TromboneChat

OK, so I`ll admit I`m bored being home with every gig cancelled.
I have 2 Mount Vernon Bach 36`s. One is straight and one is a 36B.
I was practicing this morning and thought "Let`s see what happens when I switch slides.
One is a LT and one is a standard weight . The 36 got the standard slide and got a little darker
and the 36B got the Lt slide and got a little brighter. just what I expected.
Then I switched tuning slides. WOW !!
I put the tuning slide from the 36B on the straight 36 and it played terrible. Slotting was off,
The tone was edgey It played like there a leak in it.
Then the 36B got the straight tuning slide. again... not as good a tone quality.
Weird.
2 horns from the same era, a couple years apart and it made that much of a difference
Both were played with the same mouthpiece , Schilke 51C4

Then I put a counterweight on the 36B and added a tone ring on the mouthpiece, HA !!
Now it`s just a cannon.

I had the same issue with an Elkhart 8H tuning slide on my 8HLT horn. The Elkhart wasn't as centered and made the horn sound a bit fuzzy compared to the newer slide.

I have 2 weights on the 8HLT bell (which was made convertible) and it , to me, gives the horn more focus.

Bach isn't very consistent in terms of how components fit from one instrument to another. It's possible the two tuning slides have different dimensions and you're introducing stress when you swap them onto a different instrument where they don't fit correctly.

I think only half of the Bach 50s I've had could even swap tuning slides. Some were off 2mm span-wise.