In order to keep our readers up to date on new products and new ideas, we try to get our hands on products for review and evaluation and this is one of those cases. A good friend and fellow musician recently purchased a new Hawk Flugelhorn and I asked to borrow it for a while so I could run it through some scales to see if this instrument was really worth the $279.00- $333.95 price tag.
Before I give you my reading of the instrument, I want to first share with you actual customers opinions on their recent purchase of this instrument.
Customer reviews posted on Amazon.com
4.4 out of 5 stars
5 stars= 81%
4 stars 16%
3 stars 0%
2 stars 0%
1 star 3%
Customer’s comments-
• Beautiful tone! Easy to play! *****
• This horn is nothing but fun, and you just can’t beat the price. *****
• For the money, a great horn, unbelievable quality for the price and made in China. *****
• The mouthpiece nickel plating wore off the rim within a year of the purchase so I ordered a Bach Megatone mouthpiece and that fit and sounded really good. This horn has good tone quality and slots. *****
• Excellent value! *****
• Unbeatable value horn *****
• Four Stars ****
• Great instrument in a excellent price *****
• nice horn *****
• This is not a horn…It’s a Hawk! *****
• Horn is very nice. Plays nice ****
• Better than Expected *****
• Great horn *****
• I was really pleased with this horn when it arrived *****
• Awesome product. *****
• Great seller *****
• Just what I need! *****
• Es de muy buena calidad *****
• A Winner! *****
• the name on the bell is “HAWK ” a great deal. great sound *****
• Five Stars *****
• QUALITY AND AFFORDABLE AMAZING INSTRUMENT !!!!! *****
• All in all a very good horn. However as a professional trumpeter, I needed something for the studio to record and felt probably a more expensive flugel might serve me better ****
• As promised ****
• Having played a trumpet for 50 years, I wanted to experience the more mellow tone of a fluegehorn. This horn albeit very affordable, did not disappoint. *****
• sounds sweet! All and all it is a NO NAME *****
• Horn is good, but the mouthpiece isn’t the greatest. For a horn that inexpensive it sounds pretty good. Has a good finish also.*****
• Serviceable, disposable decision *****
• Great Horn. Great Tone. Awesome price. *****
• OMG!!! THIS HORN LOOKS AND SOUNDS BEAUTIFUL!!! *****
• Great replacement for trumpet *****
• Nice looking, solid case. Appears to deserve the good reviews. ****
• Excellent product *****
And one of the most complete reviews of this product-
Please make note that some of the instructions listed by the writer are in no way condoned by yours truly. Some of the instructions are not effective and in some cases will damage your instrument. These terrible suggestions are seen in bold type.
“Re-learning trumpet to play in a community big band and had a good trumpet in the attic. There are a few pieces with flugel parts, but hey, do I really know if this is going to work out to justify a $600-1000 horn ? Nope.
At just over $200 ($219), this will allow me to dip my toes into playing flugel again. If things work out and I outgrow the horn in a year, no problem, it was $200. If it breaks in a year, ditto. And it may just be sufficient for 2-3 pieces from a 40 song book, if it can play in tune and doesn’t spontaneously disassemble itself into its component parts. Update: It can and DOES play in tune with itself. 2+ years in and still a great horn. No problems with intonation, no mechanical issues. Absolutely no maintenance required beyond touching up the oil every few days of playing. Upgraded from 4 to 5 stars based on several years of history.
Now to the horn. Came with an OK case, the inside is formed foam, covered by cheap velour. Does the job sufficiently, and I’ll probably get a flugel/trumpet combo case to haul both pieces anyway.
Came with a mouthpiece (description was silent on this), appears to be a clone of your basic student grade Yamaha mp. Sufficient for initial work, will accept a Yamaha taper for future reference (would also have been nice in the description so you can order a mouthpiece at the same time if so inclined).
Finish – you can see some swirls in the polish before they applied the lacquer. Not a perfect mirror, but hey – $200. Buy a used horn and you’ll have finish issues, too. Again, sufficient given the investment and purpose. Looks good from arms length away.
The valves – 1 and 3 were perfect out of the box. Slick, positive, fast. #2 was sluggish coming up. Tried oiling, wiping. Still sluggish.
Update: valves have been rock solid and smooth for 2, going on 3 years. I do think the springs are a bit stiff, and am going to try putting some Yamaha springs in to lighten them up. Update: Yamaha valve springs are now in, and the valves are a bit faster. They’ve always been pretty smooth but felt the springs were too strong. Get the Yamaha springs after you’ve got the valves broken in, for an instant upgrade.
Was on the path to a home-valve lap job with toothpaste (not willing to drop money on a repair, nor let them laugh me out of the shop), and decided to first give the valve and the tube a good scrubbing. Got out the shotgun cleaning rod and ran a few patches through – lots of grey on the patch. I expected this, and should have planned to give the horn a bath anyway. Has to be manufacturing oils left behind and who knows how long it was in storage after manufacture. Ran the 12-gauge bronze brush thru a dozen times slowly, made sure it cleared out the guide channel – clean as a whisker. More patches, then I couldn’t find my shotgun mop so I made a “snake/tampon” of twisted lint-free shop towel and pushed it thru. Nice and clean.
On to the valve barrel. Near the top on one side there were still some machine marks from the grinding/fitting. The grain of these marks was across the barrel, and rough to the touch. Hit it ever so lightly with some 600 grit (would have user 800 or higher if I had it close to hand) sandpaper to polish – just lightly brushed it up and down the barrel in this area only – not taking any material, just polishing and setting any surface texture in the same direction as the piston movement. Like polishing a feed ramp, less is more, here. Dozen or so strokes, smooth as a baby’s bottom. Wiped and washed, then oiled and into the horn. Voila ! Nice fast valve like the others. I’ll keep an ear out for any compression loss, maybe switch to a heavier oil if that shows up.
Nice tone, nice enough for my setting, anyway, tucked away in the ensemble. Looks like this will serve it’s purpose. Very pleased. If it can play in tune with itself, that is. Update: It can and does. Rock solid intonation.
Note: this is marked “Hawk”, and there is another horn listed by that brand on Amazon for $350 or so. This is a different model – this has a third valve tuning slide that the other lacks, and for what it’s worth, there is a section of the tube that’s finished in a rose brass. Also, this horn is a .460 bore (trumpet like), the other is .430 (closer to flugel standard). For my money, go for the cheaper horn – you either go with the disposable cheap option that might work out, or spend enough to get more of a known quantity. YMMV.
If you can tolerate a little risk and imperfection, and are handy and know just a little about horn maintenance (or have a web browser and access to the google where you can learn), this is a good “nothing to lose” horn, and will certainly tide me over until I spot a good used horn if and when I need to upgrade. If you want perfect out of the box, no risk, pony up the $800+ for a Jupiter”.
In our next post we will illustrate other indipendent ratings of this instrument as well as give you my oppinion of the Hawk Flugelhorn……….
