[Trombone-l] An alto neophyte asks for it.

[Gabriel Langfur]

----- Original Message ----
From: Eric & Candice Swanson <swan325 at earthlink.net>

One thing to consider is that on every alto that I've ever played the 
slide is just a little too short to really reach 7th position.  You 
really have to lip down the E naturals and the low As or they're going 
to be pretty sharp, and that's with the slide just barely hanging on.  


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There's a reason for that, and it has to do with getting the nodes in the right place for the partials to line up in a sensible way. The short slide makes it much easier to do.

We've done a couple of things with the new Shires alto to combat that. One has to do with the cork barrels, and I'll leave it up to techs like Eric to figure it out. (Eric, I think you'll be seeing Steve this week, right? He has at least one of the new altos with him). The other is...slide tuning. Fixing the bell section taper in place helps the partials line up well, and makes other adjustments possible.

Gabe