Vintage Conn user ages.

[OneTon]

I have never seen an Elkhart 88H at a professional union gig.

It may depend on your location. I have seen many 88H trombones at union gigs and still see them at union gigs occasionally. I have heard that the 88H is still popular in Europe.

I own and play a 79H though not professionally. I have had an 88H, which was stolen, and may yet own and play another. Yes. I am over 50 and rapidly approaching the wrong side of a Weibull distribution for an actuary curve.

[Finetales]

There are many Elkhart 88Hs still in regular professional use in Los Angeles and the UK, so much that if any big tenor could be considered the "default" in those places, I would argue it would be that.

I've played more than my fair share of gigs here where the entire section was on Elkies. Once both tenor players had Elkhart 88Hs with me on bass on my Elkhart 72H, another time the principal had his Elkhart 88H, I had my Elkhart 88H on 2nd, and the bass trombonist was using his Elkhart 62H. Suffice it to say...that last one was not a low-level ensemble.

They still get the job done at any standard.