[Trombone-l] Sackbutt question

[BGuttman]

I have a "sackbut" made from a Holton Collegiate.

No, it doesn't sound like a Sackbut.  Purists will snub their noses at it.

The bell has been cut back to a diameter of about 2 1/2 inches (65 mm). 
Start big and work down.

I got a more authentic sound (still not good enough for the purists,
though) using an old mouthpiece and the slide from a "The King" HN White
trombone from about 1915.  I think the mouthpiece was a Conn Innes, but it
must have been modified at some point because there was a sharp corner
inside the rim as if the rim had been partially pushed off the rest of the
blank.

My project has another advantage.  When playing amateur theatricals I'm
usually told that I'm TOO LOUD.  The cut bell horn allows me to play with a
lot less stridency than normal.  So the "sackbut" goes with me and rests on
a stand in the pit for the times when I have to play in the quieter
sections.

Btw, what you want to do is what the New York Pro Musica did when they
began exploring Renaissance music back in the 1950's.  There were NO
replicas back then.

Good luck.
Bruce Guttman
Section Leader, Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra
North Andover, MA.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Message text written by Joshua Hauser
> 
For any of you who may be early music purists, I apologize for this
question
in advance.

We have a new faculty member here who is starting up an early music
ensemble
and is interested in using one or more sackbutts.  Needless to say, we
don¹t
have any, but I do have an extra bell for a Conn student model horn that I
could sacrifice to cut down if I could find some specs for this kind of
conversion.  Does anybody know of anyone who has done this effectively for
a
pseudo sackbutt effect?  I¹d love to buy a replica, but those are listing
for three to four thousand and I have this bell just sitting unused in a
closet.

Any (de)constructive suggestions?

Thanks,

Josh<