TromboneChat

OK, most likely a dumb idea...

has anyone made a "Franken F" - Tenor with F attachment? For example take a King 606, plus a King 3B F-attachment . . . cut and graft? OK the 3B is .507" bore and a 606 is .500, so that's not ideal. But maybe some other combination. Clearly this would be a relatively small bore horn as I don't see many bargain big bores to do this kind of surgery on.

There are lots of smaller bore tenors with F attachment:

The King 605F
Olds Recording with F
Olds Super Star with F

Some of us like to use Medium Bore (0.525") horns with F. Lots of those around

Could you make one? Sure. You can buy a valve section and graft it in. Not a job for the faint of heart, though. You need to have some soldering skills, some tube bending skills, and a lot of patience.

Would be a useful tool for small ensemble musicals where the part goes way below the bass staff, but the ensemble is only 8 musicians so a large bore tenor with F would overpower the rest of the band (not to mention the cast if they are amateurs).

Technically, ALL of my trombones are Franken-somethings. I don’t think I owe a single trombone in its original form. I think this is true of many people on TromboneChat.

You mentioned some smaller bore horns. Are you interested in a small bore F-attachment? Have you considered a G-attachment? I know a couple jazz trombonists who use a G-attachment on a small bore horn and do very well with it.

I had an extra neckpipe for an Edwards .508, and I bought a 3B f attachment section from a friend. I have a detachable F attachment section now for my .508 Edwards. It could use some work on the ergonomics - we made it work with minimal expense and "surgery", but it does work. If I used that horn more, and had a need for a valve with it more often, I would get someone th bend some tubing, and change out the thumb valve.

Jim Scott

Adding an f-attachment to a small-bore straight tenor isn't something that's done that often. Part of the problem is that there's just not that much room for the tubing; small bore straight tenors tend to be rather "narrow" through the bell section.

A few years back there was someone pitching a couple Olds A-15 Ambassadors that they'd grafted f-attachments onto; it was discussed on a forum (not sure if it was this one or the old one). As I recall, the attachment wrap was rather "unique".

I've seen a few large bore straight tenors that have been converted; that usually works out OK, as compatible parts are readily available.

I'd thought about doing it in various methods for years and so I have quite the collection of parts and small bore F attachment trombones I' consider selling if you were interested. King 605F (Full horn), King 3BF (Rotor + tubing only), King 607F (Rotor + tubing only), Yamaha 646 (Rotor + Tubing), probalby other stuff. I was planning on putting a pbone bell on the 605F lol but I haven't gotten around to it... just moved a few months ago and now starting to get settled but I might put it on another neckpipe I have instead.

JohnL wrote: ↑Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:39 pm Adding an f-attachment to a small-bore straight tenor isn't something that's done that often. Part of the problem is that there's just not that much room for the tubing; small bore straight tenors tend to be rather "narrow" through the bell section.

Good point. I was thinking the F-attachment might need to be mounted at an angle.

BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 30, 2021 5:45 pm Could you make one? Sure. You can buy a valve section and graft it in. Not a job for the faint of heart, though. You need to have some soldering skills, some tube bending skills, and a lot of patience.

I was thinking that there wouldn't be a need for tube bending? Where / what would need bending?

And thanks for the encouragement that the beast could have a useful role other than handy-man amusement!

Hm. What if you took a Yamaha 350, reversed the rotor action, and sourced longer tuning slides for both main horn and valve section?

blap73 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:33 am

BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 30, 2021 5:45 pm Could you make one? Sure. You can buy a valve section and graft it in. Not a job for the faint of heart, though. You need to have some soldering skills, some tube bending skills, and a lot of patience.

I was thinking that there wouldn't be a need for tube bending? Where / what would need bending?

And thanks for the encouragement that the beast could have a useful role other than handy-man amusement!

If you source only a valve you may need to build the rest of the attachment. Or maybe you need to alter the trasplant attachment tubing to get it to fit.

spencercarran wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:54 am Hm. What if you took a Yamaha 350, reversed the rotor action, and sourced longer tuning slides for both main horn and valve section?

Reversing the rotor and extending the valve wrap might make a nice C/G horn or similar, but putting a whole tone of extra length into the main tuning slide - where expansion is already underway - would make for some seriously messy tuning. Anyway, it's a normal length bell section, and the valve wrap just replaces the amount by which the slide is short. Reversing the rotor, extending the valve wrap and using a normal length 354 or 356 slide might be a good basis for a Bb/G horn, though.

Anyway, to the OP, save your time and money and just buy one of the cheaper King or Olds models mentioned above. (Or a 3BF.)

spencercarran wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:54 am Hm. What if you took a Yamaha 350, reversed the rotor action, and sourced longer tuning slides for both main horn and valve section?

You would essentially have a really expensive YSL356

Matt K wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 6:10 am

spencercarran wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:54 am Hm. What if you took a Yamaha 350, reversed the rotor action, and sourced longer tuning slides for both main horn and valve section?

You would essentially have a really expensive YSL356

But one with a valve!

spencercarran wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 10:23 am

Matt K wrote: ↑Sun Jan 02, 2022 6:10 am

You would essentially have a really expensive YSL356

But one with a valve!

The 356 has a valve too.