TromboneChat

I suffer from Instrument acquisition Syndrome (IAS) , much to my wife`s eye rolling.
I try and rotate my horns so I use them as much as possible, especially during the whole NO Gigs Pandemic.
I have 2 Bach 42`s, a 42BO w/ an Olsen valve (this is an amazing horn, everyone that has played it feels so) and a straight Lt42G. I was always kind of "Meh" about the Straight 42 compared to the 42BO which is just fun to play.
I was thinking of getting rid of it until this past weekend. I play at church every Sunday since Sept. and I took the 42G this week BUT......
I put, just on a lark, a Stork 5S with a Giardinelli NY Jiggs Whigham rim on the horn.
WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The horn lit up like nobodies business. It likes that set-up and now so do I.
Does anybody else have a horn in the stable that has surprised you?

dukesboneman wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:53 pm Does anybody else have a horn in the stable that has surprised you?

Yup - happened to me recently when I pulled out my Olds O-25 (purchased some time ago for nostalgia reasons, but not played often) and tried it with a different mouthpiece. What fun!

@dukesboneman isn't it the SS part of that mouthpiece that livens up a dead-ish horn? I have a steel rim that brightens everything it goes on.

I bought an ex-military silver plated 42B bell section a while back. It's not had the best life previous to me, as you may imagine. But man it makes a fat, warm sound with a nice middle to it... I used it a couple times on 4th part in a trombone quartet, and I think it would make an excellent 2nd trombone in an orchestral setting. Very easy to play 5ths with a bass trombone and really fill out louder parts.

I had almost no expectations for it at all, especially not to have a nice easy sound like it does. Even less for the high school beater 42 slide I'm using with it, actually, but that plays great as well.

I got a conn 70h from 1930. Looked ugly but surprised me a lot. Sounded so good and slide was ok. Then I sold it. F... Sh... #@&$# stupid me.... Never sell a horn. I still have another one but .....

Leif

I picked up a Getzen 400 series student horn for dirt cheap and was very surprised how well it played.

I bought a beat-up 1953 Olds S-23 F/E dual dependent Dual bore .554-.565 (rotors .585) Bass with a 10” bell for very cheap price.

I read lots of complaints about the F/E tuning and the small size of the Olds Rotors. So, I had my tech work on the horn to align and polish the slide, build a new slide extension to make it into an F/D, and bore out the rotors to open up it for better performance. I also purchased an Olds Mouthpiece shank for my Doug Elliot LB 110.

It turned into a real gem!

pfcastor wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:40 am I bought a beat-up 1953 Olds S-23 F/E dual dependent Dual bore .554-.565 (rotors .585) Bass with a 10” bell for very cheap price.

I read lots of complaints about the F/E tuning and the small size of the Olds Rotors. So, I had my tech work on the horn to align and polish the slide, build a new slide extension to make it into an F/D, and bore out the rotors to open up it for better performance. I also purchased an Olds Mouthpiece shank for my Doug Elliot LB 110.

It turned into a real gem!

Yeah, I had one and it really barked. Had an Eb extension put on it.

Hyperbolic, It`s Stork 5 with the "S" or Symphonic backbore

I play a 4G on a Shires vintage Elkhart, but the 4G never felt right on my 42. But I came across a used Wick 4BL, and just as described above, the 42 really lights up with the 4BL. On the Shires the 4BL is bright, but with the Bach it makes a colorful but full sounding balanced combination!

dukesboneman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:26 am Hyperbolic, It`s Stork 5 with the "S" or Symphonic backbore

Oh, ok, so 5S means "needs new glasses".

An Olds small bore with the trombone-playing bear on the bell. I bought it years ago, it came with a NY Bach 18 mouthpiece which was worn and covered in crud. I cleaned up the mp and sent it off to be re-plated, just because it WAS a NY Bach, but then put it away since I am used to larger pieces.
I've used the Olds from time to time with a Bach 3 or Schilke 51c4, for ex. it worked great for the show "Damn Yankees" next to a 1928 Conn 22b trumpet. I always thought the horn was ok, but nothing special.
Then I was asked to play the alto trombone part with an orchestra and choir, I forget what piece now, but while the clef was no problem my chops have never done well hanging up there around F's-C's. I experimented with various set-ups at home on the part, and struggled until I decided to try the little Olds with the Bach 18. It was like magic! Not only did the horn and mp go a long way in helping me to sound as presentable as possible, but the Olds really came to life, singing like it never had when I used the larger mp. And strangely, it did not feel as small as I would have thought.

modelerdc wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:52 pm I play a 4G on a Shires vintage Elkhart, but the 4G never felt right on my 42. But I came across a used Wick 4BL, and just as described above, the 42 really lights up with the 4BL. On the Shires the 4BL is bright, but with the Bach it makes a colorful but full sounding balanced combination!

Well Denis did design the 4bl for the 42

I found a 1940s Pan American (subsidiary of Conn that made student level instruments) trombone at flea market years ago and bought it for $10. There was no wear on the inner slide and zero corrosion anywhere on the horn, so I thought it was worth trying to fix it. When I started working on it, I discovered that the solder joints were full of tension, so I decided to take the entire instrument and rebuild it. The final result was a terrific instrument.....it plays just as well as my Elkhart 6H horns. A very nice surprise!

I was expecting my Benge 175 to be just OK or mostly a curiosity (it was cheap enough) and the more I play it the better I like it. Super responsive, nice warm sound, does what I tell it to do.

My surprise horn was a cheap and beaten Conn 88H (that was the text in the add) which turned out to be a cheap and beaten, but very nice to play Conn 110H 9,5" bell trombone with tootsie-rolls. Ugly, but really a gem!

