Shires vs Edwards slides

[Druidman]

Hey all!

Just curious of what people's opinions are of shires and Edwards slides for those who have played both, and what they prefer and why.

Thanks!

[Burgerbob]

They both have good action when built well, of course. Edwards might have a slight edge sometimes because they are built with a bit more clearance. That clearance means that I find Shires to play better in the outer positions, FWIW.

I find Edwards tend to have a bit more boominess, a bit of emphasis of the low/mid overtones that can be attractive.

Shires have a bit more even-handed approach to the sound, which ends up sounding a bit brighter on average, though of course that's a huge simplification.

I have a couple Bachs that I use Edwards/Shires slides on- I own 5 of those slides: for bass, Shires B62/78, Edwards DBB and DBN. For tenor, Shires TB47, Edwards TBCN. You'll notice that I have two pairings that are the "same" spec, one for each instrument. I tend to prefer the Shires on my sections at the moment.

However, when I use my screwbell on my bass, the Shires suddenly stops working and I have to move to one of my Edwards to balance it out. I also just had a friend over with his Bach 50A3, and my Edwards DBN was the clear choice as the best match.

I find them all to be better than Bach slides... Not part of your question, but someone might wonder! I've gone through probably a dozen 50 slides and a couple fewer 42 slides. None ever really seem to come close in playability, action, and clarity of sound of the modern stuff.

[Crazy4Tbone86]

I feel that both brands can be very good if set up to be straight and parallel. I have seen very few slides arrive from the manufacturer with absolutely parallel tubes to the .001 inch and absolutely straight tubes. For that reason, whenever I buy a horn for myself, I always plan to set the slide up myself.

Unlike Aiden, I have had quite a few Bach slides that were superb……both standard slides and nickel outer slides. A couple of those were so good that I rarely had to swab them and apply new slide cream.