TromboneChat

Hello everybody! I've been seeing a few Shires trombone bells come up with a soldered bead, but the bead is steel. Does anybody have any insight to the characteristics of a steel bead?

Bell rim wires have been made of steel for a long time.

Steel is heavier and stiffer than copper or brass bead wire. Both are commonly used in brass bell construction- steel was used in the MV Bach trumpet bead wires (probably some trombones too). Shires offers it as an option to emulate that kind of construction.

The bead is not steel. The bead is the portion of the bell that is "rolled over". Inside this is a rim wire, which is usually steel. The bead can be soldered or unsoldered

Some trumpets have a "french bead", which is just the brass folded over, with no rim wire.

There is also a half round bell rim wire where the flat part is against the flare and the round part has the brass bent around it.

The bead (bell brass wrapped around the wire) can be soldered or not. If it is soldered, all the open space between the wire and rim is filled with solder.

There is a bigger difference between a soldered bead and an unsoldered bead than the material of the bell wire.

When we toured the Bach factory in Elkhart a couple years ago - they explained the Artisan trombones were manufactured with a steel wire, apparently specified by MLR, but all of the other trombones they made were manufactured with brass wire.

TriJim wrote: ↑Thu Feb 18, 2021 7:00 am When we toured the Bach factory in Elkhart a couple years ago - they explained the Artisan trombones were manufactured with a steel wire, apparently specified by MLR, but all of the other trombones they made were manufactured with brass wire.

I wonder how long until my curiosity causes me to grab one of my neodymium magnets and see whether my trombones have magnetic bell rims or not.

tbonesullivan wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:02 pm I wonder how long until my curiosity causes me to grab one of my neodymium magnets and see whether my trombones have magnetic bell rims or not.

As I recall, they had a magnet at the factory to demonstrate the bells with steel vs. brass wires!

I think you'll find that steel bead wires are pretty uncommon on trombones, percentage wise.

That said, here's what the fellows from Shires were saying about the difference back in 2014,

https://www.trombonechat.com/viewtopic. ... ire#p13429

Were old 42's made with steel beads? Both my 70's 42b and 42bg have magnetic beads.