If you slowly replace the parts of your Shires trombone...

[harrisonreed]

If you slowly replace the parts of your Shires trombone with upgrades from Shires, until all of the pieces have been replaced, is it the same trombone?

[Slidemo]

Are you familiar with "Trigger's broom?"

[timothy42b]

I have my father's axe. He replaced the handle and I replaced the head.

This has been debated several thousand years. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

[harrisonreed]

I have my father's axe. He replaced the handle and I replaced the head.

This has been debated several thousand years. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

Am I familiar with Theseus' ship? Am I familiar with Trigger's Broom (honestly hadn't heard that variation)??

Of course I am. And thus, we could argue that no matter what you replace, is the same old horn. A new bell is just the placebo effect!!

Only by changing the part with the serial number do you actually get a new horn, and any real measurable change! The serial changed by 348! It is 348 -th's different now!

[timothy42b]

A trombone doesn't play itself. It requires human intervention.

And when I wake up and go to play, I'm not the same person I was yesterday. I'm a day older, I've had maybe a million cells die and be replaced. (According to this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10103/ lots more than a million - (10)11th. ) My gut flora has changed (we are only 5% human and 95% microbes by cell count, though not by weight.) I've had new experiences and insights.

Those changes are gradual, but so is changing a Shires one part at a time.

[elmsandr]

Had this happen to me in college.. late '90s. I had a Bach 42 that I replace the valve (had to get a Thayer, ya know). Then the hand slide (got an interesting slide for cheap that I tried for a while before switching back). Then had a new bell fit up to the new valve, and inadverntently changed the main tuning slide at the same time (the new bell only fit a spare tuning slide that I had for a dumb reason).

Had somebody come up and ask me what the horn was... I started to answer and then realized I was holding an entirely different horn than what I had been planning to answer.

I had a pretty good laugh at myself then sold the extra horn. The extra slide at least had a better playing career than I ever did (sold it to somebody you would recognize).
Andy

[BGuttman]

If you replace a part the horn is different.

Can I make a symphonic trombone sound loke a small bore or a bass? No.
Can I make it sound like an [insert premium trombone name here]? Probably not.
Can I make it so I sound like [insert Trombone God here] without having to practice? No.
Will it play differently? To some extent. Better? Maybe, or maybe not.

[harrisonreed]

There was a guy who gradually kept switching the parts out on his trombone. In the end, he sounded just as bad as when he started, so clearly it was the same trombone no matter what he switched out.

(If you haven't realized this tangent is completely tongue in cheek yet)

[BGuttman]

There is actually a big discussion about this relating to string instruments. All Stradivarius violins are 300+ years old. Over the years they have experienced repairs of various sorts. How many of them are still Strads? Do they sound just like when they left the shop? Probably not. At the very least they are using different strings now.

[elmsandr]

There was a guy who gradually kept switching the parts out on his trombone. In the end, he sounded just as bad as when he started, so clearly it was the same trombone no matter what he switched out.

(If you haven't realized this tangent is completely tongue in cheek yet)

Help! Moderators! I'm in this picture and I don't like it!



Cheers,
Andy

[hyperbolica]

I have an 8h. Sort of. Only the neck pipe and the main brace are actually from an 8h. The slide is a custom 525 8h slide that I bought with a different 8h, but I don't think it's even the SL2525 that you can order with an 8h. And then the tuning slide crook is from a Blessing B88. And the bell is stamped Bach 36, but it was never on an instrument. I bought it with a trumpet mouthpiece jammed in the stem. It was used as some sort of fraternity ritual instrument.

So I have an 8h. Sort of. I couldn't tell you what else it is if it isn't an 8h.

[brtnats]

There was a guy who gradually kept switching the parts out on his trombone. In the end, he sounded just as bad as when he started, so clearly it was the same trombone no matter what he switched out.

(If you haven't realized this tangent is completely tongue in cheek yet)

Help! Moderators! I'm in this picture and I don't like it!



Cheers,
Andy

There’s a lot of us in that picture Andy. A lot of us.

[afugate]

If you slowly replace the parts of your Shires trombone with upgrades from Shires, until all of the pieces have been replaced, is it the same trombone?

Harrison is the Theseus of the trombone world...

--Andy in OKC