Repair store for screw bell in EU?

[ivantong]

Hello trombonechat,
Any suggestions for repair store doing screw bell convention in Europe? I have bought a unlacquer edwards bell 333CF and thinking of cutting it. It should be a easy job as I have done that before but it’s better to be done by professional. Any good repair store with experience with that? Shires? Rath?

Also may I ask if why edwards and getzen don’t make screw bell? Their bells are great and it’s more popular for trombone with screw bell

[tbonesullivan]

Also may I ask if why edwards and getzen don’t make screw bell? Their bells are great and it’s more popular for trombone with screw bell

Screw bells have been around for over a century. Conn used to make some "Duo-Bell" trombones with two different flares you could attach to the spout. Recently they have almost become a fad, and it may be that Edwards has decided not to "cash in" on the recent popularity of screw bells. They currently have a ton of orders they are still trying to fill, which is why they had to skip ITF this year, so I don't see how not offering screw bells is hurting them.

Then there's the whole thing about being able to accurately predict and fit bells in their system, which they have done for years. Putting on a screw bell ring does change how the bell resonates, and getting the best fit would require pretty much going back to formula on the bells, if they wanted to do it right.

[Matt K]

I seem to recall Christian indicating he felt like the screw bell was always a compromise, but I can't find if it was a blog post or if I'm just imagining the thing out of wholecloth.

[ZacharyThornton]

Listen to the Longtones podcast from Virtosity/ Landress brass with Christan Griego. He explains why Getzen/ Edwards does not do screw bells.
I personally have owned two trombones with a screw bell and spent considerable time on a third. All of them played worse than a non screw bell version. For the two I owned, I could swap back and forth from a standard bell and a cut bell.
Rath does amazing work and I would trust him to do a screw bell!