"Two months ago I was very pleased to take possession of an Eclipse flügelhorn. Prior to this Leigh McKinney had invited me to the Eclipse Trumpet factory in Dunstable to help him develop a flügelhorn to supplement the hugely successful Eclipse trumpet. As I’ve always had my own ideas of what qualities I think a flügelhorn should have this was a heaven sent opportunity to put these ideas into practice.  

The traditional qualities of the flügelhorn are that it is darker, smoother and warmer in tone than the trumpet. Although these qualities are to be desired and are indeed lovely in orchestral and band settings, especially when played in sections of three or four players, all playing deep cup mouthpieces, I’ve always thought that for extensive solo playing more life in the sound is required. In this case the dark and mellow traditional tone can become rather dull, lifeless and boring after awhile and can be compared to eating marshmallow – nice at first but quickly becoming sickly! Today, flügelhorns are currently available either as American models, with large bores and receivers, or French, which are usually smaller in bore. For extended solo playing I’ve always preferred the latter. 

At first Leigh and I experimented with locating the tuning slide at the branch leading to the bell. This proved to be awkward and so we settled on the traditional place for the tuning slide in the lead pipe. We also followed up an idea that I’d always entertained that a guard strip on the bell bend would have a pronounced effect. It did but I found that it darkened the sound and somehow seemed to make the instrument less responsive and focused and so we ended up leaving it off. After a couple of months of experiment we settled on an instrument of traditional design and appearance. 

On playing the first two flügelhorns that Leigh produced I was amazed at how easy and responsive they both were and also at how in tune. I immediately fell in love with both. The first one out was with a yellow brass bell and the second was with a red. After playing both I marginally favoured the yellow brass over the red. It just seemed slightly more responsive and somehow more flexible so I excitedly chose Leigh’s first flügelhorn as my own. 

I’ve now been playing this instrument in small band settings for two months and am delighted with it. It’s everything I ever wanted in a flügelhorn. It’s easy and untiring to play, traditionally warm and mellow in the low and middle registers but can also be bright and exciting in the upper register if you want to “give it one”! The tuning is consistent in all registers, the valves are wonderful and fit for a jazz player. Whenever trumpet colleagues I work with have a blow on it they invariably make the same comment – “Wow”. The whole instrument has been manufactured to a very high standard and at my request Leigh had mine, reluctantly, (he would have preferred me to go for 24-kt gold) finished in scratch silver with bright highlights and with bright “moons and stars” on the bell! 

The guys at Eclipse Trumpets have done me a great favour and I’m delighted!" 

 - Henry Lowther