Martin Urbie Green TR4501 Trombone Review 

In 1982 I was touring England with a group playing my King 2B. Loved that horn. When our bus was broken into I lost the horn. Bought a Yamaha big-bore concert horn to finish the tour and then sold it to a local High School. Being a bit burned out on playing after a 3-month tour, I swore I'd buy a small-bore Jazz horn when I was ready to commit to playing again. Well, life happened and it was 2005 or so when I finally got the bug. I found a TR4501 in great condition on eBay and play it nearly every night for 20 minutes or so. LOVE THIS HORN!!! Super easy to play and such great expression! I found an Urbie Green Model M Jettone mouthpiece to complete the ensemble... Tried 4-5 other mouthpieces and still like the Jettone best. Urbie's 21 Trombone LPs had a HUGE effect on me as a teen, so this all seems appropriate! Great review and exceptional playing, Keith!!!

I have one of these and I absolutely love it!

Sounds fantastic, you need to use that horn all the time, Awsome sound

Nice Autumn Leaves... my very first horn was a 1937 Martin (yes it was old when I got it - I'm old, but not that old). I was too young and inexperienced to appreciate it, and the smaller bell made it tough to play along the 88Hs that proliferated at the time. Beautiful horn though.

I’ve owned two of these, and they’re a great lead horn for big band jazz. I also love by King 3B Silversonic. I use a Schilke 47 on both horns.

I love my small bore trombone now. I am planning to buy a large bore tenor trombone because I feel I am using an outdated trombone. But after I heard you play with a small bore trombone and explained the importance of it, I know love my small bore tenor trombone.

Now, I like how this one sounds.

Sounds good. Loved the autumn leaves.

The gooseneck is chrome-plated, not nickel silver. The chrome plating was intended to prevent lacquer loss and staining of shirt collars. It would be interesting to know how it held up. I'm old enough to remember when this horn hit the market. There was an ad for it for sale on ebay that details the features of the horn.

When Martin produced these, there was a choice of options including short tuning slide, bell sizes and materials....I had a 71/2 inch bell short tunning slide most nimble horn i have ever played

I haven't had the chance to play one of these horns, but I have owned a few Martin Committee models and I still have a old Martin Imperial made around 34 or 35. I've always wondered how the TR4501 would compare to the Committee model. Obviously, the Committee has a smaller bore, but it was a fantastic horn. Way under rated today.

Very cool. Sound reminds me a bit of the King 3B.

Looks and sounds like a great horn

Keith, I hear a some Urbie in there. Nice!

Would you recommend this trombone to a college jazz ensemble player? How would you compare it to a Benge 170? Having some issues with the Benge as it seems a bit difficult to slot and I'm not really producing the sound I'm looking for. I love your sound on this Martin.

I’ve owned one of these for 25 years and am right now getting a complete restoration. It’s a good time for “being green” (pardon the pun) 😀

What was the second tune that you played? It sounds so familiar but I can't quite place it.

Urbie green suonava bene... era un genio, a prescindere dal modello di trombone che usava

Cara porque vez de você tá testando não dou um instrumento?

I'm in the market for one of these horns if anyone knows of one sale? Wanted to play one for some time.

To me, this small bore horn sounds how a trombone is supposed to sound. I'm not a fan of how the large bore huge bell horns sound. I bought one in 2000, and used it with one of tje urbie green tiny mouthpieces in a DC area big band, and in a DC area Ska band. The overall light weight of the horn makes it great for 3 hour shows. The one drawback I've found is that it doesn't really throw out a lot of sound. It's a pretty quiet horn in my experience. I also found it good for the alto part for Handel Messiah, with the flat cheater mouthpiece.

The disappointing thing about this trombone is that Conn-Selmer, which owns the Martin brand, no longer supplies repair parts for it.