Help me understand...

[bigbandbone]

Why do I seem to see sooo many used high dollar hand built / boutique trombones for sale, all with very specific components. And not as many used pro level production horns. I just don't get it. Do folks buy them and they don't live up to the hype?

[Burgerbob]

Still plenty of boring old stock horns for sale.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=bach+42

But on a forum like this, with more people dedicated to trombone, there will be more of the fancy stuff visible.

[sirisobhakya]

Back when I was following Yahoo Auction Japan (until around last year), I saw mostly stock pro stuffs like Yamaha 800 series, Bach 36/42/50, and Getzens.

[FullPedalTrombonist]

For me when I can’t change something I don’t like about a “one piece” horn then I can either sell it or live with it. With modular horns I can get something I love and when I grow as a player or change settings or sound concepts I can change some components by trading or selling and buying new parts.

Or people buy modular parts used and piece stuff together until they make what they like. There’s a lot of choices!

[JBone]

He does have a point... there had to have been hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of new professional-line trombones sold between, say, 1980 and 2010.

But you see much fewer of those than you do instruments made between 2010 and today. So, where are all of the missing instruments? Destroyed? Owned by schools? Used as lamps?

[Bach5G]

If you buy into the modular concept there’s always something more to try. Medium weight v lightweight, gold vs red vs yellow brass, .525, .525/.525-.547/.547, Trubore, dualbore, Thayer, rotor, Hagmann, Meinelschmidt, Rotax, screwbell, brass, nickel, brass with nickel, tenor crook, bass crook and on and on. I remember comparing solid vs hollow core bell braces (definitely solid core!)

Just buy an 88H. Except, I bought an 88H, sold it, and went back to a bunch of Shires stuff I found on the Internet (lucked out, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but it’s a great horn).

[norbie2018]

Millions? I can't imagine it is that many but I could be wrong. It would be interesting to get ahold of those stats.

[harrisonreed]

He does have a point... there had to have been hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of new professional-line trombones sold between, say, 1980 and 2010.

But you see much fewer of those than you do instruments made between 2010 and today. So, where are all of the missing instruments? Destroyed? Owned by schools? Used as lamps?

Only nerds buy boutique horns (sorry, but it's true...FWIW I have one...), and only nerds think to sell horns on trombone chat and Facebook. They do this because their net worth is tied up in a boutique horn, and they need a replacement, because they're nerds and think that a different horn will solve their problems.

Normal people drop their 42Bs and 88Hs off at the local music store when they quit playing, or just keep them in a closet, because they have normal jobs and aren't trying to replace their horn with a different horn with the net worth that is tied up in a Shires.

Therefore, you see an inordinate amount of boutique gear and weird setups for sale here...

Because... Nerds.

[mrdeacon]

Seems like you understand pretty well to me!

[timbone]

The custom trombone world is an interesting one. Once you are in that game, there is always more fiddling. If you don't
think you can reinvent the wheel, just look at the golf club market. Guys will spend 500 dollars on the assumption they can get ten extra yards. Guys like Jack Nicholas were hitting 300 plus yards in the 60's with antiquated persimmon heads, steel shafts and soft ballata balls. And there were plenty of great players playing old Conn 88's. And they both lived in the practice room and the driving range.

[ExZacLee]

if i'm selling a horn, it's probably because i need the money.

if i throw my 2B up here, some jackwagon is going to lowball it... that horn has paid my bills for decades... not giving it away to some kid for $200. there are a bunch of stock horns out there, and you will eventually get one at the price you want to pay if you can wait. it's rarely a seller's market where trombones are involved, particularly as it concerns "stock" horns.

if I throw a shires up here, there will be likely be multiple offers at the asking price or near it. same with a williams.

of course it's been mentioned, this is a website dedicated to trombones... that's going to obviously skew the numbers a bit in favor of more specialized stuff in the classifieds. go to ebay... there's plenty of stock horns on there.

[Matt K]

One reason is because they're easier to upgrade/change, as mentioned. For example, I just sold a bass bell because I bought a screw bell for that horn. So I didn't sell a complete horn but I sold a part of the instrument I no longer utilize.