First, forgive me, but:

You either saw an old flugel; or
You have seen an old flugel.

Whew! Now that we've cleared the difference between past tense and past participle...

Ahhhhhhhh! Couesenon is in my opinion the standard by which all traditional small bore flugels should be judged. But to play one is kind of like playing a euphonium and a piccolo trumpet at the same time: lots of air, but even more control of the air to maintain fluidity of tone. A Couesenon flugel is not for the faint of heart or weak of diaphram muscles. But once you get there, its tone has the truest of flugel qualities: velvety without being fluffy, round without being rotund, piquant with as much poignance as you care to impart, depending on the emotion of the piece. A friend of mine has one that's between 40 and 50 years old. It's one of the singular horns that I covet. Another friend of his put it this way: "I'd offer to trade you for it, but all I have is my savings, my retirement account, my business, my automobiles, my equity in my home and land, my wife...."

And the same horn by the same dozen or so craftsmen is still being produced on the same mandrels, for a reasonable price.

Did I say I like Couesenon flugels?

My comments derive from as extensive as experience as my friend will let me, and hopefully, he'll let me experience it more. And I've also played Getzens, Jupiters, a few more brands I've just had a short toot here and there. I've heard and been next to even more than that, in all bore sizes. I do confess to not being privileged with either the newer Kanstul or of the Eclipse, but until then....

iiipopes wrote on 10/25/06 at 19:03:57:


honestly iiipopes   haha


well I really like the look of the horn, and I play a reeeally old courtois flugel at the moment so it might not be that much of a transition. I'd really like to get the couesnon and it looks an amazing deal, but I dunno if I can afford it which is a reeeal shame. but we'll see.