I am so pleased with this low Bb baritone. The finish and build quality is exceptional for the price range in that ‘it punches well above its weight’. It sounds great, as to be expected with a low Bb bari. The loss of that extra bell length just makes a low Bb bari sing better than a low A model.
The action is very good, the tone is nice and bright and, it projects far better than my low A bari. The intonation is also really good up and down the main stack from low to upper octave up to C#. I pushed my Dukoff metal mouthpiece on the neck cork about the same distance as my low A and it was pretty much in tune and intonation, and playing out of the box.
The total weight of the horn is somewhat less than a low A which makes it much nicer for swinging about when soloing. Thomann don’t say but the total weight of this horn is 5.48 Kg. I normally sling my bari with a standard neck strap.
I’ve been watching the prices for some time and they don’t seem to be going down at all given the current exchange rates so, I bit the bullet now. I actually fancied the un-lacquered version but the price difference just isn’t justified. There is not much competition out there when it comes to low Bb bari saxes.
The only thing I would point out is that you can’t use a standard marching band lyre on this horn due the awkward placing of the lyre clamp and screw. They are normally placed on the main body of a bari, above the B cup and not on the neck receiver. Additionally, the front auxiliary altissimo key is just a little too close to the B key given the normal side slung, top forward position of a bari sax, but I’m sure I will get used to that.
