TromboneChat

I've been playing a Greenhoe GC4-TIS for the last 5 or so years now. Just recently I've begun having this issue where notes on the 2nd partial are not resonating properly. At comfortable dynamics the notes are pretty unstable/impossible to fully center. If I push a lot of air through the horn the pitch stabilizes but the sound is super brittle. I've noticed a little bit of dullness to the sound in different registers that isn't usually there as well.

The folks at Greenhoe told me to check the valve and I have, it appears to be properly aligned. Any thoughts on what could be causing this?

Still oiled? Spit valve sealing?

Water key?

One time I had the rubber slide end bumper somehow inside of the bell section when I went to play.

Check for air leaks everywhere. Check for any issue with the leadpipe (and how it's seated). Check that all the tubing is clear. Check valve alignment carefully (not just whether the witness marks match up). If all that looks okay, I'd take the valve apart and inspect it (or have someone else do that if you don't feel comfortable with it).

I had a reed stuck in my bass trombone tuning slide. Run water through that to see. Maybe an ear plug is in there etc....

Benn

Waterkey is leaking, or you have a broken solder joint somewhere. Take it to a tech and have them replace your cork and adjust waterkey as needed, and if that doesn't solve the problem ask them to do a leak test.

octavposaune wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 4:29 pm I had a reed stuck in my bass trombone tuning slide.

So someone got confused and thought it was a clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, ...? I have actually tried a brass mouthpiece on a saxophone, but never a reed on a trombone.

I am a repair tech. A loose reed found its way into my caee, fell down my bell and lodged in the tuning slide

octavposaune wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 7:09 pm A loose reed found its way into my case, fell down my bell and lodged in the tuning slide.

One of the reasons I pull my HWP Brass-Saver brush through my bell section - as well as my outer slide - whenever I clean my trombones (at least weekly). If there is anything in either crook, I'll know it immediately!
(And my inner tubes and crooks will be dry.)

In memorium of the late, great PDQ Bach, I feel obligated to refer you all to consider the under appreciated virtues of the tromboon.

bitbckt wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 7:19 pm In memorium of the late, great PDQ Bach, I feel obligated to refer you all to consider the under appreciated virtues of the tromboon.

Disadvantageous as those virtues are!

From Wikipedia (P.D.Q. Bach):

The tromboon is a musical instrument made up of the reed and bocal of a bassoon, attached to the body of a trombone in place of the trombone's mouthpiece. It combines the sound of double reeds and the slide for a distinctive and unusual instrument. The name of the instrument is a portmanteau of "trombone" and "bassoon". The sound quality of the instrument is best described as comical and loud.

The tromboon was developed by Peter Schickele, a skilled bassoonist himself, and featured in some of his live concert and recorded performances. Schickele called it "a hybrid – that's the nicer word – constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both".[17][18] This instrument is called for in the scores of P. D. Q. Bach's oratorio The Seasonings,[19] as well as the Serenude (for devious instruments)[5]: 187  and Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach#Biography

Take a listen!

ghmerrill wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 6:19 pm

octavposaune wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 4:29 pm I had a reed stuck in my bass trombone tuning slide.

I have actually tried a brass mouthpiece on a saxophone, but never a reed on a trombone.

*Looks at own name plate*

*Shrugs*

A long while back, a highly incompetent French horn player dropped a copious amount of detrius [junk] into the bell of my Conn 20-I baritone horn which made it unplayable. I discovered it immediately and decided to retaliate at a later date. I waited till the perfect moment when he was otherwise occupied and stuffed wads of paper into his B Flat valve tubing. Forward several years --- when he mentioned how he'd managed to screw up my baritone horn by dumping everything from popsicle sticks to paper clips into my bell. When I mentioned that I'd gotten even by sabotaging his French horn he seemed surprised and asked what I meant by "getting even". I then told him what I'd done to his horn. We pulled the slides in question -- several years later -- and everything was still in the slides !! I told you he was incompetent !

Landlockedtrombonist wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 12:14 pm I've been playing a Greenhoe GC4-TIS for the last 5 or so years now. Just recently I've begun having this issue where notes on the 2nd partial are not resonating properly. At comfortable dynamics the notes are pretty unstable/impossible to fully center. If I push a lot of air through the horn the pitch stabilizes but the sound is super brittle. I've noticed a little bit of dullness to the sound in different registers that isn't usually there as well.

The folks at Greenhoe told me to check the valve and I have, it appears to be properly aligned. Any thoughts on what could be causing this?

Any luck finding out what happened??

Posaunus wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 7:18 pm One of the reasons I pull my HWP Brass-Saver brush through my bell section - as well as my outer slide - whenever I clean my trombones (at least weekly). If there is anything in either crook, I'll know it immediately!
(And my inner tubes and crooks will be dry.)

This. I have seen it happen that someone cleaned their slide except for the step of snaking through the crook, and there was enough gunk to block the bore almost completely.