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Has anyone had any experience renting/borrowing a contrabass trombone? Is it possible or does any one know of any available instruments? We are considering performing Varese’s Integrales and it calls for contrabass trombone. I do not have the resources to purchase an instrument but we are trying to perform the work with original instrumentation. Any ideas?

I know the part could be performed on tuba or bass t-bone but just in case…

Thanks

Steve Maxwell

FSU has a contrabass bone in instrument storage, but I doubt that a college would loan out to a non student. I remember it being so flat that we had to tune it to A instead of Bb. Tim Olt may have repaired it, but I don't remember if he did or not.

Nick

bloke wrote:Perhaps (??) Sam Gnagey (northeastern Indiana) would rent out the cimbasso that he built.

Jay Bertolet (south Florida) owns a cimbasso as well.

bloke "who does not speak for Sam Gnagey nor Jay Bertolet"

Steve said they are attempting to perform this "with original instrumentation"......

While frequently pitched in the same key, a cimbasso is NOT a contrabass trombone. I own and play both and believe me, they are very different in sound and function.

Steve, try posting the same request here: http://www.basstrombone.nl/forum/viewforum.php?f=10

Contact the Lyric Opera of Chicago. They have a very nice Mirafone Contrabass in F w/4 Rotary valves that the Roth Agency rented for me for a Bocelli tour a couple of years back. Good Luck.

Chuck

We did the piece a couple of years ago in my orchestra. A real contrabass trombone would be ideal, because even an F tuba was too puffy for Vareses' ensemble. If you found an F or BBb cimbasso, that would be better than the tuba, The piece has a great number of F sharps, so you're going to want a cimbasso with an in-tune F sharp. You might even try a regular bass trombone with a large mouthpiece before using the tuba. The Jalapa orchestra here in Mexico once had a contrabass trombone (and the player) from the Sheperd School of Music in Houston. I suppose with this unfortunate hurricane business that isn't so practical. Good luck, John

Thanks for the responses and for the leads!! I'll try to let you know if anything pans out.

Thanks
Steve

The University of Alabama had one at one time, but I don't know whether it is still there. I remember seeing it when I was in High school but that has been 11 or 12 years ago. Give Demondrae Thurman a call and he can tell you

In the early sixties, I played in an Army band at the Presidio of San Francisco. Stuart Dempster was the bass trombonist and he had a very large instrument (with a handle) which may have been a contrabass trombone (?) He has been professor of trombone at University of Washington in Seattle for many years. Possibly, he and/or the University owns a contra bass trombone. Maybe he could help you locate an instrument for rental. Good luck on your performance.

I've always been curious about contrabass trombones for some time. Who makes these and where could you find one? Compared to a regular tuba, what key would it be in? F, E, lower?

Hank74

Hank74 wrote:I've always been curious about contrabass trombones for some time. Who makes these and where could you find one? Compared to a regular tuba, what key would it be in? F, E, lower?

First return from Google leads us to a site that ought to be familiar to tuba players: http://www.contrabass.com/pages/cbtbn.html

Have you seen the new Kanstul prototype?

Tom Izzo, whose email address is appropriately contrabasstrombone@yahoo.com, owns a trombone collection that extends from contrabass to sopranino.

Tom let me play his BBb contrabass in one of his Trombone Choir rehearsals. I believe that it is a Miraphone. The water key wasn't working, so I had to take the four-branched slide off to empty the horn. Everyone in the choir sat and smirked at me while I worked feverishly to match up each of the four branches.

Tom is in the Chicago area. I don't know if he'd be willing to rent out his contrabass, but you could certainly email him and ask.

http://www.contrabass.com/
Bill

The difference in appearance between the contrabass trombone and cimbasso is obvious, but what is the difference in sound? Are they not much the same bore profile?

Most contras (F and BBb) have bore sizes beginning in the upper .500's and getting to mid .600's in the valve section. Most modern cimbassos have a bore size of over .700. My Rudy Meinl is .750, and I think the Meinl Weston is just a tad smaller. On a cimbasso, the throat of the bell is noticably larger. Also, most players find that an F contra is best played with a dedicated contra mouthpiece, somewhere between a bass trombone and a tuba mouthpiece, while cimbassos seem to respond best to a tuba mouthpiece of some sort. On a Haag contra, I like a JK 1KBP, and on my cimbasso, I like a Helleberg 7B. Barney is absolutely correct...the instruments are quite different in sound, and are not necessarily interchangable.

Dan