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Instruments


Greenhoe - Bach 50

Since a few months Torbjörn plays a Greenhoe trombone. It's a Bach 50B improved by Greenhoe Inc. Gary Greenhoe, the man who started the trombone plant together with his wife Glenda, is trombonist in Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Glenda is flutist in the same orchestra.

In September 2006 Torbjörn together with his colleagues in the Gävle Symphony Orchestra was visiting Jackson, Wisconsin, USA, where Greenhoe's plant is. The reason for Torbjörn to go there was to try out a small bass trombone, to be used as a complement to his ordinary Greenhoe-bach bass. His choice was a Greenhoe-Bach 42G with a 50 hand slide.

Pictures of the testing the small bass out can be seen at picture-page. More pictures coming...

 

Bach 50 B with Thayer valves

Torbjörn still owns his Bach 50 B with two independent Thayer valves. The valves were ordered directly from O E Thayer Company and mounted on a Bach 50 B in 1990. The valves work fine, but are a little more sensible than ordinary rotor valves.
The big advantage with these valves is the similar resistance, whether you use the valves or not!

 

[Torbjörn's Bach 50 B]

In the season 99/00, Torbjörn played contra bass trombone, for the first time at a concert. Gävle Symphony Orchestra played a "compact" version of "the Ring" by Wagner. The contra bass trombone was borrowed from the Royal Opera, in Stockholm. It is a Lätzsch, tuned in F.
The sound in the section was completely different, compared to that from the "regular" bass trombone.

Some pictures of that contra bass trombone.


Development

Conn
It's been an evolution (beside Thayer), on the valves to trombones. One of them is from Conn.
Christian Lindberg has developed, together with Conn, a new Conn 88 (88 H CL). It has a new type of rotor valve, which Christian has designed. The air goes in fewer curves, and the resistance playing on the valve, is more similar to the open instrument.

Bach
Bach also has a new type of valve. Go to Bach's home page for more information on the K-valve.
Bach trombones is also available with factory equipped Thayer- or Hagmann valve/valves.

René Hagmann
René Hagmann has designed a new type of valve. The new bass trombone by Besson is equipped with the Hagmann valves.
According to Hagmann's Internet site, they have several partners as Bach, Courtois, Thein and others.

SE Shires
Shires is available with Thayer- or an own developed rotary valve. Previously they could also be made with Hagmann- or Greenhoe valves.

Greenhoe
Greenhoe has a very interesting site. The company can now deliver trombones with their own valve based on either Conn or Bach parts.

Edwards
Edwards has experimented with placement of the stays holding the valve loop. The result is an instrument responding sooner and with more ease. The "normal" placement is still available. Read more...

Kanstul
Kanstul offers a new type of "balanced" valve. The idea with this valve is to get an instrument that responds easily. Worth mentioning is that the tuning slide is on the slide.
Mr Bass Trombone, George Roberts plays a Kanstul instrument.
Kanstul instruments are also available with Thayer valves.


Other improvements

There are of course other parts on a trombone that can be changed to build better instruments. It has been very popular to make different parts to the trombone, with a whole lot of different definitions. That can be altered on a trombone, is the thickness of the metal, the mensura, and so on.
The parts are then combined together by the musicians' choice. All to be able to offer instruments to the significant musician.
Edwards and Shires are two of the manufacturer that is using this idea.

On of the thoughts behind the innovations is the idea of same resistance in the whole register. The feeling of playing high or low, soft or loud, with or without valve(s), shall be the same.
Important to remember is, there are no "self playing" trombones. How it sounds depend very much of "flesh and blood".

There are surely more factories working on material and design on trombones (and other instruments as well). The purpose is not to give a complete list of manufacturer, but to show the fact of constantly new ideas and solutions to improve the design of the trombone.
See the linkpage for more information.

On the TromboneLMailinglist there are frequently discussions about different solutions to improve the trombone. Be a member to be able to join the discussions.


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