Does Hornguys still sell Shires trombones?

[ThePousane]

They have an old site that has all the configurations and parts one could build a trombone with, but the new website doesn’t seem to have them.

Old site: http://w.hornguys.com/lgtbnshires.php

New site: https://www.hornguys.com/collections/tr ... s-e-shires

[Burgerbob]

I'm not sure they have anything right now.

[WGWTR180]

Everything has changed with Shires.

[brtnats]

Everything has changed with Shires.

I’d like to hear more about this.

[WGWTR180]

Google. You'll get the full story.

[JohnL]

Google. You'll get the full story.

Well, Steve Shires is completely out and is busy (and hopefully happily) building French horns in Vermont. His level of involvement with the S. E. Shires company had been diminishing for a while. Is there something more going on?

[Bach5G]

Google. You'll get the full story.

All I see is that they do not appear to sell Shires trombones anymore. Is there a story behind this?

And I don’t see HG listed on Eastman/Shires list of dealers. The answer appears to be “no”..

Is it simply Eastman preferring to sell through larger dealers?

[JohnL]

Is it simply Eastman preferring to sell through larger dealers?

Could also be a decision that was made on the Hornguys end of things. I looked around a bit but did not find any information one way or the other.

[bbalika]

Check out the Brass Exchange or contact Eric Hand from Brass Gurus if you’re interested in Shires parts.

[tbonesullivan]

Hornguys sells what they want to sell, and they are also based in the "LA Area", where the type of trombones that people like are different. They aren't a huge shop, and it could just be that Shires wasn't a good thing for them anymore.

There's a lot of the back end in selling instruments that we don't get to see. Some companies have requirements of how many or how much of your inventory has to be theirs. It may be that to sell the shires trombones, you also had to sell shires trumpets, and all the accompanying Eastman by Shires and Eastman instruments.

[mbarbier]

I was just in there last week and it was a bit barren on a lot of their trombone stuff (which is pretty abnormal). Robert said that they're doing a big inventory overhaul on the trombone side of things, so it could also be related to that as well.

they've stopped carrying certain makers in the past when they felt the quality dropped and picked them back up when they felt the issue was resolved. I'm not saying that happened, I've got no clue- but they've not hesitated to do so in the past.

[Bach5G]

“It may be that to sell the shires trombones, you also had to sell shires trumpets, and all the accompanying Eastman by Shires and Eastman instruments.”

Hmmmm ...

[JohnL]

I notice that the seshires.com site doesn't list Ferguson Music/Hornguys as a dealer, either.

No Shires dealer in SoCal any more. There's a Q Series dealer in Fresno; for the Custom Series, it's either the SF Bay Area or Mesa, AZ.

[mrdeacon]

I was just in there last week and it was a bit barren on a lot of their trombone stuff (which is pretty abnormal). Robert said that they're doing a big inventory overhaul on the trombone side of things, so it could also be related to that as well.

There's a lot of assuming going on in this thread. I'm more inclined to trust mbarbier and Robert then the rest of this thread.

There's a million different reasons for them having little Shires inventory or for them to stop carrying them. I won't believe any of it unless it's first hand info from someone at the shop or second hand info from someone talking to someone at the shop.

[JohnL]

I took a quick look at the Wayback Machine. There are only a couple captures of the pertinent pages, but It would seem that none of us noticed when hornguys disappeared from Shires' dealer list pages...

They're on both the main and Q Series lists in 2017:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170703165 ... usdealers/
https://web.archive.org/web/20170703180 ... esdealers/

But they're off the lists in February of 2019:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190204094 ... usdealers/
https://web.archive.org/web/20190203100 ... esdealers/

and remain off the lists today:
https://www.seshires.com/usdealers
https://www.seshires.com/qseriesdealers

As near as I can figure looking at the source code, the pages were last updated on December 11, 2019.

[Jimkinkella]

I was there a couple of weeks ago and everything was still boxed up from the move to Pasadena.
To echo mbarbier, I was also told by Robert that they're reworking a bunch of stuff right now.
If you're curious, shoot them an email, they're nice guys.

[timbone]

Steve wants brand exclusivity first. If he can't get that or exclusive terms that will usually determine what he is selling.