I started playing trombone in 1976, which is a story on its own. Since then, I have played many different horns, including the Holton “Superbone” designed for Maynard Ferguson. Warning – my primary instrument is the trumpet, so that will affect this review, but about a third of my calls are on trombone and bass trombone. Been playing professionally for decades.
I have a couple of valve trombones – a 1951 Reynolds I got from Bob Brookmeyer, and a 196X Olds marching Trombone, plus a bunch of different slide trombones. My go-to is a Bach 36G, but I have everything from a slide whistle to a Contrabass. I have some experience.
So anyway, due to a financial thing, I found the funds available to order the Schagerl before any tariff was imposed on such things coming from Austria. Who needs eat each and every day, right?
All right – that said, the standard for double trombones is still the Holton. I have played one, and have had an opportunity to own one, and … no thanks. They are (to me) stuffy, heavy, badly balanced (which might affect how heavy it feels), and because of the construction and location of the valve cluster, First Position on the horn is way out there, which makes playing it as a trombone very strange and just feels wrong. Trombone playing requires a lot of muscle memory to get even close to the right positions, and that is almost impossible on the Holton. Seventh position is ridiculous. And I won’t even get near the East Asian knockoffs that have been flooding the market lately. But I had the chance to handle one of the Schagerl horns a few years back, and liked it a lot.
First off, the Schagerl is a bloody expensive horn. Mine cost me a bit over $7000, and that was before the tariffs. And, surprisingly, the superbone does not come with a case – they let you know that after your order, and then give you a chance to order one separately. Now that case is not very expensive, but it is their generic bass bone case. Yep – this custom horn does not have a custom case, which makes me believe they make so few of them that doing the machining to develop and build a custom case would be prohibitively expensive.
Second, every one built is a custom build, which means it takes about three months to get it made. I ordered mine in mid-January, and it arrived on May the first.
It’s a beautiful horn. The slide is a 10 ()dry and un-lubed), the valves nice and nimble. It’s a bit hefty, but with all of that metal, it has to be. It gets a good sound, a touch on the bright side, but it sounds like a trombone, not like a bass trumpet or even my old Reynolds. It will take some effort to find the right mouthpiece for it, to get just the right sound. (It does not come with a mouthpiece). I grabbed one out of my Box of Mouthpieces (an old Urbie Green M), and while brighter than my usual sound, it would blend with most bands I play in.
The slide, as said, is very good, and because the valves are where they are, first position is first position.
The valves are very good, though they rise a bit higher than I expected. They definitely affect the grip, and it will take me a while to find a grip that suits me very well. The mechanical connection from the rotary valves stands out 3 inches from the brace they are attached to, which might be an inch too far – 2 inches of that rise are from the connection to the bar the valve paddles are attached to, which may be a bit much. But the grip is not unnatural. The connection rod to the third valve brushes against my face a little bit. That is a distraction, and if you have a beard, it might get caught there.
The valves don’t affect the slide positions very much. With just the second valve down (which puts the horn in the key of A), there is negligible difference in slide positions. About as much as the difference between my King 2B and my Benge 190. With 1 and 3 down (the same as an F trigger), the positions are very familiar, and with all 3 down (trombone in E?!) it’s close enough to playing a bone with an F-trigger that it feels natural.
I play tested it by running the opening bard to “Tiger of San Pedro”, and that came out nice and clean, and without the sloppiness I’ve heard when some cats try to play that on the slide. Also ran the first chorus of “Nancy with the laughing face” on just the slide, and it’s sweet and mellow.
The case is… serviceable. There is a pouch for music, and a mouthpiece pouch and a separate little space to put other things, like lube and a water spray bottle. Optional straps to carry it like a backpack. It does not have the petroleum stench that cheap cases come with, and is light. Not a hard case, so I’d be leery flying with it, but those days are past for me anyway.
In short, this horn is not for everyone, but I think it will make a nice addition to the arsenal, and now I’ll be looking to sell some old horns, just to make room. This one is a keeper.
