The sterling bell makes this an interesting horn much like trombones with Sterling bells. There are two schools of flugelhorns. Big and dark sounding (think like orchestral trombone) and lighter and somewhat "brighter". The larger the bore the darker the horn tends to sound naturally. To oversimplify - a bore size of 0.415" or smaller is typical of the lighter sounding horns. 0.420" or larger is typical of the darker sounding horns. This is a .401" bore. I'm personally not a fan of flugelhorns with larger bores or that dark trombone sound.

You have to pull the slide for the valve you are testing, depress the valve you are testing and blow. Air will come out of one or the other branch of the slide tubing. Block that one and blow with the valve depressed.

Mark Metzler of Metzler Brass has taken over most of the work Anderson Plating was doing. Osmun Music does great work, Rich Ita, Dr. Valve, all of those would be solid choices!

Thank you.

I've always stripped the finish off the bells. It never stays on the sterling bells. Even King with the Silver Sonic had the issue. My original Sterling Plus was refinished under warranty at Bach. I waited 3 months for it to be completed. Lacquer started coming off the bell a couple weeks later...

Agree !! I have it shortly, very good sound.

Usually the best way is by era. The older Shastock were made in Cleveland, O. The newer are marked with the “Micro” name on the label. The pre-Micro generally have three resonators. On those models the large cone had a wood resonator, the small cone had TWO. The flange for the metal tube sat between the two smaller resonators in the small cone and that held the tube in place. When the third resonator was eliminated the flange went away and it became a straight tube with the tube just glued in place. Eventually the change was made even further with the tube going from metal (brass, copper, or aluminum were used during various times) and changed to a cardboard tube.

@@joshwagner7193 I have the labels for both of these, so I'm pretty certain they are both original pre-Micro Products mutes. It's interesting what you say about the flange tho. Someone may have taken the one with the decal apart and mis-assembled it, cuz the flange is on the bottom of the inner cone and quite visible. Either that, or the 2nd resonator in the small cone has fallen out exposing the flange. The mute is white, but there's a narrow black ring where the 2nd resonator might have been. Knowing that, I think that might be the likely explanation. Thanks for the info!

A couple questions would be how closely you followed the valve cleaning regimen during initial break-in. I’ve had valves that were initially sticky from many manufacturers including Bach, Yamaha, Sonare, B&S, and more. Most of the time it’s because of very TIGHT valve tolerances and valves breaking in. That requires frequent swabbing and cleaning out of the valve casings. I know with Bach horns there are instructions on this procedure that come in the case. The valves should also be oiled VERY frequently during break-in. If this isn’t done properly it can and will cause your valves to wear very quickly because you are letting pieces of metal shavings from the break-in create issues. This is true of cars engines, lawn tractors, and everything else that has metal parts rubbing against each other. If you don’t do your initial oil changes much more frequently you and will destroy your engine. That being said if you did follow this procedure correctly I would contact the dealer you purchased from and file a warranty claim. They are usually pretty good about that sort of thing!

@@joshwagner7193 Hey Josh Thanks for the reply.. Yea Im a Machinist and very familiar with honing the works Ive used honing machines ect. honed motorcycle cylinders and car engine blocks and turbo bearing sleeves . But yes I really took care a paid very good attention using LOTS of oil when breaking it in and keeping it super clean washing the residue away what not. Ill say that upon inspecting the inside casing it wasn't lapped very well or perhaps reamed before lapping. I can see with the eye protrusions in the case valve plumbing where its soldered which will cause severe piston wear because the actual piping is rubbing on the piston. I hope you can understand. Looking into the casing cylinder wall.

Another words The problem wasnt the pistons it was poor honing job on the casing. I believe they might of just drilled the cylinders after soldering the piping into it to cut the extra piping inside and clean DIDN'T ream it and went straight to hone.

@@SIMEON2003 Definitely a warranty issue I would say! Again, contact your dealer!

It's a very RICH sound. The thing about sterling is it adds back some of the high overtones along with the lower fundamentals to give a more complete sound. However these small bore (.401) flugelhorns are meant to have a lighter fluffier sound. Sterling makes that sound very thick and dense in a way that might not be appealing to people. It really gets rid of that light fluffy character.

Great question! This would be the "B" model. The "C" symphonic is much shallower depth. The "A" has a very noticeable bowl shape and ridge when it goes into the body of the mute and not designed to use a stem. They also typically don't have the outside lines around the body. I have a video specifically for the model "A" on my channel. Personally I would avoid that version...

@@joshwagner7193 Thanks Josh, but when you say that you would avoid this version are you referring to A model? I'm deciding between Harmon A or B version, Stomvi and Tom Crown aluminum. Which one do you like better? (Considering the sound of Miles). Thank you once again for your attention.

@@albertomolina6177 The "A" is horrible. The "B" is the standard but not necessarily great. They changed the design in the newer versions to make the low notes a little better. Between those I've had the Stomvi version that looks like the Ullven or Charles Davis harmon mutes and that one plays pretty great. Aluminum for section work. Copper for on-mic solo work. Given the choice I always want one of each if I can swing it. If I have to choose just one I got for aluminum.

@@joshwagner7193 Very friendly, thanks.

I would argue Thad Jones did too on the original recording of this tune. We've become accustomed to flugelhorns with bores that lead to a darker more trombone-like sound.

Leblanc was located in my hometown of Kenosha , Wisconsin

They CAN be used as a regular straight and some were originally sold as such but a different sound compared to a regular Shastock straight. As far as sound goes I think the sound of the regular straights have a bit more bite and resonance.

@@joshwagner7193 Thank You