"not one of the questionable C*s Jim refers to in the other posts". Thank you for pointing that out. There are some decent Selmer C* mouthpieces. Although I find the C* to be a little too closed for my liking, the Larry Teal mouthpieces are great for classical. The Selmer Session mouthpieces are pretty good too. The mouthpiece that I was referring to that I feel should be taken off the market is the S-80 with the square chamber. This is because of the problems associated with the quare chamber, projection and intonation. Maybe I should have been more clear about that. If you have an S-80, throw it away! Other C*s....well, personally I would throw them in a drawer and probably never use them, but that's up to you!

Thanks for the suggestions, but about the 82Z Yamaha, what style should I try? (gold lacquer, silver plate, black lacquer, or unlacquered)

It's really a matter of preference, but I really don't care for the unlacquered horns. The lacquer really doesn't effect the tone that much, and helps preserve the brass. I'm a little partial to the Silver plate myself.

Unlacquered=takes LOTS of care and the yamahas tend to tarnish very fast...

eh forgot to add in my 2 cents about the other two The gold laquer doesnt require as much care as the other 2, but after the laquer wears off it takes a lot of care. Also the laquer reduces the vibrations of the horn so one without laquer (silver / unlaqured) will be a bit louder. Silver takes a little more work to clean, but they can be kept looking nice forever. They tend to be brighter than the other

if you're on a budget, check out cannonball horns they run around two grand for thier pro models and they are delicious! you can get any finish combo imaginable, they have the traditional lacquered gold, and then an unlacquered, the black nickel, there's silver horns and even one thats a combination of black and silver. the different finishes all have an effect on the tone of the horn, a black nickel would be a little brighter with more projection than the unlacquered and the silver one would be almost shrill-like bright. its all about preference though. also if you have the money you can check out yanisagawas, i hear those are nice. and if you can maybe get a selmer but if you're going to be taking it to and fro with little time for care then its not such a great idea. i have a cannonball student model myself and i don't have much time to clean it after band because i need to get to class right after so there are some watermarks on the bell and stuff, just be diligent and set aside an hour every weekend for cleaning your horn maybe.

You can also pick up a good used Selmer S80 I or II for around $2000 + or - a couple hundred. Very good classical horns, but the best solution to this dilemma is to go to a shop with several different brands and models and try them all and see which works well for you. Tell the shop your price range, they should be able to provide several different models in that range. I happen to prefer Selmers, I haven't played a horn yet that I like the sound of better, but that's not to say you'll like a different horn. As for the C* discussion, I'll leave that alone on this thread, I happen to disagree with Jim. selmerfan