TromboneChat

I am in need of ferrules for my Bach 42 slide. I am having my tech install a nickel crook. Tech ordered ferrules from Conn-Selmer at the beginning of October and are back ordered. I am growing impatient and want to know where else I can get the ferrules I need. Any thoughts?

Instrument Innovations?

Your tech should be able to reuse the original ferrules from whatever crook you are having replaced

If that is not the case, have your tech contact us at [email protected]. We would need outer dimensions of the slide tubes and the crook to ensure proper fit.

Luckily, techs love when customers are impatient and supply their own parts. Even more when they are not OEM replacements but from somewhere else found online….

But seriously, the places above are great potentials, maybe suggest them to the tech and let them procure them. How this plays out depends on how far on the ‘grumpy guy with a hammer and a torch’ scale your chosen tech is.

Cheers,
Andy

Easy to make with any metal lathe.

BarryDaniels wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 3:58 pm Easy to make with any metal lathe.

Yeah, but even a mini lathe will cost you $1,000.

ghmerrill wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:57 pm

BarryDaniels wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 3:58 pm Easy to make with any metal lathe.

Yeah, but even a mini lathe will cost you $1,000.

Any tech worth using for a slide rebuild should have access to a lathe. Its kind of a red flag if someone can't either reuse the existing ferrules or make a replacement.

Grahambone wrote: Wed Nov 26, 2025 1:00 pm

ghmerrill wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:57 pm

Yeah, but even a mini lathe will cost you $1,000.

Any tech worth using for a slide rebuild should have access to a lathe. Its kind of a red flag if someone can't either reuse the existing ferrules or make a replacement.

Or doesn't know about Allied

Grahambone wrote: Wed Nov 26, 2025 1:00 pm Its kind of a red flag if someone can't either reuse the existing ferrules or make a replacement.

Maybe, but I think other factors may come into play. Making a replacement -- however simple the machining operations may be -- takes some time. For a repair tech, time is money. If the cost of a replacement ferrule is less than the cost of the set-up and machining time, then buying the replacement is better for the customer. Alternatively, the tech may not want to devote his time to making that ferrule and (over)charging for it instead of doing another job for another customer that would take the same time but bring in a more justifiably higher fee. The tech is in business -- not doing you a favor.

I haven't looked in the Allied catalog to see what they have and what it would cost. That certainly might be an option. Other sources might be as well. Reusing existing ferrules (assume the customer is okay with that) would be ideal in some obvious respects. But I don't think there's anything wrong with a tech saying "Yeah, I could hand-make you a part, but it would take long and cost more than just ordering one for XXXX."

To my knowledge, the Allied catalog has never offered the ferrules that are connected to the crook on a Bach 42 hand slide. It is an unusual ferrule because the crook has a different outside diameter that the outer slide tubes. Thus, the ferrule has a step in the inside diameter.

Years ago, I made my own Bach 42 slide ferrules, mostly because I wanted mine to be slightly thicker than the factory production ferrules. These days, I order them about 16-20 at a time because TIME is a more important commodity. I think it would probably be more cost efficient to order the parts from Conn-Selmer, unless you are making a dozen or more of them at a time…..assembly-line style.

Of course, there is the huge question…..what is the wait time for parts from Conn-Selmer these days. A few years ago, I was waiting 5 or 6 months for parts from certain companies.