Adams A6 review

[Turkle]

Hi, all.

Yesterday I stopped in to Josh Landress' shop here in NYC to get some emergency work done on the valves on my 8310z. The man is a genius. He literally saved the day.

But anyway, I've been itching to try those Adams A6's - it's their take on the old Conn Connstellation line. I played a Connstellation 38B as my main axe for 3 years or so, so I have a special fondness for those horns. But they do have their problems (ahem valves) and I was excited to see what Adams brought to the table. Since I've been anticipating these, I thought I'd share with you all, even though I only played it for a short time.

Josh let me play one of the A6's he had there (he has 3!). The first thing I noticed was how light it is. My 38B is a heavy, heavy tank. Josh explained that it is patterned more after the 36B (Tom Harrell) and 8B (Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw) than the 38B. Which makes sense. The bell is visibly smaller than my 38B.

So I played the horn. Holy moly. I was somewhat unprepared for this thing. It absolutely lights up! It's like I was expecting a sword and instead given a light saber. This horn is a soloist's dream. Great slotting, super-fast response, the security of a smaller bore without seeming stuffy, and a serious sizzle to the sound. The word I'm looking for is "burn" - the sound had all those high partials in it, but it still had the body to back it up. It didn't sound like a pea-shooter. If you need a horn that lights up with SERIOUS intensity and pop to the sound, I think you really need to check one of these out. I would feel comfortable taking that horn out in front of a loud band and feel confident that the sound would carry up and over.

And seriously, you hardly need to step on the gas at all and it's sizzling all over again.

I put it down pretty quickly because it was so different from what I was expecting. But now I can't stop thinking about it... I really should have played it for longer. Next time I find a few thousand lying around...

Bottom line: A slightly lighter-weight small-bore horn that lights up and has a fierce attitude. Great zippy soloist horn. And it plays LOUD. If the rest of those Adams horns are made to that standard, then they are an impressive company indeed. I know that the next time I stop in to Josh's to get some work done, I'll be playing a few more notes on one...

One final note: Josh did say that they are pretty customizable, and if you wanted one that was built more to the 38B specs, they could do that. But the one I played was not set up that way, so I don't know.

Cheers!
_________________
Yamaha 8310Z trumpet
Yamaha 8310Z flugel
Curry 3.

[shofarguy]

The A6 in brass was my favorite Adams horn of all those that I played at NAMM.
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Brian A. Douglas

Flip Oakes Wild Thing Bb Trumpet in copper
Flip Oakes Wild Thing Flugelhorn in copper


There is one reason that I practice: to be ready at the downbeat when the final trumpet sounds.

[razeontherock]

So what's the deal with Adams' adjustable gap receiver, and why are they only on the first 3 versions?