This is a spectacularly cool German-style soprano trombone with a valve and a bell kranz, which looks to be handmade. As if that wasn't cool enough, the rotor has an old-school leather strap instead of a paddle. As if THAT wasn't cool enough, the rotor comes with FOUR (!) different slides, giving you the choice of tuning the valve to A, Ab, G, or F.
To me, it screams early Thein. But I don't know for sure, because it has no maker's mark anywhere. It only has one marking, this "1" on the mouthpiece receiver.
Bell is totally unmarked:
Anyway, how does it play?
Well, I don't really have a suitable mouthpiece for it yet. It came with a very shallow Selmer trumpet mouthpiece that's entirely unsuitable. My various trumpet mouthpieces aren't really ideal for it either, so right now I'm using my Kelly 6V marching mellophone mouthpiece. It's a very temporary solution, but even so it plays very well! It has no real 7th position so the valve is really nice to have. I messed with all four valve tunings and I think I'll be leaving it in G for the most part. Best of all, I think even with this plastic mouthpiece for a different instrument, it has a real trombone sound rather than just sounding like a trumpet. I think it will get even better once I get a suitable mouthpiece. I've been posting about the best mouthpieces for a soprano trombone for years now, so I now I get to put that to the test!
Here's a Google Drive link to a short clip I recorded. | Here's a second clip. I've never owned a soprano trombone before and these are some of my first notes on the instrument, so intonation is all over the place. But I think you can get a decent idea of what it sounds like.
Best of all, I got a SCREAMING deal on it (much less than half the cost of a new, boring, Miraphone 63). Now I just need to come across an uber-cool alto to pair it with!
