Wanting my own sackbut... but the price.

[SackbutLuke]

Hi trombones,
I have been playing sackbut at my university for some time now and have been lucky enough to play the Egger models that the university owns. However, now that I'm nearing the end of my degree and am quite passionate in continuing early music (am looking into further study in Europe) I would like to own my own sackbut so that I can continue playing the instrument in local ensembles.
At the moment, the Egger instruments are the ones I have most experience with (especially the after Hainlein tenor in Bb), but the price tag for me at the moment is quite high. I am getting into the workforce now and am starting to save up some money, but I'm unsure as to whether I should keep saving up for the ~$9,000-10,000 price tag, or if I should buy a cheaper model.

Let me know your advice, and what other models I could have a think about!

[LeTromboniste]

Hi Luke!

I'll send you a PM as well today or tomorrow , but here's some quick info. It is quite unfortunate that there are not viable cheap alternatives on the market, because it is indeed an obstacle for enthusiastic new players and also quite annoying for the professionals, who need a ton of different instruments.

If you're looking at Egger, I would very confidently recommend the "standard" model, which is about 3700 CHF (around 6400$ Australian) for a tenor. They have more expensive models that use a historical alloy, hammered brass sheets and include more decorations, and the difference might be worth it if you have a lot of money to spend but if you're on a budget the basic version is a great place to start and would likely still last you a good chunk if not all of your career. That's what I got when I was in your situation, that's what I still play, and I have no plans to change it in the foreseeable future. The nice thing with Egger too is you could wait until you're in Europe, go to the workshop and try a bunch of different slides and bells and walk out with an instrument. Pretty much every other maker makes to order and has a long waitlist.

Of course that's still a lot of money. For other options, the two other main makers are Ewald Meinl and Aron Vajna. Also fantastic instruments, but both have prices that start already higher than Egger, so probably not viable for you. Tony Esparis makes better and better instruments and more and more offers copies of interesting originals so that would be worth looking into. As far as I know his prices are still a bit lower than Egger. There's also Brad Close in California, who's a regular on the forum here. I haven't had a chance to play one of his instruments yet, but I know several people who have and say good things. Last I checked his prices were about 60-70% of the price of an Egger.