TromboneChat

Does anyone have any experience with Schiller Trombones? Are they worth considering? Thanks!

Those are stencil Chinese-made instruments, they are the same as every other "store brand" - of you walk into an instrument store chances are they have a bunch of them with their own brand's logo on it. Most of them come from the same manufacturer too. There can be differences in the quality control between resellers though.

Some are ok and some aren't. Jim Laabs gets variable scores from customers as well. No real guarantees you're going to wind up with something you're happy with. If you're expecting something wonderful, you might look elsewhere. Go somewhere you can try some used instruments. Try-before-buy is really the best way to get what you expect, but as someone who doesn't live near a big hub, I understand not everyone can do that. A Schiller from Laabs is a risk. A used Schiller is an even bigger risk (since someone else already didn't like it and wasn't able to return it to Laabs).

There's a longish thread here from about a month ago, https://www.trombonechat.com/viewtopic. ... r#p81869

Adding to what I wrote at the time is that with 2 more sessions of brass polish inside the one scratchy outer slide tube and refining the application of Superslick, the slide is now nearly excellent. Everything else about the construction and finish of the instrument is first rate.

If I were many years younger and still playing symphonic repertoire it wouldn't be good enough. That I simply enjoy an hour most days of exercises and excerpts, it gives me, for about 1/8th the price, the satisfaction, intonation, and tone of an instrument, Bach 42BO, this pensioner couldn't possibly justify.

Thanks all, enough said!