Headed back down the bass trombone rabbit hole and am looking for a handful of items to complete a franken-horn. Cosmetics are unimportant - function first. The bell I just picked up is set up for Edwards, but I'm OK changing to Shires fittings

- Slide single bore - Edwards or Bach

- Tuning slide - no preferences

- straight neck pipe

- rotary valve section - single, indy, or dependent - whatever you have is fair game

The bell is a 9" 20 ga Osmun and I'm kind of aiming to create something sort of like a Bach 45. I like traditional rotary.

Let me know if you've got anything gathering dust.

A small belled, large throated bass is fun, but not like a Bach 45. The 45 is MUCH smaller tuning slide bow through the throat than any readily available bass parts.

Cheers,

Andy

[quote="elmsandr"]A small belled, large throated bass is fun, but not like a Bach 45. The 45 is MUCH smaller tuning slide bow through the throat than any readily available bass parts.

Cheers,

Andy[/quote]

Ahhh - I was not aware of that. Thanks.

I've never played a 45, though at some point I would very much like to.

That said, I did try to build an "everything" horn as - at the time - I was making the transition into another career and thought it might be nice to just have one horn that I use for everything. I built it on a Shires tenor neckpipe & tuning slide, Bach 42 rotor w/ a dependent rotor and a Shires tuning slide. Though I did also briefly have a Thayer valve. Bell was a Holton of some variety w/ 9". It was a great horn, but the results were definitely not satisfying as a bass. Even with the Thayer and a 562/562 slide. I eventually sold and my undersatnding is the person who has that valve section likes it. I would have loved to hang onto it but I find the independent bass I had built is just way more fun to play.

Reason I'm saying this is I would suggest determining which side you want the horn to be. Do you want it to be a tenor? Or do you want to be a bass? I'd then figure out how extreme in the other direction you want to take it. For example, if you wanted it to be a bass and it were my project, I'd probably pick up an Edwards tuning slide and have someone make a .562 rotor setup. So many good options now. And then pick up a 547, 547/562, or 562 slide for it. In my opinion, that combination (think like a King 6B) gives you the much more open tuning slide which is really important for how it feels, but gives you a bit more tight rotor setup. And still leaves you with the ability to use more contemporary sized rotors (around .593) since it would still be modular with Edwards stuff. Is my thinking about the gauges off? That bell seems super heavy. Seems sort of contradictory to be building a lighter bass with it though. But maybe it plays well despite its heaviness... or I could be totally off about gauges.

The other direction might be a larger tenor. I'd probably do the same thing for the valve, but use a tenor tuning slide. Not sure how feasible this is; your throat might be too big on it if its already mounted for Edwards basses.

Hey Matt, it’s true that dependent tenor valve section is a ton of fun! It’s at a tech right now waiting in line to have the stacked levers split, I just couldn’t get used to the older king style double lever.

It’s definitely not a bass, not even close from a sound perspective. I use it with my 547 slide, shires TX tuning slide and 2RVE bell. Its an odd combination but it works for me. It’s full on tenor, but it’s fun to have the chromatic range down low and the slide options when playing things like Bach cello suites.

[quote="Arvopart17"]Hey Matt, it’s true that dependent tenor valve section is a ton of fun! It’s at a tech right now waiting in line to have the stacked levers split, I just couldn’t get used to the older king style double lever.

It’s definitely not a bass, not even close from a sound perspective. I use it with my 547 slide, shires TX tuning slide and 2RVE bell. Its an odd combination but it works for me. It’s full on tenor, but it’s fun to have the chromatic range down low and the slide options when playing things like Bach cello suites.[/quote]

Very glad its working out! Happy to report that I've been digging the 7YLW8 bell I traded for.

Funny, in hind sight so many things that I thought would be super important turned out to be less important than I thought. The reason I went with DG levers is that well, 1) I actually liked them. But 2) so it would fit in an Eastman tenor case. I still have that case, although I have only used it maybe 3 times in the last few years. In hindsight, I should have split the triggers! I've finally found a setup that I like on my bass that has stacked triggers as I was able to get a used Greenhoe thumbrest. My tech put some cork on it and it is very comfortable... more comfortable than any other stacked levers I've had, but does not give me an allergic reaction like the rest bar normally would with my sensitivity to nickel.

Sent you an email

I have a complete, ugly Besson 555 Bb/F bass trombone which could give you a load of parts. The bell is ok except for some rippling at one side near the rim. The F section is complete and everything functions as it should with a good rotary valve. All the stays are present and undamaged. The slide is probably a 6/10 and shows signs of wear and previous dent work.

The 555 is the same as the Besson Academy 409 which I use.

The whole thing is yours for £100 ($134)+ shipping from UK.

Let me know if you are interested.

Cheers

Stewbones43