TromboneChat

Hello All,

I’m looking for a shop to send my trombone slide to for an alignment. There aren’t any on my island. I spoke to a shop on Oahu (the biggest i think) they don’t do alignments there.

Can you guys recommend a shop for me to send the slide out for quality work? I did use the search bar but didn’t find any threads or it’s way buried in there.

Thank you all in advance.

Wherever you send it, I recommend using one of these:
https://www.trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?p=273541
Grab one while you can.

The places I know are on the USA east coast, so the shipping would probably be worse than the west coast. but I use New England Brassworks, in Nashua, NH.

Yeah those are a great design. If I was mainland, I’d probably get one. I have a woodworking side gig I’ll make one. But shipping it to HI then round trip a slide for service would add lots of cost.

Ray Splawn aka The Slide Dr
I’ve used him and his predecessor for a long time. Always great results that last. Even slides other shops would call hopeless have come back as 8 or 9/10 players.

Merlin Grady in Waterloo, Iowa is a really fine slide technician. Some very well known techs and companies have subcontracted to him and you when you think X is doing the work it's really Merlin, the Magician as the local brass players call him. A really nice guy, too. I've played next to him in the Iowa Trombone Shindig. He jokes that just like the cobbler's kids have no shoes, his Elkhart 88H never gets cleaned--- he just adds more Yammie Snot to the slide.

Here's his website. I've set it to the testimonial page where D P Pollard formerly of the Metropolitan Opera and now at Indiana University gives his endorsement.

I've had Merlin do a couple of my slides and they come back sliding like glass. Highly recommended.

http://merlingrady.com/testimonials.html

Have you tried contacting the Hawaiian Symphony Orchestra ?
I gotta believe that their trombonists don't send their horns to The Mainland for servicing
A friendly Symphony trombonist might be willing to direct you to the best of the several Hawaiian shops that I found on the Internet.

Here in Southern California John Sandhagen is fantastic, Don Sawday does great work and it looks better than new, and I’ve heard nothing but good stuff about Bruce Belo

CharlieB wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 12:47 pm Have you tried contacting the Hawaiian Symphony Orchestra ?
I gotta believe that their trombonists don't send their horns to The Mainland for servicing
A friendly Symphony trombonist might be willing to direct you to the best of the several Hawaiian shops that I found on the Internet.

Most of the section lives on or regularly visits the mainland. I doubt they are getting work done in Honolulu.

There was a young Japanese woman who worked in a local (Vancouver BC) music store. Trained by Yamaha, I’m told. She totally transformed an older Benge 290 and a beater 2B, even after a couple of other highly regarded techs had worked on the horns. Really sensational work. She has recently moved on, maybe back to Japan. Too bad. She was great.

Burgerbob wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 1:56 pm

CharlieB wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 12:47 pm Have you tried contacting the Hawaiian Symphony Orchestra ?
I gotta believe that their trombonists don't send their horns to The Mainland for servicing
A friendly Symphony trombonist might be willing to direct you to the best of the several Hawaiian shops that I found on the Internet.

Most of the section lives on or regularly visits the mainland. I doubt they are getting work done in Honolulu.

This is what the biggest shop in Honolulu told me too. The real fine intricate work is sent out to mainland.

Jimkinkella wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 1:44 pm Here in Southern California John Sandhagen is fantastic, Don Sawday does great work and it looks better than new, and I’ve heard nothing but good stuff about Bruce Belo

You might try PM'ing Drew Arine (HawaiiTromboneGuy on the forum) to see if he has anyone he can recommend, but I think he ships his stuff to the mainland (pretty sure John Sandhagen has mentioned doing work for him).

JohnL wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 3:17 pm You might try PM'ing Drew Arine (HawaiiTromboneGuy on the forum) to see if he has anyone he can recommend, but I think he ships his stuff to the mainland (pretty sure John Sandhagen has mentioned doing work for him).

Excellent suggestion!

JohnL wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 3:17 pm You might try PM'ing Drew Arine (HawaiiTromboneGuy on the forum) to see if he has anyone he can recommend, but I think he ships his stuff to the mainland (pretty sure John Sandhagen has mentioned doing work for him).

Thank you I emailed him and will see if I get anything back. I figure if I have to ship it out might as well get the best work possible done.

So I got a hold of HawaiiTromboneGuy


Hers what he recommends.

Gary Hara on Oahu at 808.591.0999
John Sandhagen in CA
Ben Hansson in WA
Eric Edwards in TX

I’m calling Gary tomorrow. I was going to send to Merlin but shipping is around $140 one way plus $150 service… so that’s around $450 for a slide alignment.

Shipping to Gary is around $25 ea way. So that’s a big price difference. This illustrates my point on shipping here. Shipping is often more expensive than the actual item or at least doubles the cost.

Thank you guys I really appreciate all the input.

Yup I vouch for Gary!

sterb225 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 23, 2025 5:53 am Ray Splawn aka The Slide Dr
I’ve used him and his predecessor for a long time. Always great results that last. Even slides other shops would call hopeless have come back as 8 or 9/10 players.

Agreed. If you end up having to mail the slide somewhere, the slide doc does fine work.

https://slidedr.com/

Plus you can get a safe shipping box for your slide from him.

On my humble opinion, the absolute best slide guy is Bruce Belo. He works for the Anaheim School district in Southern California. if you send it to him, I promise, you won't be sorry!

Slidehamilton wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 8:56 pm On my humble opinion, the absolute best slide guy is Bruce Belo. He works for the Anaheim School district in Southern California. if you send it to him, I promise, you won't be sorry!

There's two "Anaheim" school districts; Anaheim Union High School District (the one Bruce works for) and Anaheim Elementary School District.