once I settled into the Phaeton, the C locked in automatically.
OH -- one more thing, it seems no matter how I approach it, the high C is rediculously tight. While the horn opens up wonderfully from D-E-F-G above high C, and plays like smooth chocolate from about A on down, the B and C (especially C) are insanely tight and not as open and clean as I'd like them. It's so tight, that even with the biggest mouthpiece I own, I still found myself wanting to go to a D whenever I played C in my quintet rehearsal last night.
But hey -- it's only been three days, and now that I've used the chocolate analogy so much, I'm going to get a snack.....later.
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