Shires Master Series - it’s Custom right?

[conn88Hagmann]

Hi Guys


I’m Just testing a Shires with Dual Bore Valve, T47 slide red tuning slide and it has a MS gold brass bell.


Can I just confirm or get your opinion, that for value and likely resale in future, that a MS bell is part of the custom series and NOT a Chinese Q series or any other lower quality bell? It plays really nicely, like a heavier version of the 2RVE I have. (No doubt it’s totally different).

Is here any historical info from shires on these? I can’t find any.

[Matt K]

You might want to check archive.org for the seshires site around 2006. I recall these being common components made at the Boston factory… and maybe preceded any relationship with Eastman. But I don’t want to say for certain this is accurate. The archived Q&A Ben Griffin did has some information but it’s pretty fragmented

[TheFilthOfFrank]

They were made at the Boston Factory (Pre-Eastman). None of the parts are compatible with the standard Custom though as all the threads had different pitches.

[Burgerbob]

They were made at the Boston Factory (Pre-Eastman). None of the parts are compatible with the standard Custom though as all the threads had different pitches.

Those were the Pro Select series- I'm not sure if they were the same as Master series

[JKBone85]

They were made at the Boston Factory (Pre-Eastman). None of the parts are compatible with the standard Custom though as all the threads had different pitches.

Those were the Pro Select series- I'm not sure if they were the same as Master series

Different name, but the same idea. Master Series horns are Custom components that are not compatible with Shires Custom and Q lines. Master Series was an attempt at an easily buildable horn for the masses. The masses did not come, they became more of a burden on production and eventually went away.

[Burgerbob]

Interesting, never heard of those!