Leadpipe Materials?

[BoneGuy23]

I'm looking into finding a leadpipe for my Q30 that would be good for jazz, but im confused by the different materials offered. If anyone could please explain what the different materials might do?

[Matt K]

The Q30 is a large bore (if I'm reading the Q series page correctly), so typically you wouldn't expect that to be used in a jazz context, although there are some notable exceptions where some players work with larger instruments (Steve Davis, Steve Turre, & Slide Hampton come to mind).

In any case, there are a lot of materials available in leadpipes. The brassark.com page has a lot of interesting info:

http://brassark.com/leadpipes.html

Beyond that, I've found the Shires page about materials to reflect my experience too:

[Unmarked]: yellow brass—ideal balance of brilliance and warmth for most players, clear and articulate (the overwhelming majority of S.E. Shires players prefer yellow-brass leadpipes)
N: nickel silver*—brilliant and clear, crisp articulation and response (can limit timbral flexibility)
G: gold brass*—warm, dense sound, rounded articulations (can limit clarity)
SS: sterling silver*†—strong fundamental and presence of sound with clean, simple overtone presentation, clear attack (can lack warmth and brilliance)

For commercial stuff, I would probably stick to Nickel or Yellow. Or perhaps copper... I have a nice Copper 32H pipe in my 3B that works pretty well.

[Thrawn22]

I use a shaved down Bach 36 for my 6H and it plays awesome. I use a MK Drawing NIckel 50 pipe for my 62H and it really makes the articulations speak.

I hear that certain leadpipe materials go well with certain bell materials (eg rose brass bell with nickel leadpipe).

[modelerdc]

I think that you would be better of leaving the lead pipe alone. for more of a jazz sound on the large bore tenor, consider using a brighter sounding mouthpiece, hopefully one with a shallower cup. This will do more to brighten your sound than any change in lead pipe. Of course, if you are playing in a traditional big band the best thing is to get a small-bore tenor. If you are you using a large bore tenor and the others are using small bores than you can have a situation where, by the time you are playing loud enough to pick up bite and color, you are too loud for the section. If you are in a combo and are the only trombone, the large bore can work well, as long as you have a horn/mouthpiece combo that has color and lights up when you want it to. But don't try to achieve all this with just a lead pipe change, you'll more likely just muck it up.

[tbonesullivan]

If you want a somewhat brighter sound, I think Nickel Silver is the only material that might add that. However I would like to echo modelerdc's idea that getting a smaller horn for jazz may be better. Regardless of leadpipe material, with a .547 bore horn with a 8.5 inch bell, if you want it to have edge and zip, you're gonna blow away the rest of the section.

Might suggest a used Yamaha YSL-354. Dillon Music has two, including one from the rectangular case era.