BoneZilla/TuBone

[MartyNeilan]

With the Cimbasso craze in full swing, an experiment from the past comes to mind - two actually. I believe they were called the BoneZilla and TuBone. Does anybody know what ever became of these instruments?

[Bob Kolada]

I think the Bonezilla may (?) still be available from Shires. I remember the TuBone's marketing; roughly, "no it's NOT a cimbasso; it's a contrabass valve trombone for high school tuba players". Sounded like a looks like a/quacks like a... scenario to me...



Bob "would love a Bb chimp for trombone choir" Kolada

[modelerdc]

I've played both the tub one and the bonezilla. These were made by shires as custom orders for innova brass. As I understand it, innova brass was started by a engineer who also played trumpet. He noticed that many high schools had no who could play bass trombone. So he had the idea of an instrument using bass trombone parts, but pitched in BB flat so that high school tuba players could easily play bass trombone parts. The tu bone used a bore a little larger than most bass bones .578 for initial part after the lead pipe. The valves were about .620 in bore, again a little larger than most bass bone valves. And it used a shires regular bass bone tuning slide and a regular bass bone bell, but in largest diameter shire makes 10.5 in hers. Pleas note that these bore sizes would about in the range for a contra bass bone in F. The tub one example I chanced to play, in BB fLat, was very stuffy. Had to play with either a large bass bone Mpc, and still very stuffy with a tuba Mpc. Just too much cylindrical tubing, in to small a bore for for the length of the instrument. The regular bass bone bell parts probably weren't well suited for an instrument in Bb fLat either. I also think he mis judged the market, schools without bass trombones probably didn't think that they needed a contra bass valved trombone. I don't think they sold many, and now that Wessex is importing good playing cimbassis I think the tub one has been pass by.
The bonezilla was an experiment to test the large bores chosen for the tub one, by making a regular bass trombone with these bores. .578 single bore slide. And .620 valves. Any shires bass bell could be used. It played better than expected and some players bought them. I had a bonezilla valve section for a while and used it with a regular duo bore slide. Excellent in the valve register, for me it was harder to center in the regular range. I sold it to a player who really likes it. It's all about balance and while the bonezilla played well, for actual musical use, a regular bass bone seems to be big enough for most. The innova brass website went offline a few years ago, they may no longer be in business.