[Trombone-l] extreeme high pitched vintage German trombone

[Steve Gamble]

Hi Bill,

I'm curious.  Did you use your own (American) mouthpiece when you were
trying the German horns?  I've had the same experience regarding the
weirdness of some German makes.  It turned out that I needed to use the
mouthpiece that came with the horn to make is work well.  Of course, the
mouthpieces were nothing like what I usually played, but that's another
story. 

Steve Gamble, Librarian
Tucson Symphony Orchestra
2175 N. 6th Ave.
Tucson, AZ  85705
520-792-9155 x118 office
520-792-9314 fax
520-991-7056 cell
sgamble at tucsonsymphony.org
www.tucsonsymphony.org

-----Original Message-----
From: trombone-l-bounces at maillists.samford.edu
[mailto:trombone-l-bounces at maillists.samford.edu] On Behalf Of Bill
Dinwiddie
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 11:32 AM
To: List Trombone
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] extreeme high pitched vintage German trombone

(Sorry, I don't know who to address this to because your posting does
not 
contain your name.)

I went to Germany in the early '70s and had the opportunity to play
several 
Alexander trombones at the factory in Mainz. I was given to understand
that 
this company made really first class brass instruments. I was astounded
to 
find that every trombone I played that day was one of the worst
instruments 
I have ever played. The overtone series on every horn was so out of
whack 
that I began to get aggravated. These are the demo horns that the
Alexander 
company wants these American visitors to play so that they will be
better 
able to appreciate fine German craftsmanship? They were all crap! Of
course, 
they looked very pretty. I expressed my opinion to the officials of the 
company and the look of shock on their faces was evident. They must have

thought I was insane. Apparently, they never had a German professional 
trombonist test their instruments, or they would have never let these
horns 
be played by anyone. I'm sorry to hear that you purchased the instrument
in 
question. It doesn't surprise me to hear that the entire horn plays a
half 
step too high. The horns I played back then were totally unusable. I
would 
never consider buying an Alexander instrument as a result of that 
experience.

The horn may sound nice, but I believe that you should go out and buy
some 
lamp cord and a nice energy efficient light bulb. Sorry. Maybe you can
sell 
it on E-Bay.

Bill Dinwiddie
billdin at comcast.net



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dahmnoyes at tampabay.rr.com>
To: <trombone-l at server5.samford.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 10:56 AM
Subject: [Trombone-l] extreeme high pitched vintage German trombone


>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?
> _______________________________________________
> Trombone-l mailing list
> Trombone-l at maillists.samford.edu
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> 


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