JP273 3-valve compensating Bb baritone horn (on the way)

[Z-Tuba Dude]

Hi Joe,

I can not speak to all of those issues, but a very fine euphonium player whom I know, after playing half a rehearsal on mine, told me that the G-G#-A above the staff are a little out, but are manageable.

[Wyvern]

4/ Are the pistons actually monel (as is claimed) ?

I don't know who claims the valves are monel? The Jinbao catalog says they are stainless steel which they indeed are.

Alignment (and finish) will depend very much on the vintage of when the horn was made. What is coming out the Jinbao factory today bares little resemblance to that of a couple years ago - the quality is improving so quickly.

An instrument repairer in Australia who just bought new tuba comparing it to one he bought made just 18 months ago could not believe that they had both come out of the same factory, so marked was the improvement in build*. The rough valves and misaligned slides are a thing of the past.

* In fact he was so impressed with the latest build quality, he has ordered new tuba of exactly same model as 18 month old one to replace it!

[Wyvern]

The Chinese seller claims the pistons on the new $399 shipping-included instrument are monel.

That one being sold on-line may not be made by Jinbao. There are a lot of brass factories in China, many making what in pictures looks exactly the same instrument. But when you examine them closely you will find they are not built the same. The Monel valve claim would indicate to me it most likely made at unknown factory with unknown quality.

So my advice would be not to buy from that Chinese seller. While a 55 year old horn is also unknown quantity...or I can send you one for far less than cost of restoration job, ready to play, quality assured with two weeks to return if you don't like

[MusicSmiths]

I had one for a short while and returned it. I found the second valve compensating loop was too long making 2-3 and 1-2-3 flat. Visually it looked to be just as long as the first valve compensating loop. 1-3 was in tune. I was hoping for something that was more like by BBb Besson 3 valve comp.

Mechanically it had the same issue with the valve cap threads being difficult to always screw on without accidentally cross threading anything. There was some black grit inside, but the valves themselves seemed to be fine, and the slides were okay.

[tubasaz]

I have owned a Chinese made compensating 3-valve Bb baritone horn. I bought it because I wanted some valve horn for my baritone-range interests (read: trombone). Still - as some may have already said in this forum in some section - it is meant really (and maybe only) to give a sweet baritone range sound for a band. And that´s cool of course. So... in my case.. it didn´t serve for my purposes. Yes, and I sold it. But, hey: The guy who bought my horn was really happy and send me a couple of thanks-postings - I was a little surprised for that. But feeling of course happy because clearly the baritone has some real use to this (British) guy. So I am happy too. And feel quite confident about that btone. I feel that there are nicely good 3-valve compensating (cheap) baritone horns around.

[TheGoyWonder]

For quintet, the 4th voice must sound good with the French horn. Trombone and french horn is such a classic unbeatable sound. Both smaller trombone a little brighter than the french horn, larger trombone that sits under it, or playing in a way they sound like one superhorn. Doubtful that the "meh" sound of baritone does any of that.

[Rick F]

I might (??) hand it over to my buddy in the Ole Miss quintet to use on Ewald III (anything to get him off that wretched euphonium... )

Egads! Euphonium sounds so much better than any baritone IMHO. Just now trying to sound some what acceptable on the JP-273 myself. Thankfully, just got a Bach 5G which is an improvement over the tiny thing that came in the case.