The Brass Band Forum

Hi I've played the Soprano Cornet for nearly 2 years (Been playing for 4 years) now and have always been pushed in terms of range and ability. Now the time has come for me to purchase my own.
I have been playing a Besson Sovereign with its mouth piece extension thingies. Now I don't know what to buy, I've heard that besson aren't as good as they used to be. Yamaha are said to be the king of the Eb instruments.
I want your help. Keep it to a decent budget, I'm not made of Money!

I would recomend the Courtois !

I got one just over a year ago. I have played most types including the schilke, Yamaha and the besson and to be honest the courtois is the best of the bunch in my opinion

David

Don't know about king of Eb instruments, and certainly can't speak for sops, but I tried a yamaha horn once and would certainly never go down that route unless I was forced to by every courtois and sovereign (in that order - big courtois fan even though I have to use a sovereign for band) on the planet being destroyed. It lasted less than a week before I refused to play it anymore. It was uncomfortable to hold after a sovereign - maybe that would have grown on me, though I did try and it didn't seem to improve at all - and I had horrendous problems with tuning, with the band but also even individually.

It might have been that that instrument was a one-off (I hope so) and that other people can swear that it's the best type of horn they've ever played. However I found that attempting to tune it, let alone to the band, was impossible, and was relieved to say the least when I was able to see the back of it. Just a thought and based entirely on my experience with the horn, but if the tuning on the sop is anything like the horn, don't go there!!