oval euphonium

[Tabor]

Hey all,

Does anyone have any experience with those Jinbao/chinese oval euphoniums? How do they play? How about the Mirafone oval euph? The Cerveny?

Is anyone looking to sell one (4 valves)?

Tabor

[Dan Schultz]

I don't know about the Jinbao but I bought a Maestro 4V rotary euph abot a year ago and it played so well I had two guys fighting to buy it.

The owner plays it in a German band with me and he loves it.

I can't say that they are ALL that good but this one is.

[Lyle]

I have a Mirafone 5rty valve euph, also known as a 'Kaiser Baryton'. It is a great horn & the oval shape eliminates the sharp bends in other horns. My Mirafone has a expanding bore throughout the valve section like Mirafone tubas. It might be for sale if a current interest pans out.

[stardude82]

St. Pete's makes them too in the Bb Bariton and Tenorhorn flavors. I understand they are cheeper than the Cerveny's, too. Unfortunately they aren't much better their tuba's. A guy who plays in a german band with me bought one about 4 years ago. He loves the horn (a 4V baritone) inspite of the crummy intonation and quality. I have a tenor made back in the 80's and it has the same problems. Their nickle plate is crap and I have a feeling the laquer isn't much better. The other guys play in the band play the Cerveny, an Alexander and a couple no-name older horns.

I think the simple reason why they aren't very popular is because the intonation on most of those horns is horrid inspite of how they sound.

[KarlMarx]

Ovoids = Wagnertuben? Nil, non, nein, no, Nagasaki! Statuamente globalismus Schwartz!

Tenorhörner et Baritonen applicada munstycker de Posaunen storläkar, castrado ock avec båda Kugeln respectivamente.

Wagnertuben brukar des embouchures trompas!

Carolus Disgustitamus

[cjk]

The intonation was horrible, especially when using the fourth valve.

I've seen you post this twice and am unsure what you mean.

On an uncompensated instrument, using the 4th valve plus any other valve will yield in lousy intonation (assuming no slide pulling or lipping). That's just the nature of a four valved instrument.

[Tabor]

Hey Russ,

Thank you for posting that clip. I enjoyed your playing. The Mirafone sounds like a nice little horn, too.

-Tabor

[Wyvern]

I do have a sound byte of Bydlo on this bariton if you care to listen.

http://bassclefbrass.com/sounds/bydlo.mp3

I just came across this. Well played Russ - very nice sound!

[jeopardymaster]

Had one, lovely instrument, but needed a lot of alternate fingerings - it was way out of tune in places. Biggest issue I had was that its low range was virtually unusable. Whenever I engaged the 4th valve, the resistance completely changed. In retrospect, I think there might have been a leak in the pipe somewhere. Anyway, I sold it, bought a Besson, and have never looked back.

[Lyle]

Hi, I posted long ago about my Mirafone 5rty Valve euphonium. The horn, with case is for sale for $1500.00. The intonation issues are not much different than a Mirafone tuba. If interested, please email me for more details. Thanks, Lyle

[Chuck(G)]

A friend bought a little no-name Chinese oval euph for about $150. Construction was pure crap with leaks and bad solder joints all over the place. But the valves were surprisingly good. After plugging the leaks, the intonation wasn't bad at all.

[jeopardymaster]

Alternates included tuning the 3rd valve slide for g - 1-2 was too sharp there, but worked on d; 1-2 for d1, 1-3 for eb1, which I still have to do on my Besson sometimes; some other weirdness higher up that I've tried (successfully) to forget. False pedals below E.

OK?

[SplatterTone]

I bought the 3-rotor "euphonium" from Bandfolio about 3 years ago for my son when he started elementary grade school band. Good intonation, easy to play, good valves, fit of slides OK. Bore and tone are a bit small for a "euphonium". Thin brass dents easily (but fixes easily); light weight and easy to carry. I don't know if Bandfolio is still selling the same horn.

[Kevin Hendrick]

They might well be -- I see their horns on "the auction site" from time to time (no euphs at the moment, but they do have a trumpet listed) ...

[Lyle]

Hi, To the previous 'poster', I am unable to post a photo of my Mirafone Euph. but if you will email me @ Lyle_Hill1@msn.com, I will paste the photo to you. Sorry it has taken so long.

[Blake Dowling]

I can't speak for jinbao euphs, but as far as tubas go, they are terrible. the sound is bright and interesting but that is all. i bought one when i got into high school and i couldn't ever use it. no matter how many times i had the rotors professionally cleaned or worked on they still wouldn't move. and as far as denting goes they might as well as be made of tin foil.

[Alex C]

The oval horns, actually Wagner tubas, are quite popular in Europe, but less so in the US.

There is quite a bit of difference between an oval euph and a Wagner tuba. Remember that Wagner tuben were designed to be played by the horn section.

Even though the Bb Wagner tuba has the same length of tubing as the oval euph, it is wrapped the the opposite direction so that it must be played left handed. It also requires the player use a French Horn mouthpiece. The Wagner tuba in F is the same length as an F tuba.

The oval euphonium, pictured earlier in this string, is designed to be played by the right hand. In Europe, it is a more common instrument than the standard British design euphonium, though there are a lot of surplus US Army instruments still floating around there. The Wagner tuba is still rather uncommon anywhere.

The U. of Houston used to march a whole squad of F and Bb Wagner tubas on the field. I think Bill Moffet was the director then, he must have thought that the Wagner tuba would get the horn sound up into the stands. I don't know if the idea works but I always thought that marching with Wagner tubas and European helicons would be an interesting sound.

[Chuck(G)]

There is quite a bit of difference between an oval euph and a Wagner tuba. Remember that Wagner tuben were designed to be played by the horn section..

And every hornist I've talked to who has had to play one of the buggers despised it because of the difficulty of playing it in tune.