TromboneChat

Would any of the Q Series bass trombones be suitable for an orchestral setting or a student band?

Yes any of them would. I have three shires basses. Two customs and one Q. More options on the custom but the q is an excellent instrument. I do like to use a custom C tuning slide on the Q.

Absolutely.

I am a high school band director and we are fortunate to have a q series bass in our inventory. Very good horn, seems durable, and you'll be amazed at what you'll be able to get one for if you post a bid publicly.

They’re great horns, based on my understanding of the newer ones they’re totally made overseas and QC’ed by shires USA. The older models seem to be more like tanks in comparison to the newer ones. The newer ones also seem to have fitment issues with custom series, I’ve tried my colleagues valves valves (Q-series) and it would not work with my custom bell and tuning slide, they just didn’t fit without a scary amount of movement of the linkage points for the bell. Also let someone with a Yellow Q tuning slide try my Gold one and a similar issue occurred.