I bought mine in early 2022, and my friend bought one recently. His T396AR played more compact and a little bit tighter than mine.I feel mine is a little bit too open for me and want to make it more compact. I play a Griego 5D.

I exchanged both slide and bell section with my friend, and found out that his bell section makes the difference instead of the slide. I just let my technican clean and check my instrument, and he found nothing wrong with it.

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Is there a difference in your harmonic pillars?

You can also try different main tuning slides (even of the same variety). They can make a big difference in how a bell section repsonds.

My suggestion is that no two horns will be made the same way. You gotta play them before you buy them.

I'm playing a T396AR these days - about a year and a bit now.

I didn't mess with the Harmonic Pillars for most of that time - I liked the horn, and it was open, but not as open as my T350 with the Thayer was. Lately, I was feeling a bit of that same openness (too much?) that the OP was talking about, and I was wanting just a bit more brilliance in the upper range. I tried the longest copper pillar and was surprised at how much it changed the blow and the color of the sound. After a couple of days, I decided that it was a little too much, and I changed to the smallest copper pillar, and found what feels like a "sweet spot" - a little more resistance and just a touch of brilliance, particularly at louder volumes. We just finished our season with Mahler 2nd, and I especially liked this set-up, including during some of the exposed softs like the chorale and the octaves with the 1st trumpet.

For the OP - try the pillars - it's free and a lot less disruptive to the horn than changing bells and slides. Christan is a smart guy who knows the trombone, and has put a lot of thought and R & D into this instrument. You may be surprised. I was.

Jim Scott

If you can get to a really good tech, take it there and have them check the valve alignment. Sometimes it's not a matter of bad alignment, but finding the sweet spot for the kind of response you want. Lou Anderson at Virtuosity in Boston is a master of this.

The pillars are one of the best innovations I've seen on the trombone, tech wise. Use em.

I used to play test the T396ARs. I remember when we had 27 at once to play test when the first batch of ARs came through the factory. They do play different and that is why we like to fit them to the player without pillars and then let the player dial in more on their on own as they get into their real world playing environments.

Some play more open, some more tight. Never any that are bad, just different. Do as Mr Rice said and have the alignment checked. Then water key. Try tightening the water key screw a half turn. Then start with pillars. There is a rough guide on how to use the pillars. Ask Edwards to send it to you on a PDF.

Good luck!