[Trombone-l] Vintage holton

[Eric & Candice Swanson]

On Aug 8, 2008, at 6:12 AM, Keith Marr wrote:

> There is a 1936 Holton Symphony tenor on UK ebay and the pictures  
> show a gizmo between the bell stay and the valve I've never seen  
> before. Anyone know what the heck it is? Could just be to ease  
> holding but it looks like it enters the valve casing.
>

Keith,

I used to have one of those.  Howard's right, it's the trigger.  Your  
thumb goes in the ring and you pull forward on it (a little awkward to  
me).  There's a spring in the cylindrical part above the ring.  The  
end of the rod connected to the ring has teeth that engage a gear  
attached to the valve and turn the valve.  It works fine, but I've  
never seen anything like it on another horn.  I contacted Holton about  
it years ago and they replied that at the time (1930s) it was their  
bass trombone.  I measured it to be somewhere in the .530 bore area.   
Mine had a broken-off lower inside slide tube and there isn't anything  
made that is close to the size needed to replace it.

Eric Swanson