Mixed materials vs solid material

[BrianJohnston]

Late nite "tangent" that's somewhat of a serious question that I thought would be worth discussing:

What's the difference in sound (or response etc) between lets say an all yellow brass trombone of the same size as a say red brass bell with gold TS & nickel silver slide (Let's say the red/gold/nickel is comprable to the yellow brass) ? Do the red brass/gold/nickel cancel each other out and result in a yellow sounding instrument, or do they combine and create a unique sound that differs from the yellow brass. Feel free to throw whatever materials into the fire for discussion, but I suppose i'm looking more for the Copper/Zinc ratio.

[Kbiggs]

My experience with Bach horns, a 42B and a 50B3.

Putting on a nickel slide crook seemed to provide a little more core and focus to the sound. It also seemed to allow the beginnings of notes to speak a little more easily.

Putting a gold brass tuning slide crook from a 47B onto my 42B allowed more middle harmonics in my sound, and kind of “tamed” some of the “raw” sound that can happen at extreme loud dynamics.

I have a gold bell for my 50B. I like it… and sometimes it’s too much dark and woofy. I put a sterling sliver leadpipe in the slide, and I found that initial attacks are much cleaner. That also holds true with my yellow Corporation bell. Notes seem more stable as well.

My 2 cents: different alloys can change the response, and they seem to change the overall “harmonic profile” of the horn.

[GabrielRice]

The classic Bach combinations are heavy yellow slide/yellow bell and LW nickel slide/gold bell. In my experience they don't cancel each other out to create a single "Bach sound." Both are recognizably Bach but with noticeably different characters. The nickel/gold combination tends to be more transparent, with a bit less of a punchy core in the middle of the sound.

If anything, the slides sound more different than the bells in the case of Bach, but as in anything YMMV.

[Ftroop]

For me the different materials don’t cancel each other out. Rather they create a more complex and colour full sound.

My current setup is a greenhoe gb4 with yellow bell, gold brass tuning slide, yellow slide with nickel crook and seamed copper leadpipe. When I was trying horns ( tested alongside a shires NY & Shires Chicago) I kept on coming back to the greenhoe, but it was a tad bright with the greenhoe leadpipe. With the copper I had ‘magic’. I still had all the yellow bell characteristics, but the leadpipe added complexity and colour to the sound that to me was perfect.

I recently added the gold brass tuning slide and that changed the sound as well. I get a bit more warmth - like a gold bell - but still keeping the characteristics of the yellow bell.

So for me, the different combinations don’t cancel each other out, but rather create a more complex sound.