1966 was a very special, and musically defining year. Two key musical developments were conceived. Yamaha Professional Brass… and me!
Since then, Yamaha has developed a wide range of brass and woodwind instruments. By utilising the latest technologies as well as skills honed over the years they continue to make fantastic instruments. Working with everyone from professional musicians to those who are taking their first musical breath, Yamaha continues on this journey to enrich people’s lives through music.
As do I.
You're welcome.
In this article, I will introduce you to the high-end professional range of Yamaha Brass Instruments. These are the very same one’s that many professional musicians use today around the world.
The new YAH803 Neo Tenor Horn, is a professional level horn from Yamaha. This tenor horn has a radical new design. Re-thinking the instrument from scratch, they have considered every element. By doing do they have rethought, revised and refined it to make the Yamaha Neo.
This ‘top-to-toe’ redesign (with help from Sheona White) ensures great tuning and sound projection. It even has the legendary Yamaha build quality and attention to detail. The Yamaha Neo Tenor Horn has been specifically designed to produce a brass band sound, which it does perfectly. It has new levels of power and projection whilst maintaining its warmth and depth. Its one-piece, yellow brass bell, heavier valve casing and tuning slide and 1st branch tapers creates a greatly improved sound quality and pitch.
In my opinion, this tenor horn is unrivalled, and I'm not alone. This is what a local principal musician customer thought of it when he purchased it:
“
After struggling with the Besson Prestige and a troublesome trigger I swapped it for the Neo. The Neo, although cheaper, is in a different league, easy to play, in tune across the range without the need for gimmickry. Beautiful shades of light and dark. Loving it.”
With the Yamaha YHR-668 you get a strong sound, deep warm tone, secure note centres and impeccable intonation. The combination of the secure high register, strong projection, and quick attack of the Bb horn with the rich, warm timbre of the F horn make the double horn ideal for most playing situations.
The top quality 668 Kruspe Horn offers accurate intonation and a comfortable feel. The Edward Kruspe design layout features the B-flat change valve close to the thumb key. This configuration results in several tubing bends that don’t exist in the Geyer design, leading to the “closed wrap” name. There are some advantages to this extra tubing, including more options to tune the horn on the B-flat side and also easier ability to empty water from the instrument.
It features a large throat bell for a full sound and a quick response, 12mm bore, yellow brass bell, solid valve rotors, and an adjustable thumb rest.
These superb Yamaha YHR-668 French Horns are available in yellow brass and nickel silver finishes, plus a detachable bell version.
I have been lucky enough to play many models of professional trombones in my career: Conn 8H & 88H, King 3B & 4B, Bach Stradivarius 36, and Rath R3 & R1.
They all have their own idiosyncrasies of response, tone, intonation, slide-feel, and weighting, but they are all excellent in their own right. I can now add Yamaha to this list with their Xeno professional trombones.
The YSL8820 (open wrap) is a top quality symphonic, large bore trombone, ideal for a grade 8+ trombonists, and versatile enough for Orchestral, Wind Band, Brass Band and even Big Band (if you fancy a bit of Dorsey-esque smooching!).
The Xeno features heavier gauge brass and a thick-walled, one-piece brazed bell which has been hand-hammered for a consistent, full sound. The open-wrap F section gives a free-blowing response and the entire instrument has an evenness and balance. The tone is flexible and gives you both powerful projection at fortissimo and subtle control in the most delicate passages.
The YBL-830 Bass Trombone in Bb/F/D/Gb and the Yamaha YSL881 Xeno are all available in variants of gold brass or yellow brass.
Yamaha Brass instruments contain the manufacturing DNA found across all of the Yamaha professional range. The attention to detail in their build and sound quality is second to none.
Yamaha have been world leaders in the production of musical instruments for many decades. However, they never sit back waiting for competitors to challenge them.
They continuously liaise with professional musicians to design and build the highest quality instruments, focusing on tonal response, sound production and ease of performance.
