[Trombone-l] extreeme high pitched vintage German trombone

[Eric & Candice Swanson]

dahmnoyes at tampabay.rr.com wrote:

>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?
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Since it sounds like it is unplayable the way it is, you don't have 
anything to lose.  You could probably install a tuning slide in the bell 
section which could also lower the pitch of the horn down to A440.  It 
would be difficult but not impossible for a really good repair 
technician.  Another, easier, way to go would be to add a tuning slide 
to the end of the hand slide.  Might be a little slide heavy that way, 
but could be fairly easy and cheap if you can find parts the right size.

Eric Swanson