Hi Gary.
There is a quintet here in Lethbridge and one of their players mentioned that they'd just had to buy a Yamaha Pic (from Ebay). I saw the one on Don's website and was wondering about it... no idea what the guys paid here. Yes, it's been a while! We've premiered another piece by H. Cable and been told that there is a third presently in the works! No idea when/if we'll be recording again but we've got Jens coming to visit us in the spring and we'll be the demo band next month at the provincial Music Educator's Conference.
You know that there is an Eclipse dealer not that far south of you now? It's
http://www.brawbrass.com/ in Seattle although I know virtually nothing about them. Still, it's probably your closest bet for a "look-see, play-hear".
I've had past service/parts dealings with Kanstul... and can say nothing but good things about their customer service. So if you do have to send the horn away, it'll be in good hands with them. Unfortunately it'll probably take "a month of Sundays" to get it back through customs!
Good luck with the Benge.. or whatever else happens to land on your trumpet stand!
Ed