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Kessler Custom Curved Soprano Impressions

5K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  kylejkarasch 
#1 ·
I went to Kessler's today to have some work done on a soprano of mine and while I was there I tried the new Kessler Custom Curved soprano.

I didn't have a lot of time to spend today, but my initial impression is: It's a great little horn! It plays smoothly from top to bottom. It was effortless from the low Bb all the way through the palm keys and up to the high F#. I didn't have my tuner but I don't think I needed it as the intonation sounded good to my ears. It looks nice and feels solid and comfortable. The key action was fluid and worked just right. It has some nice quality touches like a Yanagisawa-style metal thumb hook that felt comfortable (I don't use a neck strap so this is important to me).

The tone was what I would describe as "neutral," a nice clean soprano sound that would work for any style. As I warmed up a little the tone seemed to get just a bit sweeter, but even with cold chops it sounded good to my ears.

The only thing I tripped up on a little was the low Bb table key, which seemed a little small (I'm used to the "ramped" style on my Yanagisawa and this one was flat). I also remember kind of hunting for the Bb bis key the first time I needed it but never noticed it after that. Dave (Kessler) mentioned something about the G# key (I don't remember what) but to me it was exactly right. I'm sure that if I had 30 minutes to spend with this horn I would have been completely comfortable with it.

If I hadn't bought a used Yanagisawa curved off eBay a few weeks ago I would have bought this horn. (Kessler's didn't have these horns in yet when I was shopping for a curved soprano.) Dave indicated the Antiguas are still the best all-around horns in this price range; it's been a while since I played one and it would be interesting to play the two side by side. Regardless, a curved soprano that plays this good for $800 is a superb value in my opinion.
 
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#2 ·
Although this is now an old post, these are very valuable observations, Chris. Thank you for sharing.

Kessler has since stopped selling most Antiguas, and does not recommend the Antigua curvie, but only the straights, among sopranos, that is.
 
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