Posted by Art on March 10, 2001 at 21:55:21:
I recently played on a four-rotary-valve chinese euphonium. I think it's a Jinbao. It's oval form, apparently an imitation of a Cervany. Contributors to this BBS have been unanimous in condemning these instruments as junk, but have not said just what it was that they didn't like. Well, it has a very flat 5th partial as one would expect on a fat horn such as this. But the valves are tight and work very smoothly. The mouthpiece receiver is bigger than a standard tenor trombone but smaller than a bass trombone, but I did find an old english euphonium mouthpiece that fit just right and the one that came with the horn isn't bad.
The big surprise was when I tried to play down below E just below the staff. It suddenly becomes unplayable. Do real Cervanys have that problem? If not, what physical differences account for that playing difference? It reminded me of a very old Czech BBb tuba, owned by a friend of mine, which plays magnificently below BBb and horribly above. In both cases the horn feels as if it's stuffed with paper wads when you get into the forbidden range, and I wish I could figure out why. It's got to be something physical, not metaphysical.