And a couple of years earlier, a very cheap Yamaha, which turned out to be a YSL-682B Bousfield with large valve. Great find, and great value for the money.

And the 'student' horns YBL-321 and YSL 356G play much much better than 'student' indicates ...

"I suffer from Instrument acquisition Syndrome (IAS) , much to my wife`s eye rolling."

Random tangent- why is this so common of a theme??. A trombone player gets married and the spouse (usually a female), criticizes a guy for having more than one trombone. I don't get it. Did she not know she was marrying a trombone player??!?-"surprise honey! I actually play the trombone every day- I just decided to never tell you until after we were married!"
If I married a painter, and she had more than one art studio kit, I'd be the last person to ever criticize.

I stopped playing trombone after music school, went to law school, and did not pick it up again for about 10 years. I met and married my wife after law school. She thought it might be nice if I picked up the trombone again when we moved to a community that had a community band. I found a nice 3B and the obsession began.

Arrowhead wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 6:42 pm "I suffer from Instrument acquisition Syndrome (IAS) , much to my wife`s eye rolling."

Random tangent- why is this so common of a theme??. A trombone player gets married and the spouse (usually a female), criticizes a guy for having more than one trombone. I don't get it. Did she not know she was marrying a trombone player??!?-"surprise honey! I actually play the trombone every day- I just decided to never tell you until after we were married!"
If I married a painter, and she had more than one art studio kit, I'd be the last person to ever criticize.

For better or worse, this is not the case in our house. Hubby and I both play trombone (met as music majors)
and we both suffer from IAS. There is NO ONE to keep us in check! In addition, we have 2 sons who played trombone through HS, and a little beyond, giving us an excuse to buy even more. I have private students that I have bought horns for (reimbursed by parents) and have bought horns back from them.
Bottom line, I think there are +/- 20 trombones in our upstairs "trombone storage room."
I am beginning to work on thinning the herd.

Mamaposaune wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 7:49 pm

Arrowhead wrote: ↑Wed Apr 28, 2021 6:42 pm "I suffer from Instrument acquisition Syndrome (IAS) , much to my wife`s eye rolling."

Random tangent- why is this so common of a theme??. A trombone player gets married and the spouse (usually a female), criticizes a guy for having more than one trombone. I don't get it. Did she not know she was marrying a trombone player??!?-"surprise honey! I actually play the trombone every day- I just decided to never tell you until after we were married!"
If I married a painter, and she had more than one art studio kit, I'd be the last person to ever criticize.

For better or worse, this is not the case in our house. Hubby and I both play trombone (met as music majors)
and we both suffer from IAS. There is NO ONE to keep us in check! In addition, we have 2 sons who played trombone through HS, and a little beyond, giving us an excuse to buy even more. I have private students that I have bought horns for (reimbursed by parents) and have bought horns back from them.
Bottom line, I think there are +/- 20 trombones in our upstairs "trombone storage room."
I am beginning to work on thinning the herd.

That sounds like the ideal situation- everyone plays trombone!
after spending a few years of buying and selling trombones, a common story keeps popping up "da wife is complaining about -I have too many trombones- I need to sell" Over and over and over again, I hear this.
IAS for life!

Arrowhead wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:22 am after spending a few years of buying and selling trombones, a common story keeps popping up "da wife is complaining about -I have too many trombones- I need to sell" Over and over and over again, I hear this.

Yup. I feel sorry for those people - but not that sorry. For every person who has to sell a horn, there's a person who buys it and (hopefully) cherishes it.

Kanstul 750 .500" straight tenor was a big surprise for me. I played it with a Faxx 7C/Faxx 6.5AL/Bach 6.5AM. It was an easy playing horn, sounded great, and was reasonably prices. Sold it to a beginner student that was a member of my church at that time. He still has it today.

An added advantage of trombones is they take up little space when stored vertically! Don't thin the herd, just put a false floor in the trombone storage room and you double the square footage available to store.

Hello, new member here with my first post.

I’ll keep this thread alive with my surprise horn from last week. King 2B in silver plate from 1938-ish (I reckon). I saw it hanging from a peg behind the counter of an antique shop east of Birmingham AL. I really had no interest in buying a horn, but out of idle curiosity I asked to see it closer, and when I saw what it was it was all over for me. Came with a King M21 (coin edge) and a Rudy Muck 28 (but no case, rats). I didnt see any major issues, so I decided it was worth the risk. I have the best local brasswind shop cleaning it up now, can’t wait to get it back.

I got a quite beat up Reynolds from DJ, I asked him for "one of the cheapest bass trombones you have", and it's honestly the best bass trombone I've played on. It's good for casual playing, and even has spring barrels. I'm sure once I get it actually serviced it'll be a great horn, but it plays great for what it looks like right now.

Estraven wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 8:24 am Hello, new member here with my first post.

I’ll keep this thread alive with my surprise horn from last week. King 2B in silver plate from 1938-ish (I reckon). I saw it hanging from a peg behind the counter of an antique shop east of Birmingham AL. I really had no interest in buying a horn, but out of idle curiosity I asked to see it closer, and when I saw what it was it was all over for me. Came with a King M21 (coin edge) and a Rudy Muck 28 (but no case, rats). I didnt see any major issues, so I decided it was worth the risk. I have the best local brasswind shop cleaning it up now, can’t wait to get it back.

This is what I got back from the shop. Some of the gold wash is still present; slide works well. Im quite pleased with the result.

You want surprise?

I bought a Bb euphonium on Ebay and it turned out to be an Eb tuba.

That was a surprise.