To my ears as a tuba player I prefer the B&S with the Shires as a close second. I am sad to hear the Monster isn’t holding up as well because that horn also sounds great. My opinion, play that B&S, it sounds astonishingly good and it seems to play great for you!
I have a MW custom made with a cut corporation bell.. I have same issues as you!! But love the sound!.. very annoying. I have my Bach infinity at my repair shop to see if he can fix the valves because it's so bad setup and impossible to play..but I have a hope that it might come well together after it's fixed!
You gotta appreciate the honesty, about the fact that he kept the instruments like how they are made to be played, and not how he wants them to. Great video, that helped me a lot. :)
Well, it looks like you covered all of the bases on the Basses. I play tested a King 7B when new. I was a powerful horn and is exactly as you described. I am a tenor trombonist and do not own any Bass trombones. But this video has peaked my interest. I will probably revisit play testing Bass Trombones.
I am a tenor trombone player. I like the sound of the Shires Curran the best. I think the 50K3LG looks the best. I think the B&S sounds a little breathy on the higher notes, but it is gorgeous.
I am a Tenor Trombonist. In the early 1990s, I play tested a King 7B and a King 8B. The King 7B was was a good player. The King 8B was a Big Bore Bazooka. I had trouble filling it. I think one of my lungs collapsed. It is a Great Horn for a Bass Trombonist. But you need an extra set of lungs to play it .
I’ll be taking a trip up to Shires in a couple of weeks with a friend who’s being fitted for a horn. Hopefully they will have a George Curran model available to try. I’m not sure how much I would like the dual bore. On my Shires bass I have a lightweight .562. I love the axials and new bell I just got last October, but I do want to see how a regular weight slide sounds and feels.
@@AidanRitchie years ago I tried a regular weight slide, it sounded dull compared to the lightweight, and the money trigger notes were not centered. That’s why I went with the lightweight, but it was a different setup. One of my colleagues has a Shires TW47LW, something like a 5G bell and rotor. The lightweight worked better for him too. Best to just save my money and practice with what I have!
I have a theory about horn preferences. I think we tend to gravitate to horn setups that have similar tendencies to the ones we first learned on, taking bits and pieces of preferences from each period of learning we had. What do you think? Are your horn preferences reflective of your favorite features of horns you learned on?
Oh not at all. I started bass on a King 6B, and played a Holton 180 all through undergrad- neither of those I feel any affinity for whatsoever. But I grew up in a very isolated, bubbled place where I didn't hear great sounds.
Hi Aidan, I have a weird question. You seem to like the Yamaha 613, but don't like the 830Xeno if i understood well. I have a really good Yamaha 622 Yeo Model which i try to sell. lots of people say they love it but no one wants to buy it. Any thoughts on how it plays and perhaps some tips on how to shift in (I live in UK so maybe difficult to guess for you)
This is quite interesting as for me I've played Edwards, Rath, Bach, Yamaha, Kanstul and King. To my ears I preferred the Yamaha 613 and the B&S. The others sounded woolly to me. It's like listening to high quality hifi when the bass is quick and responsive on the Yamaha and the B&S but the others sounded defused! Not sure if it's because you are pointing away from the mic and you may hear it completely differently. Over all it's a great sound and you like what you like. I currently have a Then BvD model, Throjan and a Yamaha Xeno Yeo dependant.
Which model # is the B&S? I looked on their website and they have more than one Meistersinger bass listed. Thank you for sharing the comparison. I can hear the differences between them, even without studio mics.
With your experience owning a ton of trombones, what would you say is the bread and butter of f attch. tenor trombones something that will always play well consistently
None! Haha. But there are many good horns out there, depending on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a large bore for high school, a Yamaha 448G is very solid and can be picked up for pretty cheap used.
It's been a long time since I've reviewed a Laetzsch bass- I haven't played one since 2018! I do own a Laetzsch contra that I love, but the bass trombones did not really strike me the same way as some of their other horns.
To me, the Sarastro sounded the best, the Curran came in second, and the King third. The others just didn't sound as good to me. This was a very interesting video. I've never heard of anyone owning 6 bass trombones! 😂
Wow, I had no idea how much I didn't know about trombones...didn't even know there WAS a bass trombone! But here's the thing...I didn't see here, what I saw on a Danish Symphony Orchestra video. They did the Mandalorian theme, and at 3:02, there's this crazy thing like a trombone, but like most of the piping sits in front of the person instead of over the shoulder. But it also had a very trombone over-the-shoulder pipe. WHAT IS THAT??
Hey, Lee! "corporation bell" refers to a Bach bell from the corporation era, the horns manufactured after Mt Vernon and before being bought in 1980. Basically any horn from the 70s is a "Corp." My monster bass is a horn I had for me all to my specs. It's been my main bass trombone for the last couple years
@Aidan Ritchie I gotta find a good deal on a bass soon. I haven't seen many great ones recently. Going into senior year of hs and planning on continuing in college. Ant recommendations on where to look, what to buy, ect? Thanks man!
Old Bach bells maybe are easy at high notes, my 50b bell which was made after the corporation era in the 90s, is just so great at high range, I can play that high F easily with my 1G mouthpiece
Bach bells are all different- some are great in the high range, some are not. The leadpipe and slide tend to make more of a difference there. The Corporation era ends in 1979, a bit before the '90s!
