dcstep

I played a couple of these at ITG yesterday. These are great horns, with either a classic light tone or fluffy darker tone, depending on the bell material. I'm going back to compare again to the Selmer Paris Concept TT flugel. The Eclipse and Selmer have great response and even intonation. I preferred both by a considerable margin to the Vintage One, my former favorite (still a great horn and a best buy when you look at the Eclipse and Selmer prices).

It was a great pleasure to meet Leigh, Trent and Bruce at the Eclipse booth and Jerome Selmer at the Selmer table. (Hopefully, one day, 120+ years from now, Leigh's descendants will be at ITG proudly upholding the family tradition he's started at Eclipse).

It's so hard hearing yourself at ITG. I still felt like my comparisons are meaningful, but the higher, faster, louder crowd was in full force.

Any of you guys at the ITG need to go by and try the Eclipse flugel. Do a back-to-back with the Kanstul, V1, Yamahas and whatever (including Selmer). I think you'll be mighty impressed.

BTW, the Eclipse trumpets are very strong. I'm locked in and totally in sync with my Selmer, but anyone needing a fine trumpet must consider Eclipse.

Dave

dcstep

Yesterday, I went back for a second comparison of the Eclipse yellow and red flugels, along with a second look at the Selmer Paris Concept TT flugel.

Well, the winner for me, and jumping to the top of my list of where I'll spend my next bonus, is the Eclipse Flugel with yellow brass bell. The yellow and red blow EXACTLY the same, the difference is all in the tone.

Trent Austin was in the booth, saying he liked a Roy Hargrove-ish tone on his flugel. This is a great description of how the red sounds. There’s a little "fluff" and a lot of warmth in the timbre. The articulation is softer, more rounded, yet not leaden. My guess is that MOST of you will prefer this sound. This seems to be the direction of modern flugel design.

I prefer a lighter, more "classic flugel" tone, with light articulation. Part of that is because that's what I first heard of flugel as a youngster, in the '60s. Also, my flugel use is mostly as a doubler, where I have to pick up the flugel in the fourth set of a rock/soul/funk set and play an intro to "Georgia" so we can begin a Ray Charles tribute, OR play unison with he tenor to create a soft background for "What You Want Do for Love", etc. I find it easier to switch gears to go from trumpet to a lighter toned flugel. Also, I use a "normal" flugel mpc, rather than a super-deep, large throated piece, because I can't handle the transition from trumpet to flugel mpc with that big a step. So, I'm in the light camp and like it there.

The tuning and evenness of both these flugels was absolutely instinctual. No adjustment was required, with the D and E at the top of the staff being very close to spot on and the A and B above the staff behaving wonderfully. The low D and C# feel naturally at had with a slight pull on the very nice third slide trigger.

What about the Selmer, you ask? Well, I wanted to prefer this horn. I clearly preferred it to the Kanstul, Vintage One, Getzen, Stomvi and Yamahas that I played, all of which are much cheaper than either the Eclipse or Selmer; however, the Selmer was even lighter sounding than the Eclipse, too much so for even me.

I feel like the Eclipse and the Selmer matched well with my GR66FL; however, I think there may be more ideal matches out there and others, particularly the V1, may have suffered unfairly in comparison because of a mpc/flugel mismatch. When I buy an Eclipse, I WILL try two or three other mpcs to be certain that I've got a really synergistic combination.

WOW!! What nice flugels.


Dave

trptbenge

Dave, I know you love Selmers so I can imagine you thinking you couldn't wait to play the Selmer. I am glad you got a chance to try the Eclipse. I had heard they were great from Bruce but then, he is a dealer. Thanks for the review.

I already think that some of the US Flugelhorns (Mainly the 1525) are too expensive. I can imagine the Eclipse must be a pretty penny. I think with the exchange rate the trumpets must be going for around $4,000 now. Is that about right?

Thanks!

Mike

Castle Bravo

The Eclpise horns are all GBP 2000, wich is well under $4,000; however I recommend talking to bruce, as he's the stateside dealer and he has the prices.... :)

Bruce Lee

Hi, Dave!

