Review of the New Bach C Trumpets and Eb

Just had a chance to try the new line of Bach Artisan C trumpets as well as the "Philly" and "Chicago" C trumpets. For me, the "Philly" C was great. I loved the response, flexibility, intonation, and sound of all the C's I tried. The "Chicago" model was quite good as well, but was a bit more zippy for me. Both instruments were close in feel and response. I preferred the "Philly" model. Very nice horn!

I was quite surprised to find I didn't like the Artisan Model. It was a good horn with nice color, but I felt the flexibility was a bit stiff, and the sound was good, but different enough for me to prefer the "Philly" sound. I felt there were some standard intonation issues that didn't work so well for me. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try a silver plated one as someone bought it before the day began. Jury is still out for me on this. But, I can't imagine the flexibility issues (for me) will change on the silver one.

The big surprise for me, was the new Artisan AE190S Eb trumpet. I LOVED this horn! It's set up like a short model instrument (I have a very old Schilke E2), but has a bigger bell and is only an Eb. (Personally I never use a D trumpet). I really loved the sound and intonation! You didn't feel like you were playing an Eb at all. VERY comfortable, much more presence in the sound and the flexibility was very good.

There are plans to release an Eb/D tuneable model in the future. These I want to try as well.