I bought an old Holton bass trombone and...

[modelerdc]

I bought an old Holton Tr180 from a company that sells old school stuff. Price was reasonable, and far less than a nice used one. It was delivered about 5:00 today. It's always chancy buying old school horns, but this one is a survivor. Slide needs a going over, but no wear to inner tubes and no big dents. A standard slide job and it will be OK. The bell section has had a lot of repaired damage, but the valves had problems. I oiled them, straightened out the levers, by hand, it's amazing what you can do when you aren't concerned with breaking it. and tightened a lose backing screw. OK now the valves work. I have a nice Tr183, so I put that slide on the bell and gave it a blow. It played OK. No D slide, and still has the original Glance Bar. well, I started out on a Tr180 years ago, so I knew how to use the magic bar and the Flat E tuning. I had a Big Band rehearsal at 6:30, so a half an hour after getting it, I packed it into my gig bag and it's off to rehearsal.

It worked just fine in the section. My section mates didn't notice a great difference in sound from my usual Shires. they did notice that it looked beat up! I noticed that notes really pop, you can really get a front to the notes, useful characteristics in a big band, and that except for the magic bar, that it's an easy horn to play! also it feels less heavy to hold up, a nice plus.

It's a good gig Meister type of horn. But it needs some work, D slide, split triggers, slide job. It also can use a new tuning slide crook and the crook for the larger slide on the F valve. These crooks have had dent work done and are out of shape and out of round. the valves themselves and the Bell seem to be ok, in spite of dent work in the latter. I'm keeping my Shires, but I think I'll have some fun with this old Hoton.

[Rob1662]

Nice, I'd love an old 180 with the D slide and split triggers. Had an original back in the late 70's - should of kept it!

[robcat2075]

Other than dependent v. independent valves... are there differences between that and a TR 181?

[modelerdc]

The horns are mostly the same. Same slide, tuning slide, bell, but of course the valves and gooseneck will be different. The 181 came along after the 180 and many consider the earlier 180s to be the better horns. Although I've played a few 181s that were good horns, nobody likes the S shaped gooseneck, and the triggers on all these horns leave a lot to be desired. One of the most common modifications to all Holton bass trombones is to replace the lead pipe, the stock ones vary from good to so so. One inexpensive pipe that works well in Holtons is the stock Bach 50 pipe.

[robcat2075]

I didn't know the S was regarded as a fatal problem

If they both use the same dimension tuning slide and have the same dimension bell how does the TR180 get the appropriate clearance of the slide from the bell without the S?

Or is the S for entirely some other reason?

[modelerdc]

Oh, the S curved gooseneck isn't a fatal problem, just not an elegant solution. It's funny because the custom conversions of Tr180 to independent horns always seemed to be able to avoid having to use the S goose neck. although the vote goes to the early 180s over the 181s, nonetheless I think the 181 vavle section blows more open than the 180. Anyone have a 181-valve section for sale?