My first bass trombone: Silver B&S

[Nomsis]

I wanted (not needed) a bass trombone for a long time and this week I couldn't resist and did a stupid thing, so I bought my first bass trombone for 2000€. Now I want to show you what I got, it is a B&S, I got it from the original buyer, he bought it around 1998 as a new instrument and in 2020 he got it serviced and relaquered and the bell got silver plated. Since then he didn't really played it because he got another instrument. So it basically looks and feels like brand new. I really love the look of the silver bell. The bell diameter is 25cm and the (single) bore is about 13.8 to 14mm. Tuning is good and the valves are tuned with the standard tuning of Bb/F/D, but it came with an alternative second trigger tuning slide for Bb/F/Eb.
So far I think it plays great and I like the sound it makes but I'm still waiting for a real bass trombone mouthpiece. I feel like it has a very resonant sound for the hole range, but it's just a first judgment.

What do you think about the trombone?
Do you know what model this is? Do you think this is a "german" trombone? I think it is more like an "american" trombone, maybe a hybrid.
What do you think which style of music this will fit best?

[Macbone1]

This is a beautiful German made instrument in the "American style"; very desirable characteristics, even in Europe. You are blessed to have it, especially at that price. Shop carefully for a good mouthpiece to match - there is plenty posted on the topic in this chat forum.

[Posaunus]

So far I think it plays great and I like the sound it makes but I'm still waiting for a real bass trombone mouthpiece. I feel like it has a very resonant sound for the whole range, but it's just a first judgment.

What do you think about the trombone?

What do you think which style of music this will fit best?

Your new trombone looks great, and it seems that you got a great value for the price you paid. This instrument should be versatile enough to play quite a range of ensembles / repertoire. Orchestra should be great. And also concert band / wind ensemble. Brass quintet - why not? Big band? - sure.

Mouthpiece - get some advice from a teacher / other bass trombonists you know.
You're in Germany - check out Josef Klier. JK mouthpieces are very good, affordable, and available in a wide range of sizes, so some will be just what you want.

Viel Glück !

[Nomsis]

This is a beautiful German made instrument in the "American style"; very desirable characteristics, even in Europe. You are blessed to have it, especially at that price. Shop carefully for a good mouthpiece to match - there is plenty posted on the topic in this chat forum.

Thanks! I already thought that it is an "american style" trombone, I was just a bit confused because the seller insisted that it is a "german style" instrument. But later he told me he is not an expert, just recently read something on the internet, so maybe he wasn't quite right after all. And yes, I feel lucky to have it.

Your new trombone looks great, and it seems that you got a great value for the price you paid. This instrument should be versatile enough to play quite a range of ensembles / repertoire. Orchestra should be great. And also concert band / wind ensemble. Brass quintet - why not? Big band? - sure.

Mouthpiece - get some advice from a teacher / other bass trombonists you know.
You're in Germany - check out Josef Klier. JK mouthpieces are very good, affordable, and available in a wide range of sizes, so some will be just what you want.

Viel Glück !

Thanks as well! I was hoping for it to be quite universal because I don't plan to buy another bass trombone but again was worried a little bit because the seller said it is german style and would not fit in for example a big band. But in the end the seller probably just isn't an expert. He was a very nice guy but had some strange priorities, he told me he never really used the second valve and now he is going for a single valve bass trombone, but very important for him that it is an open wrap. I'm not here to complain though haha. He was happy to give it in good hands and I will do my best to keep the instrument in honor.

For mouthpieces, I play already Kliers on all my instruments so it was a natural reaction for me to have a look and I was lucky to find a professional bass trombonist selling some JK Exclusive pieces on the german used market kleinanzeigen.de, I talked to him and he was nice and gave me some advice. Out of his collection he recommended me the JK 1BL, JK 2BL and the Modell Cieslik. Than I added the JK 02BK to have a big one as reference. The four mouthpieces are already on the way to me.

[Digidog]

Beautiful horn! Congrats to a great acquisition!

This will serve you well over many years and I hope you will get much joy and enjoyable music with it and out of it.

Play long and prosper.

[Nomsis]

Beautiful horn! Congrats to a great acquisition!

This will serve you well over many years and I hope you will get much joy and enjoyable music with it and out of it.

Play long and prosper.

Thanks for the affirmation! I played already a little bit around with it this week and had already some big fun with it. The mouthpieces arrived and I think they will work.
Unfortunately I can't spend as much time as I would like to at the moment because I still need to work on my trumpet shape due to upcoming Christmas gigs I will play on trumpet...

[Nomsis]

By the way the bore size probably is a little bigger than I stated in the original post. I measured these values where slide and bell go together but I have noticed the inner slide tube doesn't end quite at the end but a little further inside. I remeasured, this time at the other end (where the outer slide goes over the inner) and this time I got a bigger bore size, maybe something like 14.1mm.

Does anyone tried asking for information on a B&S (model number given) per mail? I couldn't even find a mail address, just the general buffet crampon mail address.

[MrHCinDE]

You could try posting here:
https://musikinstrumentenbau.eu/viewfor ... 16e990ba8e

[Nomsis]

Thanks for the link, interesting information just reading there.

[tbonesullivan]

Looks like a nice horn! If it plays the way you want and works well, I wouldn't sweat the detailed specifications too much.

[Nomsis]

Looks like a nice horn! If it plays the way you want and works well, I wouldn't sweat the detailed specifications too much.

You are right for sure, it doesn't matter for playing as long as it plays well and works in the situation. And as far I as I can tell this trombone plays very well, which of course is great on it's own.

But I'm not only a trombone player, I also like to know things about the stuff I own, especially the fun stuff like the trombones. It makes the things so much more interesting for me if I know some things about their history, when and where they were made and by whom, why are they made the way they are, who played them in which situations, which mods were made to them and also which specs they have (and why). And many more things. Sometimes the information are not available which isn't terrible because you might still have a good instrument but it might be interesting to go and think about these things anyway.

[MStarke]

That looks like a nice instrument! I am not aware of having seen this specific model before here in Germany.

I think B&S went through quite some redesigns of their product line and also integrated quite a few other brands in the last decades. Pre 1990 and probably some more years they still produced their older models which were a little more "German", but afaik not traditional German trombones as Kruspe, Piering etc. And then in multiple steps they introduced new models, technology etc. However I am sure they were always well-made and high quality instruments!

Have fun with it!

Regarding mouthpieces as this is a mostly American style instrument, probably the classic mouthpiece choices will likely work. If you want to be a little more traditional you could look at e.g. Tilz, Schmidt or Klier. The Klier model Cieslik is a very nice option that may not be available everywhere, but works well for many!