It was significantly after the move to Elkhart that Bach shortened the tuning slide tubes, though still in the ‘corporation’ bell stamp era, so not too terribly long. I'm speaking to bass trombones generally here, but it also applies to tenors. But some players still need to remove length from factory Bach's to get them up to pitch.Įdwards chose to have longer gooseneck/bell sections on their newer models, which would play "very" flat if paired with a standard Bach slide (26 3/4" outer tube length) their handslides are shorter to accommodate the pitch required. Do you take base pitch into account?īach (perhaps?) did when they moved to Elkhart, by shortening the tuning slide tubes from the length they had been in NY/MV. Many players find the standard Bach (even more so the older MV or NY instruments) to be flat, especially with the larger/deeper mouthpieces generally used for the last few decades.Īgain, the instrument designer has a choice. Regarding the front/back balance being thrown off, that just simply isn't true. I have no problem playing low B's in tune. That is how I designed my single valve basses. Do they want the horn to have an in tune low B? It is simple to make the handslide long enough to get a full 7th position, "and" make the F valve tuning slide long enough to get an actual E in first position. So in this case the valve loop isn't long enough, but the handslide is.Īgain, the instrument designer has the decision to make. In this case, the valve loop is long enough, but the handslide isn't.Ī Bach on the other hand, has a long enough handslide, but the valve slide is not long enough to get to a real E. The traditional wrap 88H has a full E pull, but, the handslide length is not quite long enough to get the pitch down far enough for a low B. You need almost Eb to get a B near the end of the slide. Pulling to E on most horns (non-long-slide Conns) will not get you a B. Someday I am going to rebuild that horn because it has a beautiful sound….just need to shorten the slide a bit and replace the tuning slide legs with ones that are normal length. Sure, I can play a low C in trigger 7.5 perfectly in tune, but the ergonomics on that horn are just too front heavy…….even with F attachment + balance weights at the far back end of the F tubing. The slide on that horn is about 3/4 inch longer than my Bach 42 and 50 slides, even longer than my Conn 72H. When I converted it to modular bell section (added a Benge 190 valve and custom F wrap), I decided to trim the main tuning slide about 3/8 inch so it wasn’t flat with my larger mouthpieces. It is my 1980s Holton TR-256 (.547-.559 dual bore with screw bell). I do have one trombone in which the slide is definitely too long. When I play my Edwards and Yamaha horns, I am a bit more cautious in the outer positions because they start to pivot slightly in (what I consider) normal 7th position. All of my Bachs and my Conn 72H have very smooth slide action down through 7th position. I love long slides, mostly because they usually have smoother 7th positions.
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