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Good afternoon, Tubenet -

Mark Finley has an interesting post on here about the Contrabass Trombone he ordered from Wessex ("My contrabass trombone obsession"). In that, the topic of changing the curent design of Wessex's F Contra TB was brought up. Here's a suggestion I proposed for a Contra TB in the "Wessex Tubas - what would you like?" post in the Tubenet Sponsors section. That post has gotten so big, I'm quoting my suggestion here for discussion -

"Jonathan - Thank you for your company's contributions to today's low brass instrument market, especially. This may be getting really picky, but I wonder if there would be a significant market for an F Contrabass Trombone with specifications close to the following -

1. Key of F, with inline Db (lower lever) and C (thumb lever) rotary valves. Obviously, this would be an F/Db/C/A Contra that's a perfect fourth lower than the standard Bb double-valve Bass Trombones marketed today (Bb/Gb/F/D). Many Trombonists might find adapting from a Bb Bass Bone to an F Contra like this to be more to their liking.

2. Dual bore 15.6 mm (.615") to 16.13 mm (.635") hand slide. I took these bore sizes from the larger side of your BBb Contrabass Trombone's slide, and the bore of a Mirafone BBb Contrabass Trombone slide, respectively.

3. C valve bore size - 16.66 mm (.656") and Db valve bore size - 17.49 mm (.687"). Both are clearly very common bore sizes for Tuba valves, and hopefully logical bore size increases from the dual bore slide suggestions.

Hopefully such specifications (15.6/16.13/16.66/17.49 mm = .615/.635/.656/.687") would create an F Contrabass Trombone that would sound distinctly larger than a Bb Bass Trombone, without sounding tubby or un-Trombone-like. On the other hand, I may also be proving that I should just sit down and enjoy what the rest of you are discussing, because I really don't understand instrument design at all. I just thought I'd put this out here for consideration."

So, would a horn like this sound interesting to anyone? I'm not aware of any company offering a Contra TB with these specifications, and maybe there are good reasons why. On the other hand, Jonathan, would such a horn be feasible and worth considering the possibility of marketing? (And if this post would be better elsewhere, I hope a board admin moves it or asks me to re-post it.)

It's just a thought - thanks for your time, too.

I am not going to promise a trombone like this, but Chuck Nickles and I are looking at developing revised design of contrabass trombone (amongst other things) in the next two weeks while at the factory in China.

I might post blog of the visit later, so look out. This is Wessex longest ever visit to the factory and we are both pretty excited! Quality assurance of new order (biggest ever), new product developments and Chuck will even be doing some staff training with his knowledge of best German production methods.

Wyvern wrote: I might post blog of the visit later, so look out. This is Wessex longest ever visit to the factory and we are both pretty excited! Quality assurance of new order (biggest ever), new product developments and Chuck will even be doing some staff training with his knowledge of best German production methods.

Cool. Lots of pictures please!

Jonathan, whatever you and Mr. Nickles have in mind, we'll look forward to hearing about. Thanks again for the new instruments you've already introduced to the current low brass market.

I'd like to see a regular cork barrel length. There's no point in having it tuned to F/D/Bb and having the bell positioned to match a Bb bass trombone and then having the slide start that far out.