TromboneChat

This may sound a little off-the-wall, and it is, I'll ask about anyway. I expect to be travelling internationally for a music festival and am dreading the prospect of surrenderring a musical instrument too large for carry-on to the inevitable American Tourister luggage testing that the airlines will inflict. With that in mind, I've been looking at my Olds S-20 bass trombone. Since it is single rotor, 9-inch bell, flat wrap f-attachment and relatively short slide, I've been meditating on the possibility a cut/screw bell conversion. It might then fit in a flat tenor case or snug plastic and foam gun case as a carry-on item roughly the size of a viola. Has anyone else done a similar fool's errand on an instrument with a flat wrap and small (for a bass) bell? What would it cost to get it done?

Thanks for any shared wisdom.

No reason why it couldn't be done. John Sandhagen (The Boneyard, located in California) has done cut bells on lots of instruments. With a cut bell you can use a rifle case and it will fit nicely in an overhead.

I don't know what it costs, but Osmun Brass in metro Boston does French Horns and the price may be on his Web site.