Adjustable brace/counterweight

[MrHCinDE]

I just picked up a second-hand TIS straight tenor trombone with an adjustable brace where the counterweight would normally be. It's possible to tighten/loosen the brace by screw action and presumably it could also be moved closer or further to the bell (within reason and geometrical restictions).

Aside from the ergonomincs, particularly with no f-attachment, I'm wondering whether adjustment of the brace will alter the sound. I'm planning to experiement with it and see how much effect there is on tone and slotting.

There are a lot of other factors which are probably much more important then brace tension (in descending order: player behind the mouthpiece, mouthpiece, leadpipe etc.) but in general on my other instruments I naturally have a brighter sound and have to work hard to get a darker sound where it is required.

Does anyone have experience of a similar setup? Any suggestions?

[whitbey]

After I got the Edwards CR rotor with the sound pillars I was putting the counter weight on my straight neck pipe Edwards. I tried both the tuning slide and the straight neck pipe. It did not make much change, or one I could understand. I also tried putting the weight higher close the bell tube and lower close to the slide tube side. I found when it was closer to the slide tube the horn blew more solid and the bell rang more. And vise versa.
I also tried longer screws with a lock nut in as sound pillars. It totally wrecked the way the horn played and sounded. I guess they really do make a difference. Everything does.

[MrHCinDE]

Short follow-up to my original post:

I used this instrument in a symphony orchestra (1st trom.) for the last few weeks culminating in a concert last weekend. We played the overture from Norma, a new minimalist composition for two pianos and orchestra and Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony so a pretty good range to try it out on.

At the earlier rehearsals and at home I was mainly playing without the brace. In my opinion the sound was big in the lower to middle range, comfortable for slower playing in the upper range but a bit tricky to centre some notes (e.g Ab though Bb, C and D were alright) when playing shorter stuff. This may be more to do with getting the perfect slide position for some partials but the instrument seems more ‚forgiving’ with the brace.

With the brace attached, I gave up some resonance in the lower range but it felt a lot easier to cleanly play faster stuff in the upper range. It didn’t make a great deal of difference to me how tight the brace was or if I moved it a couple of cm up or down the bell.

I confirmed my thoughts about the sound by asking others to listen to a few phrases with and without the brace.

For the concert I went with the brace attached for a bit more security, if I’d been playing 2nd I’d have probably ditched it though.

I‘m going to persevere with some home practice without the brace with the hope I will get used to the instrument and really find the sweet spot of all notes.