Shires Trombone Variants + Compatibility

[Slidemo]

So by my count there are now 3 different iterations of the Shires Trombone line.

The original modular design, the Q series and the Eastman horns.

Can someone give a quick rundown of the differences between each line, price, manufacture etc, and what parts are interchangeable with the original series.

Kind regards,

Hamo

[Matt K]

The Shires website itself has a good write up of the Q series:

“We understand not every musician may be ready for a Shires custom instrument or may find those costs prohibitive, so the development of the Q Series with Eastman allows the best aspects of our custom instruments to be at a very affordable price; certainly worthy of the Shires name.” - Steve Shires

When you purchase a Q Series instrument you join the S. E. Shires family, a family that includes some of the finest professional musicians in the world. The Q Series line of instruments represent the philosophy of Eastman to produce the finest musical instruments at every price point and embody the reputation of Shires: to produce the highest quality hand crafted instruments for every player.

How do we do it? It's international commerce at its finest. S.E. Shires fabricates the Q parts in Hopedale, Massachusetts, USA, then ships the parts to the Eastman factory in China where they are assembled, and then the instrument is sent back to Shires. The final finishes, quality checks and play-tests are then done in Hopedale before shipping to dealers. And that's how you get a custom quality trombone/trumpet at a moderate price!

And the best part? Q Series Instruments are compatible with S.E. Shires Custom Instruments! So that means that you can purchase a Q Series trombone and purchase additional Shires Custom components over time if you would like to upgrade or change your specifications!

The Q Series instruments are set for a Fall 2016 release and will be available at S.E. Shires Authorized Q Series Dealers.

Bold added for emphasis.

The Eastman by Shires line (which is distinct from Eastman trombones as well, fwiw) are not made by the people at Hopedale. I'm not aware of any official indication as to if they are Steve's designs or to what extent they were influenced by him but the only part about the Eastman parts that is interchangeable with the Q or the original series is the leadpipes.

The Eastman horns are the lowest price point among them. There's not much else to say, they're just a different product line. The Q series have a few, popular, options and that's all the choice you get. So you can pick either Gold or Yellow bells and Axials or Rotaries for valve section. The tuning slide is a "QY" which is a yellow brass and the handslide is a QW, which is a "wide" (neither a bass nor a narrow crook). And you get a "1", "2", and "3" leadpipe. As a consequence, these are 1k+ cheaper than the custom horns.

OTOH, with the custom series, you can order basically anything you want and any combination of parts. With the slides, you can get any combination of leadpipes that you want with a new handslide. Handlsides come in basically any combination of bore and crook/outer slide material that they offer. You can get drawn & seamed tuning slides in a variety of materials. They have straight neckpipe, tru-bore, and dual bore valve (tenor only) options for valves. Bells have 3 construction variants (1/2, 5 (tenor only), and 7/8) with soldered an unsoldered bell bead options... and different annealing, treating, etc. processes. You can order screw-bells as well. As a consequence of that, you do pay a higher price at the time of this writing there are tenors that break the $5k mark new.

[GabrielRice]

I don't think there is an "Eastman by Shires" line anymore, officially, but I think what they were is now essentially the Professional Line of Eastman Trombones: https://www.eastmanwinds.com/trombones

These are designs that were done by Steve, and the manufacturing methods and processes were developed over an extensive period of consultation, with Steve and other Shires craftspeople visiting the Chinese factory many times.

The Eastman trombones are not compatible with Shires parts. The Shires Q series is compatible with the Custom series.

Incidentally, I had the prototype of the Eastman bass trombone in my possession for a couple of months. It was fantastic.

[matto]

There's also the Shires Tempo line, which I play tested a few months ago. It was a good intermediate horn, all fixed components, non-modular. I haven't found specific information on it anywhere, but I would guess that it is completely manufactured and assembled in China.

I think the four varieties go something like this:
Shires Artist/Custom: completely made in MA by Shires craftsmen, full tenors go for about $4,000-5,000
Shires Q: components built in US, assembled in China, QA tested in US, parts are modular and can be changed for Artist/Custom parts, $2,400-3,200 for a tenor
Eastman by Shires: defunct line from Eastman, not compatible with other Shires components
Shires Tempo: non-modular intermediate line, manufactured by Eastman in China - did not see pricing on the one I tried out

[JonTheCadet]

What about the pro-select line with altered geometry?