TromboneChat

does anybody know the exact specs and model number oft the Oft bell? thx

I don't think you are going to get all the specs on that bell. Both Christan Griego and Toby Oft might take that information to their graves!

I think it was formerly a 321CF, but idk about the new one.

I don't know which Edwards model Toby played before this latest horn, but the new bell is very different than the 321CF and 320CF. I believe the new bell is rose brass. I did not check to see if the rim is soldered or not when I played one back in March. For me, the bell had a very Elkhart 8H/88H response to it. It felt like there was an instant response....a direct connection from my tongue to the the rim of the bell.

Is the metal thinned at the rim? Is the bell flare double or triple buffed? Was the bell spun on a completely different mandrel? Is the bell rim wire a different gauge? Who knows.......

Perhaps a lighter gauge? Crazy4Tbone86 mentioned that it has a very Elkhart-like feel, with instant response.

It is a special bell designed for Toby. I don’t think it will ever be assigned a number or have specs released.

FWIW, he has an image on his blog showing his evaluations of four Oft bells. They're supposed to all be the same, but his ratings of each one are completely different.

They encoded his DNA into a special computer guided bell spinning program to achieve those bells. This also means that if you don't have his DNA, they will reject you.

tbonesullivan wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:13 am They encoded his DNA into a special computer guided bell spinning program to achieve those bells. This also means that if you don't have his DNA, they will reject you.

Yeah, it definitely has something to do with his spit molecules being special

How did people ever get by with an off the shelf 88H/42B?

Bach5G wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 3:09 pm How did people ever get by with an off the shelf 88H/42B?

After reading about Larry Minick, I can tell you that the best players didn't.

Maybe they had a different tech, but there was a lot of mods out there. Also, Conn was doing custom work on request back then.

It was not just Conn doing custom work. Many of the horns that Vincent Bach made when he managed the factory were custom orders for professionals. Lloyd Fillio continued running Bach's pro shop well into the 1990s.

Yamaha has a pro shop division as well to handle custom orders for professionals. I believe they call it the "Yamaha Artist Services." Bob Malone and Wayne Tanabe have done work with customizing Yamaha brass instruments for many artists.

There are some well-known artists who do play standard "off the shelf" instruments with no modifications. However, there are probably just as many artists that have customized instruments.