TromboneChat

Has anyone tried Butler's cf leadpipes? What are your experiences?

Thanks!

I have a bass pipe. I actually found it to be quite good- but once while A/B testing it, I screwed it in just a couple mm too far and the threads all popped off. Now it's useless.

I haven't seen it but I'd bet it's repairable. I would take a metal leadpipe thread, turn both parts to fit each other, and glue the threaded part onto the leadpipe.
Or make a Lexan threaded piece.

Doug Elliott wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:37 am I haven't seen it but I'd bet it's repairable. I would take a metal leadpipe thread, turn both parts to fit each other, and glue the threaded part onto the leadpipe.
Or make a Lexan threaded piece.

I know something would fix it... but it's a low priority. Maybe I'll send it to you!

Doug Elliott wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:37 am I haven't seen it but I'd bet it's repairable. I would take a metal leadpipe thread, turn both parts to fit each other, and glue the threaded part onto the leadpipe.
Or make a Lexan threaded piece.

Why do leadpipes need to be threaded. Wouldn't a friction press-fit (like a mouthpiece) be enough?

Sesquitone wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 3:23 pm

Doug Elliott wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:37 am I haven't seen it but I'd bet it's repairable. I would take a metal leadpipe thread, turn both parts to fit each other, and glue the threaded part onto the leadpipe.
Or make a Lexan threaded piece.

Why do leadpipes need to be threaded. Wouldn't a friction press-fit (like a mouthpiece) be enough?

The problem is bonding something to the carbon strongly enough that mouthpiece pressure doesn't push the leadpipe into the slide tube and get it stuck. That's why I haven't used mine since.

walldaja wrote: Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:15 am Has anyone tried Butler's cf leadpipes? What are your experiences?

Butler's stuff is really good, but I just don't find the Carbon Fiber does the job like brass does. It's duller, less responsive, and just doesn't sound as good as brass. With that being said Butler's stuff is the highest quality CF out there.

Much to my surprise, when I picked up a BUTLER carbon fiber leadpipe on TTF [out of curiosity] for my Butler C-12, it solved virtually every problem that I sought to solve. Whodathunkit ?? Of course, it was a Butler to Butler situation. I'd messed with several other solutions but there it was in plain sight !

What about thermal conductivity? Silver and copper are excellent conductors (of both heat and electricity). Brass and other copper alloys a little less so, but still very good. By comparison, carbon-fibre is a very good (thermal) insulator.

The speed of sound—and, therefore, the frequency for a fixed length—in air is strongly dependent on temperature (proportional to the square-root of absolute temperature). A highly conductive metal for the leadpipe assures constant temperature and uniform frequencies of all harmonics in this critical region of a brass instrument. Whereas a strong temperature gradient there might distort the frequency of some overtones, perhaps affecting tone quality.

It might be instructive to see a comparative (objective) study of different materials (frequency spectra, &c.)—with all other parameters held constant. But if the famous study of flute materials is any indication, what comes out of the bell (and is heard by the listener) is likely to be unaffected by the material used for the leadpipe, even if "feedback" to the player feels different.

In the flute study, each player had a well-defined frequency-spectrum "signature"—but this was unaffected by the material used.

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