Decent Bass Getzen 1052 or Eastman 848

[miketeachesclass]

The subject says it all.

I’m looking at these two horns, and the Eastman is a bit cheaper, but I could stretch a little for the Getzen.

I’m a doubler whose primary is Euphonium.

My interests are primarily in Brass Band and chamber music.

I was also looking at the JP Rath 333, but couldn’t find much info.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Mike

[Burgerbob]

Personally, I would get the Eastman out of those two choices.

[Matt K]

I've less experience with the Eastman and the JP Rath, but I have had a Getzen 1052, which is a really great horn. Made by the same people at Edwards with ,and as far as I'm aware, the same parts. The key difference is that it isn't modular with Edwards. The only draw back to it is that it plays a little on the broader side of things for my tastes. I actually thought it was because of the bell, which I misinterpreted as heavyweight. It's actually a very lightweight bell but Edwards tuning slides are pretty big and the throat that goes into the bell is quite large. I only had two leadpipes to choose from and they were on the broader side, and in hindsight I wish I would have tried a '1' or similar in it.

I would still have it, actually, but I like tinkering more than I should. So I was originally planning on having the rotors replaced with some Infinity rotors (for no particular reason) but I ended up with a Shires screw bell so I decided to go that route instead. I think that any of the problems I had would it would have been totally ameliorated by fine tuning the leadpipe. It was fine in commercial settings, which is where I primarily used it, with a smaller cup depth (I settled on an LB114/I/I8, of all things... but I was using a very short, sterling-silver "Dave Taylor" leadpipe... again... hindsight the pipe combination was probably not so great).

[DJWPE]

I have a JP Rath 333. I like it a lot, but I don't have a lot of bass experience. It's a great value. Great handslide, a little flat out of the box, but nothing that can't be worked around.

The 2nd valve linkage is a little "squishy", but for the price, you can't beat it.

If it's worth anything, a friend who's a freelancer borrowed my JPR 333 for a gig rather than bring his own converted 72H.

Don

[Specialk3700]

I would take a look at a shires q bass

[miketeachesclass]

Interesting - I see now that the Shires Q series is developed by shires and built by Eastman. This is also what they say about the Eastman 848. I wonder what the difference is. (Other than the obvious ~$700)

I would take a look at a shires q bass

[Matt K]

Interesting - I see now that the Shires Q series is developed by shires and built by Eastman. This is also what they say about the Eastman 848. I wonder what the difference is. (Other than the obvious ~$700)

I would take a look at a shires q bass

If you're going new the Q is definitely on the top of my list and are around the same price as the Getzen 1052. They are essentially the most popular combination of parts, similar to how the Getzen are the most popular configuration of Edwards components, but unlike the Getzen horns, the Q series are fully modular with Shires parts. (Caveat being that the tolerances have to be very, very precise so you might get, for example, a tuning slide that was from a horn 10 years ago and need to have it slightly adjusted to fit, but it isn't like getting a Bach tuning slide to fit a Shires.)

The "Q" series instruments are actually built in the Boston factory. The parts are shipped to the Eastman factory in China where they are assembled and returned to the Boston factory for lacquering and QC.

[miketeachesclass]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like the Q series is something I should look into.

Interesting - I see now that the Shires Q series is developed by shires and built by Eastman. This is also what they say about the Eastman 848. I wonder what the difference is. (Other than the obvious ~$700)

If you're going new the Q is definitely on the top of my list and are around the same price as the Getzen 1052. They are essentially the most popular combination of parts, similar to how the Getzen are the most popular configuration of Edwards components, but unlike the Getzen horns, the Q series are fully modular with Shires parts. (Caveat being that the tolerances have to be very, very precise so you might get, for example, a tuning slide that was from a horn 10 years ago and need to have it slightly adjusted to fit, but it isn't like getting a Bach tuning slide to fit a Shires.)

The "Q" series instruments are actually built in the Boston factory. The parts are shipped to the Eastman factory in China where they are assembled and returned to the Boston factory for lacquering and QC.

[Slideorama]

Getzen FTW.