Odyssey Premiere flugelhorn
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Odyssey’s Premiere range provides a ‘step up’ instrument from their basic ‘Debut’ range and is as such aimed at the student/semi-pro market.
Like its stablemates, the flugelhorn is a beautifully finished, well built instrument with a rose brass bell and lead pipe. Coming with Monel pistons, it has a relatively large bore, tightly fitting slides and is fitted with an attachment for a music stand. The weight and balance is good and the wide bell opens out quite early and has a shallow bell end which no doubt helps with sound projection and volume, making this an ideal instrument for a big band or marching band scenario.
Fitting the supplied (7C) mouthpiece, we noticed that the hole was considerably smaller than the house mouthpiece (also a 7C), making the upper register easier to play, but conversely making it difficult to achieve any power in the lower register. We switched to our own 7C with its wider hole! This immediately opened up the sound of the instrument, although the Flugel still retained it’s rather ‘trumpet like’ tones. We were surprised that the piston springs are set as strong as they are – there were some tired fingers at the end of this test! However, the third valve works well and the instrument plays fine through the ‘D’ area.
This isn’t your typical mellow Flugelhorn and we reckon it was never designed to be a soloist’s instrument, but rather a team player. Shipped in a semi-rigid, zippered case with a pre-formed, plush lined interior, there is also a zippered front face pocket, shoulder strap and back harness. Excellent value at just a whisker under £330. For more go to www.jhs.co.uk
Fitting the supplied (7C) mouthpiece, we noticed that the hole was considerably smaller than the house mouthpiece (also a 7C), making the upper register easier to play, but conversely making it difficult to achieve any power in the lower register. We switched to our own 7C with its wider hole! This immediately opened up the sound of the instrument, although the Flugel still retained it’s rather ‘trumpet like’ tones. We were surprised that the piston springs are set as strong as they are – there were some tired fingers at the end of this test! However, the third valve works well and the instrument plays fine through the ‘D’ area.
This isn’t your typical mellow Flugelhorn and we reckon it was never designed to be a soloist’s instrument, but rather a team player. Shipped in a semi-rigid, zippered case with a pre-formed, plush lined interior, there is also a zippered front face pocket, shoulder strap and back harness. Excellent value at just a whisker under £330. For more go to www.jhs.co.uk