bloke’s idea of an ideal euph

[imperialbari]

Some time ago bloke aired ideas about the ideal being a non-compensting front action instrument with an intonation aid (trigger, kicker, pull options). He possibly wanted 5 valves all in right hand.

Working with my brass galleries I found a photo of something coming quite close. I know what it is, but others should have the fun of finding out about it:

Front view.jpg

Klaus

[Mcordon1]

Neat!

[mceuph]

The Latzsch euphonium:

[bort]

Is that the old
(built by Willson) Canadian Brass euphonium?

Looks like a Marzan (also made by Willson).

[bort]

Yeah, the 3rd valve slide is different than the Marzan euph pictures I've seen, though it does look like my Marzan tuba.

Something from B&M?

[imperialbari]

Canadian Brass non-compensating euphonium 4FP by Getzen/Willson.

The Lätzsch is most interesting , but defies the category by having valves in both hands. And then it is one of the fairly rare compensating rotary low brasses. Others are the Alexander double tubas in F+CC and in F+BBb plus the 3RV Hirsbrunner BBb’s.

My most recent arrival is a Marzan compensating euphonium like the one shown. Bought from bloke, who had bought it for himself as supposedly being very close to his ideal euph. He couldn’t adjust to the differences from his old Willson 3+1 comper. I am very familiar with 3+1 compers, as I have them in Bb, F, Eb, and BBb.

My first test last week of the Marzan made me understand bloke: due to the front action I automatically switched to non-compensating fingerings and ended up a semitone flat in the low range. However I soon readjusted. And there is no regret buying it. I was one of the first test riders of that model, when it came to Denmark in 1974, but I couldn’t afford it back then.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Thanks to all for taking part and commenting!

mceuph, do you have more and also higher resolution photos of the Lätzsch rotary comper? I don’t have that one in my galleries yet.

The Marzan, like the CB comes comping and here non-comping:

Full view.jpg

Back view.jpg

The front view of the comper is in a posting above here. The rear view of my sample (as photographed by bloke) reveals a tuning option really of my liking:

Back.JPG

You might assume the push rod on the main tuning slide, but no: it is the 4th slide. I place my left thumb in the bow and the other fingers on the top bow. That gives me a fast and secure control over the 4th slide’s position.

Klaus

[rodgeman]

I am tempted by this one:



http://www.cerveny.biz/bariton/cerveny_bariton_cep.php

I played a yep-321 in high school. It was never as comfortable as an old King I played once.

It looked something like this one:

[imperialbari]

I am tempted by this one:



http://www.cerveny.biz/bariton/cerveny_bariton_cep.php

The fifth valve on that Cerveny is kind of interesting. It is less than the semitone of the 2nd valve. As I understand it, the purpose is to create in-between pitch options, when the available permutations of the main 4 valves will not allow for a sufficiently accurate amount of resonating tubing. Without having tested this model I might imagine a few samples of application of that 5th valve:

Low E: 1+2+3+5
Low Eb: 1+4+5
Low C: 1+2+3+4+5

Funnily enough this 5th valve is somewhat similar to another of bloke’s ideas:

viewtopic.php?p=268717#p268717

Klaus

[tbn.al]

You might assume the push rod on the main tuning slide, but no: it is the 4th slide. I place my left thumb in the bow and the other fingers on the top bow. That gives me a fast and secure control over the 4th slide’s position.

Klaus

I am almost certain that my Marzan tuning affected the whole horn because I had to tune so many of the notes. Are you certain the tuneable slide is not after the 4th valve?

[mceuph]

That pic was taken straight off the Latzsch website, I couldn't find anything else unfortunately. I think there was a nice pic of it in the big series of pics from the Frankfurt Musikmesse thread from this year.

[imperialbari]

Thanks, will take a look there.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

You might assume the push rod on the main tuning slide, but no: it is the 4th slide. I place my left thumb in the bow and the other fingers on the top bow. That gives me a fast and secure control over the 4th slide’s position.

Klaus

I am almost certain that my Marzan tuning affected the whole horn because I had to tune so many of the notes. Are you certain the tuneable slide is not after the 4th valve?

I see, I opened for a misunderstanding:

The push rod is on the main tuning slide!

I haven’t really dug into the Marzan yet, as my focus currently is more on my tubas. What I hoped to tell was, that the slide next to the main tuning slide is the 4th slide, and that this slide fits my left hand very well like I described.

Klaus