Bass trombone screw bell conversion

[Bone2Bwild]

I'd like to put a screw ring on one of my bass trombones so that I can put it in a small case and cycle to some gigs (getting rid of my car!).

Does anyone know which are the lightest rings available? I like the thought of making the hooter more transportable, but I'd like as little extra mass as possible. It's heavy enough already.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[sterb225]

Have Butler make you a carbon screw bell.

[Burgerbob]

It's going to get a little heavier no matter what. The Shires rings are pretty light. What's the horn? I would only cut a lighter bell in the first place, personally (having cut two).

[Bone2Bwild]

It's a modern 62H. It's my least favourite instrument, so I'm trying it on this one first. It's considerably heavier than the Abilene 62H I have, but don't really want to cut the bell on that one. I'll see if I can get hold of a Shires ring, although if the Instrument Innovations ring isn't too much heavier then this will probably be easier to get hold of for me.

A butler carbon bell is very tempting too, but I think it would be wasted on the modern 62H!

[Burgerbob]

The Olsen ring will work as well. It will be pretty heavy at the end- maybe even think about having the flare thinned a bit.

[Matt K]

Shires used to not sell their rings but that may have changed recently. I haven't asked in probably 6 years.

[Bonearzt]

The Olsen ring will work as well. It will be pretty heavy at the end- maybe even think about having the flare thinned a bit.

I would advise against thinning the flare but rather try to have some of the ring cut down!

And if you're worried about carrying weight, the ring won't add a substantial amount that you would really notice in the case. Holding the horn yes...

Maybe call Olsen & see if they can make a lighter ring?


Eric

[FullPedalTrombonist]

My wrist was injured in a mountain bike accident and it’s a chore to hold my screw bell bass. I had thought about asking Butler if they could make only a bell flare for me and if they could machine a collar that will mate to mine if they’re not the same size. I would imagine that would be far cheaper than one of their full bells. FWIW I believe Butler offers aluminum rings for their bells as well. I’m not sure what they’d say if you asked them to figure out how to mate that to a brass bell

More on topic, though, a bell collar is less weight than my spray bottle and I don’t notice the difference in weight if I forget to pack it in my case. But it’s a noticeable difference when hanging on my bell about a foot away from where I’m holding. That’s a lot of leverage even for a few ounces.

[Bone2Bwild]

I've found an old Paxman French horn screw ring in my workshop. I'll measure it up to see if I can fit it to the Conn. I think I'll learn to deal with the extra weight - I'll only be using it for light duty orchestral playing.

When I worked at Paxmans they experimented with aluminium screw rings for a while. They gave up after a while because the adhesive they used wasn't up to the job. One of the LSO horn players came into the shop slightly upset that his bell flare had fallen off half way through a rehearsal...

[Burgerbob]

Horn screw rings will fit but only after some judicious filing. The taper is completely different there. My first conversion used a horn ring and took much longer to fit.

[Bone2Bwild]

If it won't fit, I'll probably get the Olsen one. We used to have to machine the standard Paxman ring to fit the different bell tapers for the horns. It did take a while to do - things were never easy there.