Posted by Jeff Hicks on October 31, 2001 at 21:48:06:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Weril 980 4/4 4-piston BBb comments/pics posted by Chuck(G) on October 31, 2001 at 19:00:11:
After reading these few posts i thought i would have to make a few comments of my own. First of all I am seriously considering buying one of these horns. My main horn in high school was a very early 321 and i really liked it. The only complaint I ever had was the intonation. If as Joe says the intonation on the Weril is not as funky great. My 5j is just too small. Front action pistons or rotaries do not mean a horn is great which brings me to my second point.
After watching countless clueless band directors waste thousands of dollars on Musica's I hope to see a lot of these Werils. I have witnessed many schools lately making terrible purchases. In this day and age of tighter and tighter budgets a lot of schools cannot afford miraphones or meinl westons. I know of a school that has a 5000 dollar 641 yamaha that sits in a back room useless cause the rotars need redone and the school cannot afford to have it done. The useless flute playing band director just had to have pretty rotary horns like the neighboring school district. With the price Joe has quoted she could have had four Werils that sounded as good as the 2 of the 641's and did the same thing. And that leads me to my third point.
It is far better to have the fourth valve and it not be used than to handicap a student with only three valves. My thoughts is that you should buy the nicest midquality horn for schools. Buy one that will not overwhelm you weaker newer playing students but will allow your better playing students to make quality music without handicapping them by only having three valves. What if one year you have a male student who is a highly capable player and he graduates. The next year his replacement is a small female freshman who is relatively new to the horn. If you have a nice midrange horn each student will benefit greatly from it while not overburdening your budget. Well I will quit rambling this is just my opinion FWIW
Jeff Hicks