new inside slide assembly for a vintage Conn bass trombone

[bloke]

Rather than swapping out the tubes and venturi, I'm going to build an entirely new inside slide assembly.

- I had remarkably good luck straightening the original tubes, though chrome is worn
- It didn't cost that much more to purchase the rest of the hardware.
- The customer will retain their original inside slide assembly, in addition to this replacement.

I straightened (required with the overwhelming majority of makes of playing slide tubes) these tubes on my lathe, pre-assembly.
(Those marks were made with a Sharpie, and will come right off with solvent.)


C-S never seemed to want to send me a cross brace, so I looked through junk and found one that was the same size (actually NOT Conn).


mouthpipe (to be embedded within the upper inside slide tube)


oh yeah:
I expect for this to be an easy gig.

[bloke]

OK.
I laid down for at least two hours after starting this thread...
Whenever I go out of town, sleep in a weird bed, eat weird food, and am just a bit under stress (OK: playing an instrument on which I'm sort of a "doubler" in a professional orchestra), it's a bit unsettling...but I felt better later, went out, and just now stuck this inner slide assembly #2 together.

In my judgement, it works very well, but it will be up to the customer...

...and - though this was a quick/easy gig (particularly since I'd already straightened the new tubes) - this requires some very careful measuring, some "measure ten times, cut once" stuff and (as I've done just a few of these before) a bit of a "touch".

Also, things on 2023 Conn trombones (including - apparently - tubing length) aren't quite the same as Elkhart trombones, so I additionally had to be just a bit creative - but not in any way that most anyone would be able to detect.

I was handed this instrument last night - after the dress rehearsal, drove home late (rather than staying at provided digs near the venue) took care of this today, and will hand this back to them tonight (before the concert). They are normally the orchestra's bass trombonist (and this is their favorite bass), but (again) - when there's no tuba, the agreement is that I cover 3rd, and 3rd moves to 2nd, so they're playing a tenor on this concert.
(The plastic do-dad is something that the customer stuck onto the original inside slide assembly, I suppose that's some sort of ergo-thingie.)



...end of thread...