BAC custom orders

[bassbone1993]

Not sure if it’s been posted anywhere on here and more of an fyi, but BAC has stopped taking custom orders until further notice.

[TromboneSam]

Last I knew the custom shop stopped taking new orders as of mid-2023. My understanding is that the company wanted to get really good at making a consistent, dialed-in production horn line. I don't blame them, but it's a little bit of a bummer that they aren't doing full-custom stuff right now.

With that said (don't hate me), most people who order custom have zero idea what they are asking for. Some of the combinations that people would request were flashy and often gorgeous but did not make sense sonically. A lot of these horns were made well and to spec per the customers' requests but did not meet the performance demands of the horns across multiple settings the way production instruments do from other makers all day.

I respect them closing the custom shop to focus on a more consistent product for their customers, even if it means fewer options. There are still plenty of other makers doing full custom builds, as well as plenty of craftspeople who are doing custom refinishing.

[Finetales]

Based on my conversations with Mike Corrigan at NAMM this year, I don't think it's a permanent thing. They're probably just catching up on backorders and going all on on making the production horns as good as they can before reintroducing custom orders. If that's their plan it seems to be working, as at NAMM this year all the horns they had were excellent. In previous years I thought maybe one horn was very good, and the rest were ok to bad. They're figuring it out.

At the end of the day BAC is famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) for its flashy custom jobs, so I seriously doubt they're gone forever.

Fortunately, a better alternative for those kinds of projects already exists with Sweeney.

[NotSkilledHere]

last i had checked, they had also stopped, at least temporarily, taking restoration jobs at the time. They always did a fantastic job on customs and restorations so I'll be surprised if it's a permanent sunsetting of those services.

[harrisonreed]

BAC seems to run the whole gamut. Their Elliott Mason prototype my friend owned with the adjustable counterweight was one of the best small bores I've ever played. Meanwhile, a different friend had his super heavy custom BAC trumpet literally disintegrate in his hands in the middle of a big band set. All of the pigtail bracing detached at once. Maybe it wasn't the construction — maybe his note was just that big... He swapped it out for a Yamaha xeno picked out by a trumpeter in the Tokyo Phil and we all rejoiced.

Focusing on making really good production models over vanity stuff is a good move. They can make really great stuff. Better to have more of their solid designs than trombones made out of stained glass.

[Finetales]

They just posted an Instagram story an hour ago of finishing a fully custom horn. I think it's safe to say the words on the website mean nothing.

[JohnL]

They just posted an Instagram story an hour ago of finishing a fully custom horn. I think it's safe to say the words on the website mean nothing.

They mean something, but that something is likely different depending on who you are. If you called 'em and asked about a custom horn, they might just say "well, it says on our website that we're not taking custom order right now, but...". OTOH, if I call 'em, I'd get "we're sorry, but we aren't taking custom orders right now; it says so on our website."

[harrisonreed]

You have to really want that Phoenix counterweight, and then they will make it.

[bassbone1993]

They just posted an Instagram story an hour ago of finishing a fully custom horn. I think it's safe to say the words on the website mean nothing.

Yeah, I saw that too today and scratched my head a bit. I reached out about their mason trombone (signature) thinking that it might be more custom adjacent, but I was wrong.