TromboneChat

Hi there
After reading only for some time, now I signed in. Two times, as the first try didn't work. There was no email for more that one day, this time it came immediately, so now I've got that additional number, so everyone can see what a senior I am - at least at age.
I started at 15 with trumpet, changed to small tenor at 18 and played in trombone choirs and a big band until life came in the way and the trombone began to rust for about 25 years.
Eight years ago my daughter started to play oboe and so I had a reason to unbox my Bundy.
After some time I wanted something bigger, so now I'm playing a Yamaha 643 large tenor, Serial number 554, obviously one of the antique ones.
As my daughter changed orchestras, I took the chance to play not only in my garret, but I joined there too.
Starting with the large tenor, it became independent.
So now I've got a sousaphone and a tuba in e flat, a bariton and a valve trombone in b flat, tenor and alto sax and a bunch of trombones from small and large tenor, a german ones with dual bore slide, an about 100 year old jazz trombone, a p-bone for the holidays and at last a bass trombone.
This one came as a 26 year old construction kit to me.
It's a Besson International 743 single bass from a time, when Besson didn't made trombones anymore. So maybe it was build by B&S, but never completed. There was no spit valve, tuning slide was raw brass and so on.
After having it fixed I played quit well and I joined a big band that didn't survived covid 19.
This year I had a second valve added and now I'm quite happy with it.
So this was a really long introduction, next time I will try to make it shorter.
Sorry for my english and christmas greetings from Germany.
Martin

Freuliche Weinacht and Welcome!

As someone else who came back from a long rest, I understand your enthusiasm. As a bass trombonist I found the Eb tubas to be a better match for me. In fact, I also play F tuba (a Mirafone 180-5U). I found I can out play a lot of the BBb players both in range and agility on that small tuba.

I looked for a Sousaphone in Eb for years, but never found anything and now I've had to stop playing in ensembles and couldn't play one even if I could find one.

I look forward to helping to answer any questions.

Little erratum, showed my posting to my wife and she couldn't stop laughing.
No, I'm not 67, this is my year of birth...

@BGutmann, thanks for the welcome
I found the Sousaphon on ebay, not knowing that there are in different tunes.
Even the seller didn't know, instead of es-Sousa for e flat, he wrote S-Sousaphone...
It is an old german one, possibly from the time instrument makers from czechoslowakia moved to our region after the war.

The funny thing for me about e flat Instruments is that they have the same fingering in bass clef as transposed in treble clef.
So every trumpet or euphonium player, or in Germany tenorhorn, who plays in b flat can read bass clef, just subtracting three b's from the key. For me it's the same with my baritone and valve trombone.
And the other way round all, for example, alto sax playalongs can be played with trombone, adding three b's and pretending it is bass clef. That I use a lot as bass trombone playalongs are hard to find.

If you really want to have fun, 3 of Mozart's 4 Horn Concerti are written for Horn in Eb (#2, #3, and #4). Read the solo part in bass clef adding 3 flats and play some really challenging music. Note that for tenor players, the parts should be put up an octave to be in the right tessitura.

interesting. I played trombone for 30 years, stopped for 22, and started practicing again 1 year ago. I hope I can recover at least some of my prior ability. I have made a lot of progress in 12 months, but even getting a consistent, good sounding tone is proving to be a lengthy undertaking. BTW, when you say you played in a "big band", do you mean a jazz or stage band, or just a large group? Also, I lived in Germany for 4 years when I was young. We lived in Mainz am Rhein. Willkommen im Posaunen-Chat.

Greetings....I was stationed in Germany for the US Air Force and was a member of the only USAF band remaining in Europe, around 1997. I was very impressed with the craftsmanship of German trombones while there and a little surprised you don't have more. Horst Molter (deceased by now I expect) used to work for Vincent Bach and he made fantastic American style trombones. Alas, the mark was weak against the dollar back then, and being of low rank and a family man I did not splurge on any of his wonderful creations. Kunil and Hoyer also make fantastic instruments, including American style. If you find a deal someday please post on here and let us know. I don't think the Molter brand continued so his instruments are probably going up in value.

