[Trombone-l] extreeme high pitched vintage German trombone

[dahmnoyes@tampabay.rr.com]

I recently purchased a G. Alexander (Mainz) trombone made supposedly in the 70's.  There is no tuning slide in either the bell section nor on the main slide.  Although this horn has one of the prettiest sounds that I've every experienced, it is extremely high pitched--so much so that the positions need to be played down one full position to get them in tune.  This leaves you with no 7th position, those notes almost being able to be played again in 1st.  My question to the list community is this: how can I salvage this horn?  I'm thinking of having a tuning slide built into the bell section, like most every other trombone has--but I'm afraid of messing with the taper that's helping to produce this sweet sound.  I'd really like to have someone customize a slide for this horn with a built in tuning slide...but I'm ignorant as to who could do such a thing for a decent price.  Any thoughts?