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Okay so i will try and keep this short. I just graduated from high school and i'm a euphonium player. I have a besson sovereign euphonium that is an amazing horn but I'm not an amazing player. I recently got back into playing and i'm alright, but not even close to actually being in a prestige group. Because of this I am considering selling my besson and downgrading to maybe a conn 19I or king 2280 or something along those lines. The money from it isn't necessary but would be helpful.
I just want to get some more opinions on if it would make sense to downgrade or if im crazy. Thanks!

If you don't need the money then I wouldn't, not unless you find the sovereign physically difficult to put the air through. What are the alternatives like? I'm not familiar with them but I'm guessing they are perhaps just smaller and cheaper? The only benefit would be that its easier to put the air through, but if you have no problem with the sovereign I don't see any benefit as downgrading won't improve your playing.

Other people may know more than me, but I say only sell if you need the money, and practice till you're amazing

tuba.bobby wrote:If you don't need the money then I wouldn't, not unless you find the sovereign physically difficult to put the air through. What are the alternatives like? I'm not familiar with them but I'm guessing they are perhaps just smaller and cheaper? The only benefit would be that its easier to put the air through, but if you have no problem with the sovereign I don't see any benefit as downgrading won't improve your playing.

Other people may know more than me, but I say only sell if you need the money, and practice till you're amazing

I agree 100% Couldn't have said it better.

Do not sell the horn. You'll thank yourself 40 years from now. Yes, practice to become amazing, but good has it's place too. There are community bands and church brass groups everywhere. They all need players. Great fun and contacts that will help you through life.

I too would strongly encourage you to keep the instrument. I'm 64 years old and bought my current tuba in the early 90s for $2600. I'm self-taught on tuba after many years of studying saxophone and flute as a child and into my 20s. Then decades of not playing. Then returning to playing in community bands and such.

Unless at some point you make the decision to give up playing for the rest of your life, you'll regret selling an instrument of that quality. There is a high liklihood that at some point in the future you would again want such a quality instrument -- and you wouldn't be able to afford it. I could not replace the tuba I have today for $5,000 -- and it would be difficult to justify such an expense at this time.

Keep the Besson unless you really need the money.

I agree with the previous respondents: unless you really need the money, keep the Sov. Even if "life" squeezes out playing for a season, you may eventually come back to playing, and at that point, you'll wish you still had that amazing horn.

That said, the King 2280 and Conn 19I (which is a stencil of the 2280) are nice horns. As far as non-compensators god, Dave Werden thinks highly of them:

http://www.dwerden.com/talk/forum/messa ... ight_key=y" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

http://www.dwerden.com/talk/forum/messa ... erthread=y" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

http://www.dwerden.com/talk/forum/messa ... ight_key=y" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

http://www.dwerden.com/talk/forum/messa ... ight_key=y" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

http://www.dwerden.com/talk/forum/messa ... ight_key=y" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Still, if money were to become an issue and I were downgrading from a Sov, I would be looking at the new crop of step-up compensators from reputable retailers like Big Bottom Music Northwest, Mack Brass, Baltimore Brass, Dillon, TubaMM rather than a non-compensator.

I agree with everyone who said not to sell or trade down. I too would keep the Sovereign.

Okay thank you everyone! Yeah I was leaning more towards keeping it honestly , because i love the horn its easy to play and just a great horn. I'm slowly working on getting better and trying to get started back up on private lessons during the summer again. Which is seeming to be easier said then done because i have like 4 different options and trying to narrow them down so far has been extremely difficult.

Good decesion not to sell or trade down as buying a replacement in the future is never easy a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Keep the best instrument you can regardless of where you think your playing is at.

Probably not quite on topic but I've found with both playing wind instruments and hand tool woodworking that you need the best functioning equipment possible.

Before everyone starts screaming "it's the player not the horn" and "a pro instrument won't make you play better" I'd like to say that when someone is learning, if they do something and the instrument responds properly and gives the right feedback then the player then responds to that and improves.
The reverse happens with a bad instrument.

I have major problems with the "learn on lousy equipment and you'll be great on good equipment" theory. My observation over many years of teaching and learning different skills myself is that the reverse is true.

As a kid I always sounded lousy on student model instruments. When I learnt to sound better on a pro level instrument I found that I could go back to student model junk and make it sound as good but I needed the feel of how the pro level horn responded to draw on.

Keep in mind that there are a whole heap of people on here who went back to playing tuba/eupho in middle age after a ten to twenty year break.
Keep the horn and keep playing!

Regards

Gerard