I'm a little surprised to have not seen a post about this yet, so I guess I'll make one. Midwest starts in a couple of days and I was curious if anyone is going and what you're looking forward to.

I always felt like this conference was a big deal, but I also live near it. I was pretty disappointed in the brass showing. Just from a quick glance at the exhibitors it doesn't look like any small mouthpiece maker will be there (hopefully I missed someone) and a lot of the smaller companies, and even Edwards, won't have a booth.

I was able to snag a pass because one of the schools I teach at is performing, and I was really excited to go, but now that most of the stuff I was interested in trying won't be there I may not go down there as often as I originally expected.

One of the local school bands here in Hawaii flew up for the clinic.

Today was the first day and I was fairly underwhelmed. The booths that really stuck out to me were

Schilke/Greenhoe - best small bore trombone at the show in my opinion. And their basses were really great too.

Baltimore Brass - awesome used horn selection. They had a small bore Thein and 2 basses.

Yamaha - the new gen bass bone was awesome. I was

Unimpressed with the 891z, but i got to play Luke Malewicz’s horn which is different than a stock 891z and that was great.

Another note is that I started to see more and more detachable bells. That was pretty cool to see that it’s finally getting recognized by some of these companies. At least the option is available at places like Yamaha, Greenhoe and Shires.

I’m going to be there on Friday again and maybe something new will stand out.

There was plenty to complain about, but I don’t feel like dogging companies on a public forum :-)

Bumping this as I am thinking about attending this year. I’d really like to try some of the higher end basses - Edwards, Rath, Shires, Thein, etc. I don’t see most (any?) of those manufacturers as slated to attend but wasn’t sure if the music stores will have sufficient inventory to try.

If not Midwest, what conferences do folks recommend for a really robust opportunity to try basses?

TMEA in San Antonio the beginning of February usually has a good selection of manufacturers.

DEFINITELY check out Bell's Music display!!! Their recent offering of trombones, bass and tenor, is incredible!!!

Baltimore Brass are great people be sure to check them out if you attend.