Holton TR-150

[Bach5G]

A local fellow has one of these for sale. Says it’s from the mid-70s. Looks to be in very good condition. Can anyone tell me about these horns?

[MrHCinDE]

I had one for a while, some contributions from other owners also:

viewtopic.php?p=214929&hilit=Tr+150#p214929

I liked a lot of things about how it sounded, my particular example was more of a utility grade and in the end I sold it to fund other projects as I wasn’t getting much use of out of it as a backup large bore tenor.

If I saw a great one locally I might give it another go. There’s a lot of horn for the money in those vintage Holton large bore tenors.

[Retrobone]

Can be amazing... I have a very nice one from 1975. Great instrument.

[schiffko]

VERY VERY underrated horns!

The 150, 158 are basically the same except for the slightly different valve wrap, trigger mechanism AND different mouthpiece receivers.
An original 158 slide has a Remionton style taper leadpipe because it was designed to be Holtons competitor to the Conn 88H and the knob is slightly shorter.
I have seen lots of factory misstamped 150 slides which had 158 stamped on the main hand brace but had the leadpipe and the receiver of the 150... very typical for Holton. Same story with the basses.

The 158 slides if have had were all a tiny little bit wider too compared to 150 slides.
The 160 is an open wrap version of the 150.
The 155 is a straight 150 with yellow bell....and is super rare.
The 107 is a straight 8,5`red brass variant with a 150 slide.
The 170 was only available in Japan and had an 8,5`red brass bell, narrower tuning slide and f-attachment width and came with which was basically a 150 slide with better ergonimics (both hand braces were soldered more upwards the f-attachment lever).
The 156 and 159 are dual bore .547-.562 horns.....very few of them came with wide .547 single bore slides.
The 140 with the tuna can monster valve had a 150 leadpipe and mouthpeice receiver but the wide bass crook from the 181 bass trombone. They just needed to gain some space for the neck due to the size of this big valve.
The 680 is an all yellow brass, compact wrap version of the 150....also super underrated IMO.

158, 156 and 159 share the same open leadpipe.
150,155, 160 share the same leadpipe.

Long story short, if you can get used to the super narrow slide on the 150 go for it.

The pics show the difference in lengh of the mouthpiece receiver.

[Posaunus]

For a while, I had a Holton TR-160 (apparently an open-wrap version of the TR-150). Decent trombone, but didn't compete with my (late Elkhart) Conn 88H.

[schiffko]

The 160 models I have tried in the past were super centered but extremely stuffy.
On all of these models the f-attachment tubing was about 1-1,5`too long.
c and F were super flat

[chromebone]

The Tr 150 was known as the Tr 168 before Leblanc renumbered all of the models in 1964 when they acquired Frank Holton company.There was also a straight version called the Tr 166. Like the 169 bass trombone compared to the later 185, it was a somewhat different beast from the 150. I had a 168 for a short while, the bell material was a gold brass like the 169’s of the era, compared to the redder brass on the 150; the horn had a denser and warmer sound quality than the 150. The 166/168’s were only made as special orders and are extremely rare.

[Bach5G]

I checked the horn out today. But for a slight ding in the bell throat, it was in time capsule condition. No lacquer wear, nice smooth slide, nice gold brass bell. Stunning, really. There was a “VH” mpc, too. Played fine. Nice and even through the range. I had to tell myself that I absolutely did not need another .547 horn.

But it did bring something else to mind. I’ll put this in another thread.

[dbwhitaker]

The 156 and 159 are dual bore .547-.562 horns.....very few of them came with wide .547 single bore slides.

A minor .003 correction: a previous thread included a photo of 1988 Holton catalog that listed the TR-156 slide as dual bore .547-.559.

[schiffko]

ah I see. Thanks!