sop

[ben easler]

hey all,
I just thought I'd post that I just ordered a P. Mauriat soprano from Junk Dude along with a morgan vintage 6 mpc and vandoren optimum ligature. Although this is likely the horn ill keep i plan on going to local places and comparing it to as many as the popular sopranos as possible. So far I think I've found a yani 901, selmer whatever their pro sops are called, a yama and an antigua

[Daktion]

seems like the P. will be up against some competition :) post back with your thoughts when you're done

[Jbroad572]

How does the sop play? How did it compare to the others?

[ben easler]

alright, today i got to try the soprano out against four sopranos. The first was a Selmer SA80 i think series 2 with laquer finish. It was the straight one piece version. On the P, I have found i prefer the bent neck as it sounds darkest, especially in the lower register with this neck. Also, i was using a morgan vintage 6 w/ 2.5 vandoren traditional reeds. The P had a much darker sound than the selmer. On both instruments the entire range speaks rather easily. The sound quality however, was incredibly better on the Mauriat. The selmer was far too bright and sounded like a duck in comparison.
Next up was a Yamaha custom. I dont know if they come with a bent neck as well, but this one had the straight neck on. The Custom played easily and had a very clear and powerful sound. It was much darker than the selmer although we felt that the P still was capable of playing much darker than the Yamaha. I went back and tried the straight neck on the p just for kicks and found that it sounded very similar to the yamaha w/ this setup.
After I decided that the P was superior to these instruments, i went to an antigua dealer hoping that they might have a 586 or 590 to try. Unfortunately he did not, but brought out the sopranos he did have and i decided to give them a shot. They were both older models and I dont know a lot of either model. They were a Buffet Evette model and a Musica model. Both were clearly lower level models, perhaps considered intermediate but they werent close to the p in sound.
I still want to compare to a Curved yanagisawa when i get the chance.. any other suggestions to compare during the rest of my trial period?

[Jbroad572]

Find another Antigua 586 or 590, I'm curious to know the differences between the 2 :). Be good to put against a Selmer pro model as well.
Would you be able to post a clip of it by any chance?

[ben easler]

im trying to find an antigua, and the selmer i tried was a pro model.

[Razzy]

Any chance you could get up a sound clip of the sop? I'm thinking about getting one eventually as it's more in my price range than any other new soprano... but I haven't been able to find any to try out.