Likewise, it was a pleasure meeting "dcstep", at ITG! We recognized people from their "handles" that they use on the internet, because that is the personality that we have come to know. It was very interesting to be able to put a face, voice, and a "real" name together, for everyone.

I'm glad that you, and many, many others, finally had the opportunity to experience the Eclipse line. The Eclipse flugel was incredibly well received! It simply needs to be experienced, in order to be appreciated.

"Thanks!" to Leigh McKinney, and everyone at First Class Brass, who provided an awesome display of trumpets for ITG. "Thanks!" also, to Trent Austin, for being there, too. It was great to be able to debut the Flugel, and the new C trumpet, at ITG. In addition to the all of the main offerings, many of the "custom" designs were represent, too. It was a "First Class Brass" showcase!

As Dave experienced, it's difficult to really be able to evaluate a horn in an environment like ITG. I'm very happy to discuss all of my offerings with anyone that is interested. My door is always open for players to come experience the Eclipse line in a "friendly" environment. Please feel free to send me an e-mail, PM me, or give me a call. Thanks!

Best always,
Bruce

JackD

How did the C trumpet go down? I think that's the most exciting Eclipse model.

TrentAustin

Hi Jack!

Well, I can tell you that I purchased the MY C trumpet for my use after the ITG exhibits closed. I think it actually plays better than my Bb and the response is heavenly.

Pretty much everyone who tried it absolutely fell in love with the C's! It was about 50/50 on if they had preferred the MY or MR C.

I'll do a general horn post later on in the "wild west" forum.

Best to you all!

-Trent

Thevor

I was a guest of Leigh McKinney at the ITG conference and spent a lot of time at the Eclipse booth. Sitting back, not involved with the sales of Eclipse, I was able to observe not only what was happening in the Eclipse booth but the other booths as well.

One of the first things I noticed was how people tested horns in the room. A typical test was to pick up and blow (a few scales or familiar tune, some went straight to the high notes, ugh), put the horn down and nodded approvingly and moved on. This was simply not true in most cases with the Eclipse line. People would pick it up, do their normal "test", put it about arms length away (the Eclipse stare) shake their heads then start playing again..... inevitably there was the "WOW". It was about this time they would look for the tuning slide and realize it wasn't where they were used to. The process was quite fun to watch.

Second, the amount of time people spent at the booth once they arrived was very long and some people returned 3 or 4 times to the booth. There were some "monster" players that spent an hour or more playing, trying and testing the Eclipse line. When they moved on, the typical routine of a few minutes at each booth became common again.

About the flugel, a gentleman (who happened to be Production Manager of a major horn manufacturer) came by the booth two days in a row. The first day was a pretty typical response about the horn (especially from another vendor), the second day was different. You could tell this guy had fallen in love with Leigh's flugel, he played them both for some time. He was a very accomplished horn player as well. Finally, he reached his hand out to Leigh and said "congratulations, this is a very fine horn, great job". It spoke volumes about the accomplishments of Leigh's ability to produce one of the finest flugels in production.

From all the compliments, the caliber of people testing them, the sweet sound, range and playability that I heard from these horns, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better flugel.

Now about the other horns, well that's another dream and another thread... suffice to say, all Leigh's horns are amazing.

JackD

As soon as I have an excuse to get a C trumpet, a MY-C is mine!

Which did you get - MR / MY?

Glad to hear it went down well.

Jack.

TrentAustin

I purchased the MY C trumpet. It's a better match for what I need in my brass Quintet work as well as the orchestral stuff I do (even though I took the MR C on an orchestral gig and it was excellent as well).

Since I could only afford one more horn (a mandate from my wife, she's put up with so much in the past I'm fine with that) I was REALLY caught in a bind. The flugel exceeded my expectations and while I own an amazing flugel (an Olds Clark Terry) the Yellow flugel was hands down the best horn I played at the conference.

I decided I can "live" with my CT flugel (even though I think I'll send it to Leigh to have him work his magic on it) and I really needed the C.

I just got done an hour straight on the C and I'm laughing after playing it. It's the closest thing I've owned to "playing itself". And it's a C :)

Best,

Trent