Interesting DEG F alto on eBay

[Finetales]

Currently on eBay there is an F alto trombone that I haven't seen anything about on these forums (I've searched), or actually anywhere else on the Internet. The seller says it was sold by DEG under the "ShortBones" brand (??) and has an alto horn shank.

Anybody know anything about this?

[paulyg]

Seems like a great way to set $600+ on fire.

[JohnL]

I dredged through the Wayback Machine and found some pages referring to the Shortbone. No mention of an F alto, but the specs page lists an Bb valve trombone, a C valve trombone, a Bb tenor tenor trombone, and an Eb alto trombone.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030816065 ... /specs.htm

At first look, there's some similarity to the Olds F alto, both in appearance and specs - but there's enough difference in the details that I'm inclined to think that it probably wasn't assembled from leftover Olds parts or made on the Olds tooling.

Does the DEG even have cork barrels?

[Finetales]

I dredged through the Wayback Machine and found some pages referring to the Shortbone. No mention of an F alto, but the specs page lists an Bb valve trombone, a C valve trombone, a Bb tenor tenor trombone, and an Eb alto trombone.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030816065 ... /specs.htm

Nice sleuthing. The F alto here is also listed as a smaller bore and bell (.468"/6") than the Eb alto listed on that page.

[timothy42b]

I can't imagine how hard it must be to think F positions if you've spent any time on an Eb alto.

I've been playing exclusively alto for two months, since there are aren't any rehearsals and I'm having left wrist pain. The pBone alto is light as a feather compared to even my small bore tenor. Bb positions are reflexive and Eb are slow to come; F above the old trigger range would hurt my brain, I think.

[slipperyjoe]

I asked about the slide action:
"It's good but not great. If I were gigging with it I'd probably get a tune-up."

The action for the Yamaha alto listed by the same seller is, "Excellent."

[JohnL]

Nice sleuthing. The F alto here is also listed as a smaller bore and bell (.468"/6") than the Eb alto listed on that page.

I suspect the F alto's bell was made on a trumpet mandrel while the Eb alto's bell was made on a trombone mandrel. The Olds F alto is definitely feels pretty trumpet-like.

Given that the F alto doesn't appear on any of the archived pages, I wonder if this one is a one-off prototype.

[Finetales]

I can't imagine how hard it must be to think F positions if you've spent any time on an Eb alto.

An easy way to know is to take one of your Bb trombones and play just the slide (no bell). They're usually in F that way.

I'm not interested in this DEG by any means, but I do actually want an F alto. Although I know Eb valve fingerings and learned alto trombone on a normal Eb, I'm more comfortable with both F fingerings and slide positions.

One day I'll get one of those Laetzsch F altos with a C valve.

[AtomicClock]

I can't see the eBay link; it is long expired, but I picked up something like this back in the late aughts. A DEG alto in F. The bell says DEG CLASSIC U.S.A. No model number or "Shortbones" anywhere on it. The handslide is stamped 11, which I guess is a serial number. The receiver accepts trumpet (alto horn?) mouthpieces. It came with a shaved down trombone mouthpiece, but I'm too loyal to my D. E. rim. One of these days I'll have to call Doug and see if he can help me with a mouthpiece that works.

The case is probably for Eb alto. This slides around in it a bit more than I'd like. The whole feel of the thing is a lot like the big brother of the Jupiter soprano trombone, rather than a smaller version of my Yamaha Eb alto.

[AtomicClock]

I just found another stamp on the bell. Either a 1 or an l. Mix n' match serial numbers?

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