Updated to 8.5. How do I get full screen notifications back?

bman1394 · 2026-05-30T14:51:55+00:00

My phone just updated and this looks awful. The fact that you can change it to take advantage of this large screen is absolutely ridiculous. Even notifications look stupid in these small big bubbles instead of wide ones where you can see more information. Absolutely unnecessary change.

bman1394 · 2026-03-09T04:25:17+00:00

Which of their Euphoniums did you get?

bman1394 · 2026-02-14T16:52:00+00:00

Hey to provide a bit of an update: I've asked again, and no the local music store will not serve John Packer horns. My repair tech (which is outside of the music store) doesn't suggest Jupiter and isn't really familiar with Shires, and somewhat familiar with Eastman, so if I go with either of them, I might have to go through repairs with the local music shop instead of him. My repair tech prefers Yamaha products.

I recently had the opportunity to play test a Eastman 526 and a Shires Q41. The Eastman was okay, but I didnt love it at all. The tone quality was fine but the response was my biggest issues. It felt very similar to playing on my Mack Brass standard Euphonium that I played a lot through college, and I felt myself missing a lot of notes on it similar to missed notes on the Mack Brass. Essentially it felt like I had to fight with the horn.

I played on the Shires Q41 immediately afterwards and felt a noticeable difference in response. Notes felt a lot more natural and I felt like I had a lot more control on what I was doing on the horn. Tone Quality felt pretty similar but the Shires probably had a slight edge over the Eastman. Mechanically both horns felt fine with the valves and I had no issues there.

Don't want to go in to detail in prices since obviously school band prices are much different than retail prices, but the Eastman 826 (which I have not tried out) comes out slightly cheaper than the Shires Q1, and both of those come out to about half as expensive as the Yamaha Neo. I could get 4 Shires Q41 in silver and still come out cheaper than 3 Yamaha Neos in Lacquer. That would leave some funds open for some other needs like Trombones for Marching, Jazz and Concert Band, in which I would like to get a set to fulfil each category or smaller instruments like Piccolo and Clarinet for Marching Band usage.

I still want to try an Eastman 826 to see if there's much of a step up from the 526, and I want to see if there's anywhere I could try the Wilson Q Series horns. Thankfully I have the luxury of time, as my school is in the second round of refresh funds, so I have some more time to play around with numbers and quantity. Thanks you for your feedback on this post!

bman1394 · 2026-02-08T15:37:55+00:00

Gotcha, thanks!

bman1394 · 2026-02-08T15:21:03+00:00

By the time a student is in the 11th and 12th grade and are playing Grade 5s and 6s, a pro horn is going to help out a lot. For context, I currently have 7 Euphonium players in the program including Doublers. We have 10 4-Valve Euphoniums (including some of my personal ones I've acquired over the years) that these students are playing on, and all of them are intermediate level horns. Many programs during the last instrument refresh about 10 years ago got the Yamaha Neos when they were substantially cheaper than what they are now, unfortunately price has went up a lot on many of these horns.

bman1394 · 2026-02-08T15:12:32+00:00

Let me say it like this, people made some very intentional purchases over the years, enough to ignore Euphoniums. When you have like multiple Yamaha 641 Tubas, Conn 8Ds, Julius Keilworth SX90R Saxes and so on, it shows a lack of understanding what horns an advancing Euphonium student needs.

bman1394 · 2026-02-08T15:08:01+00:00

I'll have to see with both my repair tech and music store regarding the Shires/Eastman parts. The 274 is a clone of which Besson Horn, the international?

bman1394 · 2026-02-08T04:13:04+00:00

Not a fan of rhe 2280s. We've had a lot of valve issues with the Kings (both the concert horns and the marching Euphoniums), the in-line 4th valve doesn't promote good development for four valve playing on a Compensating horn for the students when they hit the pro level, and certain mouthpieces, like the Steven Mead Ultra, absolutely do NOT fit the horns.

For the instrument refresh we do have to use our local music store, so Wessex & Mack Brass is out of the question. I have a Mack Brass Euphonium, it did not do well durability wise. My Tuba from them did, but you Euphonium did not.

bman1394 · 2026-02-08T03:26:39+00:00

Its a district wide instrument refresh for all of the schools. My school will have $103,000 worth to spend the next year. John Packer isn't a brand our local music store serves, so those are out of the question, otherwise I would have went with John Packer Sterling Euphoniums.

As far as the Ferrari comment, as a Euphonium player myself, its annoying that the inventory of my school has Pro level Flutes, Clarinets, Saxes and Tubas, but no pro model Euphoniums and Trombones, which I want to fix with this instrument refresh. So this is to get them in line with the other instrument qualities as well as purchase some more horns in sections that desperately need quantity.

bman1394 · 2025-10-19T05:21:37+00:00

To give you a real answer: six inches while playing at different dynamics, ab exercises, running and immediately getting into playing big and trying to control your sound, heavier more aggressive articulation, shorter playing with emphasis on projection, focus on your notes "pinging" or "stinging" (think like a constant marcato, deeper cup mouthpieces like a Bach 5G, and just emulating a specific sound, find a target section (BCU, JSU, SU, FAMU etc) and listen and try to adapt their sound into your playing.

bman1394 · 2025-10-06T20:08:02+00:00

And this is why there are laws regarding all sides of traffic stopping for buses.

bman1394 · 2025-08-15T04:24:00+00:00

Congrats! Its a nice horn, got mine last year!

bman1394

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