Hello from Hamburg!

I studied trombone in Würzburg for three years and have played a few concerts in the Fürth/Nürnberg/Erlangen area back then. A really nice part of Germany down there!
I think back then among others I played a really nice open air concert in the Stadtpark/city park in Fürth.

Hi,
In your first post you mentioned the addition of a second valve to a Besson 743 Bb/F bass. I am curious and wondered if you could post some pictures? I am a fan of British trombone history and this intrigues me.

Cheers

Stewbones 43 (also year of my birth. It makes it easier to check how old I am whenever I forget!)

Hi there,
I am rather surprised, four replies in two days.

@topslider, it was a student big band, directed by Mandy Riedelbauch, a professional jazz saxphonist. I believe the band still exists as On Cue Big Band in Erlangen, one year ago there was a homepage. Perhaps again a victim of covid, as my actual big band that was a part of a blasorchester.

@stewbones43, the Besson was in an unusal condition, when I bought it from a young woman, who also had got it via ebay, not realizing that it was a bass trombone. It just was too big for her.
The tuning slide was raw brass, the spit valve was missing, there was not even a hole for it. The first picture shows the trombone after having it fixed.

After playing it in a local big band I decided to add a second valve.
In Nuremberg there is a small shop called Blech IN where Christoph Endres builds brass instruments. His jazz bass trombone changed my opinion on bass trombones. Until then I preferred small tubas as my ligna supertone eb as the sound was warmer. Then Ilja Khenkin showed up at a rehearse weekend with the Endress trombone and doubled the Bb tuba. I was blown away by this sound.
As consequence, last year I carried my Besson to Christoph to converse it to something similar to his jazz bass trombone.

@macbone1, Kühnl and Hoyer really make fantastic instruments, the bass trombone solo on saturday night by Martin van den Berg from the Metropol Big Band is a K&H dependent trombone.
The factory is about 20km from my home. The only problem for me is the price. 7000 Euro, just as the Endress bass trombone is rather expensive. Adding the price I payed for my Besson and the two conversions I am still under 2000 Euro and this has to be enough for the moment.
Greetings
Martin

rizzo67 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 11:03 am @macbone1, Kühnl and Hoyer really make fantastic instruments, the bass trombone solo on saturday night by Martin van den Berg from the Metropol Big Band is a K&H dependent trombone.
The factory is about 20km from my home. The only problem for me is the price. 7000 Euro, just as the Endress bass trombone is rather expensive. Adding the price I payed for my Besson and the two conversions I am still under 2000 Euro and this has to be enough for the moment.
Greetings
Martin

Trust me I get it. Price is holding me back from a lot of desirable horns too. I have no instruments bought new, some are pretty old or very well used for their age.

Hi rizzo67! I haven't been on the forum for a long time, but I happened to see you're in Germany, and also like me, played a Bundy. I'm a total beginner on trombone - just one of those things I always wanted to try. Most of my playing has been on saxophone and guitar.

I'm jealous of your Sousaphone - when I was a child there was a jazz/pop band called "The Bonzo Dog doo-dah Band" with sousaphone and bass saxophone. I even found one of their LPs at a fleamarket in Hamburg.

Belated warm welcome to the OP. Nice looking work on that conversion btw.

I used to live in Erlangen for a few years, played in a couple of groups around there and enjoyed it greatly.

Macbone1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 2:05 pm Greetings....I was stationed in Germany for the US Air Force and was a member of the only USAF band remaining in Europe, around 1997.

Bit of a random question but did you by any chance play at a festival over near Chemnitz? The setup was two stages, one at each end of the festival tent. It went directly from end to end, no breaks, whilst one band played on one stage, the other stage was changed over. 45 minutes or so sets for each of the 15-20 groups, each giving maximum intensity for their 45 mins.

Our brass band from the UK played a number of times and I’m pretty sure in the early years we went around ‘98 or so there was a US military band, with concert band and big band setups. I’m not sure if it was USAF or an Army band, too long ago!

Sorry but memory fails me. Does sound familiar though. Seems like l would have remembered a brass band from UK though.