Will try to answer everyone so far.
@malteof thanks for kind words! I'm not a soprano player, and I actually had to spent more time with the EM soprano before making that video, but I guess you heard my excitement about the new toy.
@reedsburn62 sorry you had to return it, still a great thing they accept returns. I don't live in the US so everything related to post offices and customs, it's ALWAYS messy. I'm grateful this one arrived ok and had to pay little in customs as well. The good thing about living in a 3rd world country is it keeps my GAS controlled haha
@motteatoj good luck with your sale! Just to clarify, the one you have is a different model. I never liked that designs, tried a few SC-991 which is the "original" and intonation wasn't good at all, also preferred the sound of the SC-800. That is, I think the design with the bell holes on the left it's better. Also there's more for your right hand fingers, especially if you have big hands. I believe this has been discussed here in SOTW.
@BrianMitchellBrody this one will be the longest paragraph I guess. I'm very sorry that this experience with EM was not good for you, to the point it looks the wound still there as someone mentioned it. The good news is you seem happy with other horns, that's what matters in the end. So, where do I start... regarding resale value, IMHO the math is more complex. Let's say you buy a Yamaha 2k horn and sell it for 1500, you lost 25%, sounds fair... Now you want resale your 500dlls EM soprano, you sell it for 200, you lost 60% ouch... but in the end, when the horns are gone, you lost 500 with the Yamaha, and only 300 with the EM. So, there's that.
In my experience everytime I tried student and intermediate horns, there's not much difference to me, and most the pros I've talked about this, they feel the same. For us between a 400 and a 1800 horns there's not much difference, I know, are we ready for this conversation? haha... I'm talking about how they PLAY and SOUND. Usually the more expensive one has more bell and whistles, better engraving, most likely a better case, "premium" finishes, etc. There might be some exceptions.
In my opinion the China bashing topic is outdated already. I remember those horns from 20 yrs ago, those were terrible. Keep in mind most of the current boutique horns are outsourced from China. If you look close to those very trendy sax necks (the ones made for SBAs and Conns) that cost around 600dlls if not more, they're exactly as the "Power Neck" ones the Arnold Wang sells... change my mind. I've tried both (I wish I had all those necks in the same room to ABC). Have a look at Lupifaro horns, those still for sale ca. 5000 dlls, and made in Hebei, China (pretty well documented also here in SOTW), etc., etc. I don't want to turn this into name dropping, and their markup practices... the sun gets out for everyone
I don't have any affiliation with EM nor Arnold Wang, but I have to say this curved soprano feels really good quality. Leather pads (not sure if "Pisoni Pro", but they look better than average), synthetic cork on the keys, super silent, blue needle springs, and the regulation is really good. Even the case it's really good quality. This model is VERY close to the P. Mauriat 2400, which costs 2400 dlls, I tried that model for a while (a friend here has it, and the case is not that good for example. I'll try to borrow it again and do a side by side comparison if you guys like.
I'll address other topics later, gotta go now.
