Who would you want to make your instrument??????

Please specify others....

There is supposed to be a poll, with different companies on it, I dont know where it is???????????????

1. Click on 'Add Reply'
2. Click on the link to manage the poll
3. Add Poll Title, Content and Options
4. Enter topic title and reply
5. DO NOT close the poll form

Car Expert

There. Thanks for the help........

Bach, and Selmer, very nice trumpets, especially the C trumpet i'm playing on currently, as well as my good old strad

Steinway! (not sure which company though) to make piano... [oops... i came to the wrong one... this forum is under brass]

ShArOn

lol

It varies so much - Yamaha for my cornet, trumpet and soprano, Bach for my flugelhorn, Conn for my daughter's trombone, Sterling for her baritone, round stamp sovereign for my tenor horn.

Oh, and Yamaha for my Clavinova!

A Steinway brass intrument, hand made over several years of hard work, sounds like a good idea actually! Makes me want one!

i'm not sure if there's really one in the world, but i doubt there is...

ShArOn

1) Alexander Brothers of Mainz (they did make two of them)

2) Paxman of London: they used to make an excellent 6 valve full double descant horn in Bb and F alto, but the extra valve means that you can get almost the same length as a normal F horn, so as to get the right sound in the low register. Also, the extra valve means that with the appropriate fingering and adjustment you can get better tuning than with a normal horn. When I win the lottery I shall try to track one down.

3) According to my son, King make the best jazz trombone (plain slide tenor, medium or narrow bore), and Vincent Bach the best orchestral trombone.

besson for euphonium (and practically anything else)
stradivarius for trumpet. I played my friend's stradivarius trumpet and it was so different to my student Yamaha. The high notes were so much easier and sounded much nicer too.

I play a Conn, and I really like it.

We used to have a Conn organ - I hated it - but that was more to do with having to learn to play it than the quality of the instrument

and now, virtuosi for my new picolo trumpet
'Twas a bargain
hehehe

My daughter has got a Yamaha trombone at the moment which the music service lends us. Next year she will probably have to have her own. What is the difference between a Conn and a Yamaha?

1) The Pacific Ocean.

2) Yamaha copies (and sometimes improves) good designs from other makers, and has high standards of production and inspection, so their instruments offer reliably good value. Conn had a high reputation for its earliest horns, which were much favoured by players in the top orchestras of the US, but these instruments are now rather old and are likely to have worn valves unless these have been refurbished or replaced. They moved their production facilities twice during the last 50 years, and production quality has varied markedly. Each of their later factories produced some good instruments, but you need to try any Conn horn to assess its quality. In particular, the mechanical design of the thumb valve on one of their horns is so notoriously troublesome that one of the top US repairers markets a kit (at $150) to replace it. I never heard of any of their other instruments being chosen by a professional player.

Two other companies to add: Alexander and Paxman. Both of these are highly regarded in the UK and the US. There are several individual makers of high quality horns in the US and in Germany, but these can cost twice as much as a professional-quality, factory-made horn.

Hi there

Choosing an instrument is very personal really but when it comes to trombones Conn do seem to be the market leader, particularly if you are looking for a "general purpose" type of instrument. In the groups my daughter plays in most, if not all of the trombonists play Conn 88H's. The Conn 88H is a Bb/F trombone so has got a "plug" - a trigger. The 88H is a pro level trombone and is around about £1350.

In my opinion the Conn has a nicer tone than the Yamaha equivalent and seems to blend more - be it in a wind band/concert band, brass band or orchestra. Not sure about Jazz as my daughter hasn't really branched out into Jazz just yet.

The Conn 88H is also well balanced and a good blow - my daughter tried the Yamaha Xeno and hated it because it felt unbalanced and restrictive when she blew it. As I say, it's all down to personal taste though and I know that some people will hate the Conn's and love the yamaha's.

If you are not looking for a Bb/F but for a straight Bb then other than the Conn 8H, which is rather pricey too, then Conn don't have huge amounts of variety to chose from. Yamaha are very good at the student to mid range. They have a good number of models available for around £400 - £800 and they generally blow well.

We took the decision to move straight to a Conn 88H from a Besson Sovereign as my daughter had just be accepted into the National children's Brass Band of Great Britain and was likely to need a trigger as she was playing 2nd trombone - her arms simply weren't long enough to reach 6 or 7 position in tune! It was a big step for her and sometimes towards the end of a 2 hour practice I can see her getting a bit fidgety because of the weight of the instrument but to be honest i am really glad we did it when we did - she loves her Conn 88H trombone and when she takes her cheaper Besson 600 into school for orchestra she grumbles at having to play her "baby trombone" .

Hope this helps.




As I understand it KerriOboe was enquiring about the differences between a yamaha and Conn trombone?

I never thought of Conn as a top maker of trombones. When my son played trombone in orchestras he used a Vincent Bach "Stradivarius". He has just acquired a King 2B (narrow bore, slide only) for jazz purposes.

Thanks for the information Kixmusic. I have printed out your answer and filed it away for future reference. I know nothing about brass instruments at all and whilst I will go through her teacher and trust his judgement when we do have to buy one I would still like to have some idea of what is available.

The yamaha trombone she is currently using has a trigger for the 7th position and is apparently lighter than most trombones (although I find it heavy compared to the oboe and the flute!)

Happy Christmas!

Glad I was able to help. Your daughter's teacher may well have a view as to what instrument will suit her because he/she will, obviously, know her best (that is, rather than us online folks!) but please don't underestimate the value of your own input. If you have done some research, (and I would guess by the questions you are asking they you either have, or are starting to), then you also have a lot to offer. If I had gone with the opinions offered by some of my professional trombone playing colleauges (bearing in mind that I am predominantly a trumpet/cornet/soprano/flugelhorn specialist) then I wouldn't have bought my 9 year pld old a Bf/F Conn 88H trombone. Whenever trombone playing friends ask me what she is playing on and I tell them they visably suck the air out of the room! Perhaps it is in experation, awe or despair. I'll never really know as they never say! All I know for sure is that Rhiannon loves it and it doesn't seem to have done her any harm given she just her passed her G5, aged 9, after just 15 months of playing a brass instrument. Trust yourself - I bet you know more than you think you do because YOU know your child and what they are capable of if they set their mind to it.

Enjoy the break, pm me after Crimbo if you want to chat a bit more

Instrument I would love: Yamaha Xeno Soprano Cornet - but that's never going to happen ...only £1649.... ... think I can dream on