TromboneChat

Hey all!

Just curious of what people's opinions are of shires and Edwards slides for those who have played both, and what they prefer and why.

Thanks!

They both have good action when built well, of course. Edwards might have a slight edge sometimes because they are built with a bit more clearance. That clearance means that I find Shires to play better in the outer positions, FWIW.

I find Edwards tend to have a bit more boominess, a bit of emphasis of the low/mid overtones that can be attractive.

Shires have a bit more even-handed approach to the sound, which ends up sounding a bit brighter on average, though of course that's a huge simplification.

I have a couple Bachs that I use Edwards/Shires slides on- I own 5 of those slides: for bass, Shires B62/78, Edwards DBB and DBN. For tenor, Shires TB47, Edwards TBCN. You'll notice that I have two pairings that are the "same" spec, one for each instrument. I tend to prefer the Shires on my sections at the moment.

However, when I use my screwbell on my bass, the Shires suddenly stops working and I have to move to one of my Edwards to balance it out. I also just had a friend over with his Bach 50A3, and my Edwards DBN was the clear choice as the best match.

I find them all to be better than Bach slides... Not part of your question, but someone might wonder! I've gone through probably a dozen 50 slides and a couple fewer 42 slides. None ever really seem to come close in playability, action, and clarity of sound of the modern stuff.

I feel that both brands can be very good if set up to be straight and parallel. I have seen very few slides arrive from the manufacturer with absolutely parallel tubes to the .001 inch and absolutely straight tubes. For that reason, whenever I buy a horn for myself, I always plan to set the slide up myself.

Unlike Aiden, I have had quite a few Bach slides that were superb……both standard slides and nickel outer slides. A couple of those were so good that I rarely had to swab them and apply new slide cream.