psurace

Hey what's going on everyone. I am looking into buying myself a Strad. I was wondering what you reccomend. I can spend about 1600 and am looking for a rich round dark tone, was thinking a 37 or 43 ML with reversed leadpipe. I am a Cadet age out and the last horn i owned (and still do) is a bugle.......yes we played BUGLES in drum and BUGLE corps!!!! Naturally i need a rich dark tone i don't care for a bright baroque sound.

I know my dad had a stradavarious from 1952.........am i still right going for one, and does what i have an idea of fit in with what i want? I haven't bought a horn in forever. Please let me know, also...........how much should a new bach cost?

Thanks all

-P

trumpetera

Bright baroque sound?....!

Robert Rowe

Hello, psurace. Welcome.

Do not be so eagerly sequacious.

Take plenty of time; peruse the posts here on this Forum. Ideally, you might patronize the sponsors advertising on this web-site. They will treat you well.

Robt

bandman

I suggest you either look at old Bach's (at least pre-1980) or stay away from the Bach trumpets all together. I just started a fun thread about suggesting a horn for an all around player. Maybe in a few days there will be some very good answers for you to read.

gglassmeyer

The key to buying a new horn is to play many of them. Because of the hand hammered bells of the Bach Strads and other pro horns, they have different personalities. If you play 10 different Strads they'll most likely all sound different. For your $1600 you can find Bach Strads, Conn Vintage One, Yamaha Xeno and all are nice horns. Yamahas have the best consistency of manufacturing (meaning the difference between any 2 horns is less noticable) but many folks think they have a very workman like average sound quality ( I think they sound fine ).
Bach still makes really good horns, but you may have to try several to find the exceptional one. This is a problem as most stores don't stock a huge quantity of horns.
I just bought a Conn Vintage One 1BR-46 (the rose brass with lacquered finish model). My experience with seeing a few of these is that you need to check the horns carefully as they're not too carefull about inspecting the horns before they leave the factory. One had the mouthpiece receiver attched too far down the leadpipe and my mouthpiece didn't seat properly. Mine also had the small 3rd valve slide segment (for emptying "water") fit too snug on the top tube. I'll need to fix this, but for now I just remove the whole slide. I was torn between a bach and the V1, until I switched out the "squared" tuning slide in favor of the round tuning slide. It really made a huge difference in the blow of the horn. I also liked the shorter valve distance and overall like the rose brass look. The horn comes with the 2 tuning slidse and the modular valve weight system. The horn is more responsive with no weights added and by adding extra weight it's supposed to help darken the sound and supposedly makes it slot better. I used to play an old lightweight Yamaha, and compared to my old horn, this new horn is so much easier to play that I can't tell a huge difference.

I would start with the Bach Strads, Yamaha Xeno, and the Conn Vintage One. Play them in various configurations and finishes.

If you can scrape up a bit more cash you should also try Schilke and Kanstul.
I'm not sure about the Stomvi pricing, but they're supposed to be nice horns too.

Play them all you'll know the right one when you find it. It's fun to play a bunch of new horns and people in the stores are really nice when they think they're going to cash in on a $1700 sale.

Also don't discount silver plating, heavier bell materials like gold brass, rose brass, copper etc. have more to do with the darkness of tone than the difference between lacquer and silver plate. Though silver plated horns typically cost more than their lacquered equivalent. Silver plating tends to hold up better than lacquer though.

Enjoy the quest.
Greg

Manny Laureano

Like you would get using piccolo trumpets. He's not talking about historically authentic natural trumpets. He's talking about the brighter piccolo MOST people use in order to play baroque music.

ML

mlockman

The Bach Strad with a 37 bell would be an outstanding instrument. I find all the talk about inconsistancy is false. My students buy lots of Bach Strads each year and I have yet to find a bad one.

tpter1

Bach does make a great horn. Find time to get to a retailer and play as many as you can, in different finishes with different configurations. Play every one they have in stock. You will be dropping some serious cash, it's a once-in-a-great-while investment, so be sure you have the horn in your hands that you cannot put down. If they don't have that, ask if they can order more for you to try. Be patient, be persistent, and try as many different instruments as you can. Even try ones you have no intention of buying just to get a sense of what the differences in horns are. They all play just a bit differently. Bring a buddy with you who knows your sound preferences so he/she can tell you from the business end of the horn what's going on.

At Dillon music, current pricing ranges around $1799 for the 180 series Bachs; around $1500 for Benge; $1150 for Besson; $1899-$1995 for Schilke B series; Yamaha $1500-1700. Quite a few horns in your range, so check as many as you can.

Eclipsehornplayer

Well, I'm a pre UMI King guy myself.

Bach's are fine no question; but I didn't like the Bach 37 that I tried. Definately play as many as you can.

That's how I settled on my 1964 King Silver Flair.