Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 00:47:31 +0100
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
From: Klaus Bjerre
> There has been an E.B.Winston contra bassoon on Ebay
forever. Little info
> and a catalogue photo of a standard instrument. Is
there such a thing as a
> Winston contra? Who REALLY makes it? I imagine
it must rank down there
> with Amati.
In the brass world Winston is an euphemism for exactly Amati.
The problem with Amati brasses is, that they cannot all be
dismissed as bad musical instruments, even if many of them are
impossible from musical as well as technical criteriae.
Forget about all of the piston brasses and about all of the
slide trombones.
However I have acquired an oval Bb Tenorhorn, which is VERY
playable and well sounding, for a local band. I have since tried to buy
it for my own collection, but the idiots in the band management have
set the price not to the one I negotiated down for them, but to the one
generated by my playing of that instrument. A price I of course am not
ready to pay.
The Amati woodwinds are out of my first hand knowledge. But
Amati in this area doesn't have the huge benefit of sitting on the
tradition of Cerveny's original brass designs, actually owning them.
And even the better Amati brasses have one big inherent problem:
They are basically identically in design to the Cerveny models
coming out of the same production lines. However any possible shortcut
has been applied, when it comes to selection of materials. Valve
transmissions out of brass is not a very durable concept
especially when compared to the nickel silver equivalents of the
Cerveny lines.
Amatis may be loved for their mark-up's by retailers. But their
repair guys in the back-shops are less enthusiastic.
Klaus
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:54:39 -0800
From: "Chuck Guzis"
Subject: RE: [CB] [CB Digest]
On 1/11/2005, William Coye wrote:
>Anybody,
>There has been an E.B.Winston contra bassoon on Ebay
forever. Little info
>and a catalogue photo of a standard instrument. Is
there such a thing as a
>Winston contra? Who REALLY makes it? I imagine
it must rank down there
>with Amati.
I can only speak for the brasswinds, but I imagine a similar
situation obtains with Winston woodwinds. A few years ago, almost
all E.M. Winston brasswinds were made by Amati; now it appears that
some of them may be made in Taiwan. If you've gotten a decent
photo of the eBay contra (not the one they have on the auction
listing), you might want to compare it with the Amati product:
Cheers,
Chuck
***End of Contrabass Digest***