[silverstuff]

i have recently purchased the a28. it is quite a nice piece. upon further reading on it, some people have mentioned the a27. im reading the descriptions of the two peices, and am now very curious about the a27. what is the main difference(s) between the two?

 

[Agent27]

To me the A27 is a little darker. The A28 is a little brighter and a little more vibrant. Also, the A27 is a little more open and feels a little bit more resistant.

 

[silverstuff]

my main areas of attention is something with a flexible and rich sound, and something that plays altissimo with ease. i consider the a28's altissimo very easy.

 

[Agent27]

I might try to play some on mine tomorrow to compare. But I think of the A28 as being the richer of the two. That's kind of what I meant by "vibrant". I don't recall there being a noticeable difference in the ease of the altissimo.

 

[silverstuff]

a28 is richer you say? ah, then i guess i'll start going at those long tones.

 

[Agent27]

I played both pieces today side by side. Overall they are pretty similar. They're very close in terms of brightness/darkness with maybe the A28 being a tad brighter. I thought that the A28 was easier to blow and that it had a little clearer sound. But the A27 was more complex and more depth of tone, and thus more harmonically rich which isn't what I was expecting based on my memory of the 2 pieces. Like I said, they're pretty similar but if given the choice, I'd choose the A27.

FWIW, I was play testing them with Rico Reserve 3.0+ reeds and a Rovner Mark III Ligature on a Yani 880.

 

[j44breaker]

Out of curiosity: which has the wider tip rail?

 

[Agent27]

The tip rail looks to be the same on both. I have no way of measuring it accurately, I'm just eyeballing it, but if they're not the same width then they're close. The side rails do look to be a little wider on the A28 though.

 

[jbarrera]

Off the top of my head I think they are the same internally but one has as slimmer beak profile. So basically when you play your mouth is more closed.