Old Shires Tuning slide question

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jeterbone
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Old Shires Tuning slide question

Post by jeterbone »

Hello,

I just recently bought an older tenor rotor valve section from somebody and it happened to come with the tuning slide. On the tuning slide, it has a "B" stamped on it.

After doing research on the website, it only specifies that it is for bass trombone but obviously mine is not. Since this is an older valve section and tuning slide, would this mean something like "Bach"? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
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ithinknot
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Re: Old Shires Tuning slide question

Post by ithinknot »

Remembered seeing this...
GabrielRice wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 2:34 pm ... a tuning slide from no later than about 2006 when the tooling was changed and the B was no longer stamped on the standard slide.
GabrielRice
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Re: Old Shires Tuning slide question

Post by GabrielRice »

Yes, B was stamped on the standard large tenor tuning slides until maybe about 2006.
Gfunk
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Re: Old Shires Tuning slide question

Post by Gfunk »

I know I'm deviating from the OP’s question, but this post got me thinking. I have two shires large/medium bore tuning slides, a 90’s B marked, and an S marked one that I’m not sure of the age on other than it’s not recent enough to have the TY included. The taper on the S seems different than that of the B marked one. The B tuning slide looks more curved to me and the S goes straight a bit on the brass before actually bending. I’ll add a picture with both to compare. The left is the S, and the right is B.

I just remembered I had some pictures of other shires tuning slides I had sold. I had another B tuning slide from a horn bought new in 2008, and looking at the pictures I have, the taper looks the same as the 90’s tuning slide. Looking at pictures of at an unmarked tuning slide I had from 2016, that one resembles what I see with the S marked slide. Not sure of any significance of this, but I thought it was interesting. If anyone has anymore information I’d love to hear it. Or maybe I’m going crazy, who knows.
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Matt K
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Re: Old Shires Tuning slide question

Post by Matt K »

S is for seamed. The standard is drawn tubes, and is this not marked. The construction on the seamed is a little more difficult on the drawn so that might be the reason for yours being “misshapen” for lack of a better term. My seamed tuning slides look more or less identical to the drawn one I have
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Re: Old Shires Tuning slide question

Post by GabrielRice »

The B stamp was no longer done when the tooling to bend the tapered tuning slide tube was upgraded. I wrote 2006 above, but it may well have been 2008 or 2009. I worked there from the summer of 2004 through the summer of 2009, and it was sometime in that period.

Prior to the upgrade, the tapered tube was filled with pitch, bent by hand over a form, and then cleaned up in a very time-consuming and inconsistent process. I can't go into details about the new process (because I don't fully understand it), but I do know that it involves a fully enclosed form and a collapsible die that is pulled through to get the tuning slide to its final taper and shape. The tube thickness and final shape are both much more consistent than they were previously, which is why you see a subtle difference in the shape of the bend.
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