Bach Liberty (547, 8" bell) Review

[Matt K]

Picked up one of these because I was trying to figure out my large bore slide situations and it looked like the receiver was the same as the Bach 42 receiver. Lucked out and it does seem to have the same threads. It interfaces as well as my other Shires components do to Bach stuff.

This is an interesting horn. The slide itself seems to be identical to a Bach 42 slide. Feels & looks like a bass crook; I'm getting given Bach's predilection to reuse parts that the slide is possibly all Bach 42 parts including the lead pipe because it blows like a 42 slide to me.

My bell is an open wrap, and even appears to also have the same odd return tube as the Bach 50 as pointed out in another thread I can't seem to find at the moment. Same linkage as a 36/42BO too. I don't have another 36/42 tuning slide to compare to at the moment, but that likewise appears identical to the professional option.

The only distinction I can see is that the bell is very clearly a two-piece construction with a soldered bell bead, a-la Shires 1YM or 1YLW. Does seem to be on the lighter side. It's actually pretty great. Almost like a "mini-friedman", where instead of a bass slide on an 8.5" bell it's a 547 slide on an 8" bell.

If anyone is wanting a medium bore bell section and already has other Edwards/Bach components, keep your eyes out for one of these. They're a little zingier than the one-piece bells, but if you're wanting something more on the commercial side and that compatibility with existing parts, honestly I feel like you'd be hard-pressed to do better than this horn for the price you could get it for.