I just did something stupid: ordering 2 used Yamaha YBL-421Gs. Now I am facing some dilemmas.

It all started when I need a beater trombone to march with my former school band in Korea this August. All the school horns are occupied (three are actually my own horn donated), and I don’t dare risking my new YBL-835D. So I started scouring Yahoo Auction Japan (via Buyee) for a horn, with budget initially limited to around 900-1000 USD.

There was a listing of a YBL-421G. The horn has some lacquer wear and dents, and was listed as “junk”. But from my experience, Japanese “junk” can mean “usable, just not pretty”. The listing said the tuning slide is stuck. No problem for me. A tech can handle that easily. The price was 520 USD, quite attractive, so I placed a bid. No one else did. So I won the auction.

While waiting for the horn, another 421G popped up. This one is in a much better shape, almost like new, with BAM case, for just 560 USD. Being a fool and acting like I had money to burn (spoiler alert: I didn’t), I placed a bid on that too. My plan for the future is to have one converted into a dependent double with the valve of another one, similar to the Yamaha YBL-822. According to this plan, in the end I would have one dependent double and one extra-large bore straight horn, all for just no more than around 1,800 USD, including import tax and conversion cost.

Looks good on paper. But I miscalculated.

First: the transportation cost from Japan is much more expensive than I anticipated. Thomann and Wessex Tubas send from Europe to Thailand for around 60 USD. The cost from Japan is upward of 120 USD. That is for each horn.

Second: when the first horn (the one listed as “junk”) arrived, I found out that the tuning slides move just fine, but the rotor knuckle is broken badly, necessitating 180 USD repair. Luckily the second horn is in excellent shape.

So I have currently already spent, including tax, almost 1,800 USD… :weep:

Third: the conversion is not as straightforward as I thought. The 421G has only one F-side tuning slide, located at the point that the second rotor is to be installed. The 822G (and the 620G) has another one located at the back of the loop. So in addition to valve conversion, a new 620G F-side tuning slide and the outer nickel part also have to be ordered/built and installed, along with moving the F-side bracing. The cost estimate is no less than 300 USD and potentially much higher…

Both of the horns play well, fortunately. To my surprise, the “junk” horn, one that is repaired, has a much larger sound than the “good-looking” one. The cause might be the tuning slide cross brace on the latter, which looks like custom job. I tried to swap the tuning slides to prove this, but to my surprise they don’t fit, with almost 1 mm difference on the span between gooseneck and bell side. Both tuning slides move well and fit well with their respective horns, so I think it is by design. The serial numbers are not that far apart though: 301XXX on the “junk” horn and 316XXX on another horn.

The “good-looking” one has a better balance though, I think due to the additional weight of the tuning slide cross brace.

The slides tenon do fit with the YBL-835D bell section, resulting in a slightly larger sound at the expense of clarity compared to the original slide. My band director actually likes the 421G slide more. But I crack notes more often on it.

So now my dilemmas are:

1. Which one should I march with? I might swap the slide of the “good-looking” with the “junk”.

2. Should I mod the horns at all?

3. If I do mod the horns, which one should be the “base”? The “junk” sounds better, but the “good-looking” is in a much better shape overall.

4. Lastly, should I use the 421G slide with the 835D permanently? :lol:

Here is the link to some of the photos of the horns, along with videos of the 835D with original and 421G slide.

[url]<LINK_TEXT text="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... jbxamQQ2Bl">https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1BmpJ_Eix_Dyt6-ZyIjFVjbxamQQ2Bl</LINK_TEXT>

Yeah, the shipping fees are what really hits you with Buyee. I've bought 3 Yamahas from there (2 trombones and a mellophone), and each was extremely cheap. (The mellophone was less than $1!) But each cost about $160 to ship, making the cheap cost of the instrument itself kind of irrelevant.

I think you still do the mod. You definitely don't need 2 single valve bass trombones, and it's very unlikely you'd make the price you paid (including shipping) back when selling one. And you'd still be left with a single, which is much less useful than a double. If you go the double route, you're still putting more money into it, but you have a backup that can do everything your 835D can, is cool because it's a custom job, and can fetch good money if you ever decide to sell it. You could make the straight horn out of the other one if you wanted, or you could sell it for parts to help cover the cost of turning the other one into a double.

I'd mod the junk one. It plays better and you can sell the leftover parts of the other one for more money since they're in better shape.

I ended up with two 321s. This gives me a good idea of what I might do with them.

Tangentially, ZenMarket seems to do better on shipping costs, partly because they don't use ridiculous, oversized packing. Their buying process is...different...though. Just for future reference.