TromboneChat

I`m really considering getting a .525 F horn. I have a great Mount Vernon 36 and I`d like to have that bore size with an F attachment.
Now here`s my question (which may be a bit odd)
Of the .525 F horns out these , 36B(O), Shires, Rath, M&W etc... which is the heaviest and which feels the lightest? I`m speaking weight wise not sound.

I’ve had an Edwards .525 with Thayer and straight neckpipe and currently have a Shires .525 VNY with dual bore rotor and straight neckpipe. With those modular horns a lot will depend on what specs you go for, heavy or lighter bell, brass slide with over sleeves vs lightweight nickel, what type of valve etc.

The Edwards with Thayer and wide slide felt pretty hefty, but really light with the straight neckpipe because the bell was fairly lightweight. The Shires feels pretty solid in your hands but not heavy because the balance is good.

Are you looking for the lightest .525 out there?

Another option would be having a valve section installed on your current 36. Something like the Instrument Innovations or M & W rotor would be great!

My Conn 78H with f-att. is by far the lightest I've ever had my hands on. It's .522 bore, but probably close enough. Also other 79Hs I tried felt light. The 36B comes after that. My. 36BO doesn't feel heavy too. The Rath 525 horn I played was super heavy, but played lovely.

Probably the 607F in my experience. It’s hard to tell because the cross brace is under the thumb, but they’re consistently the easiest to balance of any medium bore with F attachment I’ve tried, and consequently feels quite light to me.

The heaviest feeling to me are definitely Shires Trubores. I think that’s because of the throw resistance and that when I added a thumb support my hand butted up against the F attachment tubing.

In general, anything open wrap tends to feel slightly lighter all else being equal, because the weight is being shifted to the back of the horn, acting as a counterweight of sorts. So the more tubing that is behind your thumb, the better from a weight distribution standpoint.

This may not be actually correct in the end, but my 88h w/525 feels lighter than my 79h. A 36b and anything modular would almost certainly be heavier. I'll weigh mine later.

EDIT:
I weighed them, and the 88h is 1690g while the 79h is 1617g. without the mouthpieces.

I'm reasonably certain that my Benge 175f is physically lighter than the Bach 36B I had before - but it doesn't feel that way in the hand, because the ergonomics are drastically inferior to the Bach.

I've play-tested my Lt36B alongside my hubby's 79H, and while I wasn't really focused on the weight, I'm sure that the 79H is lighter.
Years ago I had a Yamaha 6XX (.525 with F) and while I thought it played very well, I remember it feeling heavier than my 36B.

607 or 3B+/f

607F ++

There are a few medium bore horns out there that come from the factory with 8 1/2" bells. I've owned a Yamaha 646 and a 684G. Both felt like larger horns in my hands (by weight) but played 'smaller' than my large bore horn.

The one other medium bore horn I've owned in the past was a Conn 79H. That one was a little odd because it had an F-attachment but the bell was 8 1/2" and engraved "78H". It played great and was perfect for smaller ensembles. Selling it has been one of my biggest regrets.

I think most other 0.525" bore horns come with an 8" bell.

Shires, being component based allows you to make a super heavy weight horn if you want. You could do a TW25, with Bollinger Collar, Rejano Valve and bell, in his setup, which includes a counterweight, and pound for pound, it will be a very heavy horn in your hands.

You could go the opposite direction, and do a TII5VNY Bell, Tenor Rotor, and T25LW and end up with an extremely light horn. The ultimate would be Shires/Butler CF Bell, T25CF handslide, and then most of the weight of the horn will be the valve section.