BAC Elliot Mason

[spike]

What's the deal with the BAC Elliot Mason trombone? I've seen two versions, one with the typical BAC aircraft strut plate braces, and another that has normal tubular braces. This latter one can be had for about $2k, so it's nothing fancy.

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The more elaborate one appears to come in a range of sizes from 494 to 525 and with a range of materials and even bell weights from .020 to .032.


The simpler one is 500/525 w/8" red bell. It looks like a beautiful horn, but there's something that makes me suspicious about it.

I suspect that instead of figuring out how to make US horns less expensive, they've figured out a way to charge a lot more for Chinese horns. Anyone know what's up with these things?

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[Burgerbob]

Signature series and artist series must be different classes of horns. I assume the artist series is the Chinese built one.

[TromboneSam]

Aidan pretty much hit it.

Signature model is full custom and fully modular. Standard it comes .508 with an 8” bell flare. Mostly in gold brass I believe.

Artist series is made at an offsite location (I THINK China), but are quality tested/tweaked at the KCMO factory.

There are plenty of endorsed BAC artists that play the Artist series horns. I know Dave Sear plays the Elliot Mason Artist Series and sounds incredible on it.

[Cotboneman]

Carol Brass out of Taiwan has been importing some high quality horns to many US small shop makers for quite awhile now, so I wouldn't be surprised that this Artist series is not from that manufacturer. I have also heard that some independent US trumpet manufacturers are using Carol Brass trumpet valve blocks on their custom horns.

[harrisonreed]

They aren't even close to the same horn. I played the prototype Elliott Mason model (he sold it to his student) with the wire thin hand brace. It was very ugly, but a superior playing horn. Beautiful sound, and easy to play. It has different interchangeable bell flares, and a counterweight system similar to the Edwards harmonic brace. Interchangable leadpipes as well, with a David Lynch looking grip for the left hand.

The Chinese built version was originally billed as a "rent-to-own" model on their site. It's odd that they'd even try to sell such obviously different horns under the same artist name.