TromboneChat

Once again, back with another non-trombone question. FWIW, I have in the past 90 days sold my beloved 88H, started restoring my Getzen-made straight tenor, and picked up both a used Mack Brass Bass and a Getzen Super Deluxe (which may be among the most gorgeous designs around, aesthetically anyway). I just have more questions about non-trombones lol.

So I’m curious - are the Bundy BTR-300 and Bach TR300 parts interchangeable? In particular, the pistons? The Selmer parts site doesn’t list the BTR300 along with the other Bundy/Liberty/Bach compatibles. They appear to be closely related with the extra bracing and tuning slide saddle. Picked up a Bundy from a neighbor who was moving for a fantastic price and trying to determine whether to salvage for parts for some Frankenhorn stuff or make whole again (needs only minor work)...but ran into some confusion/curiosity about the model relative to the Bachs.

Cheers

You are not going to like the answer......yes and no. The problem is that over the last 15-20 years the Bach student models and Bundy models have been subcontracted to an assortment of instrument makers. To make things even more elusive, sometimes the parts are made in the USA and sometimes they are not. There are three main categories of band instrument subcontracting: 1. Parts made in China and assembled in China. 2. Parts made in USA and assembled in China. 3. Parts made in USA and assembled in USA.

I stopped working in a large retail store repair shop in 2012. At that time, finding parts for certain trumpet models in the rental fleet was very frustrating and I imagine that it has only become worse. The brass department would set aside trumpets that were missing parts (and the "standard parts" for that model did not fit). Every couple of months, we would pull those instruments out and try to fit them with the proper valve caps, tuning slides, pistons, etc.... It was always very interesting because we would try parts from other brands and components from boxes of unidentified parts. Some of the modern "American" brands would match up perfectly with Jupiter parts (made in Taiwan) or Eastman parts (mainland China). I remember that the Bach and Bundy student models would sometimes match up with parts from other American brands.

If you are lucky and have two trumpets that were made in the same vintage at the same location, the parts might match up just fine. Otherwise, you might be on a long, strange journey in your attempt to find the proper pistons. My recommendation would be to find a shop that deals with large quantities of repairs (rental fleets) and ask them if they have at least 8-10 different brands of student trumpet pistons in stock. That will give you a decent chance that they might have something that fits, even though it might not be a real "Bach" or "Bundy" part. Good luck!

Thank you so much for detailed backstory.

Cheers

PS, do you think it’s possible the older model (1530) Bundy may in some cases be the same as the newer BTR300 model? Not saying they are for sure - just mainly making sure you did not actively know them to never be the same.

Cheers

I really can't say. I can predict that the newer BTR300 is likely made in China. The question is....did the subcontractor use specs from the original Bundy or did they just use the tooling they had set up in their factory. My money would be on....they used whatever tooling already existed in their factory. It's much cheaper for them.

I see. Thank you. Really appreciate the insight. Cheers