A necessary compromise

[Pauly]

Hi everyone,

I've been playing for a few years with breaks in between. I've tried again and again but my arthritis makes holding the horn difficult and painful. Recently I picked up a black pBone.

While I know that it won't have the sound of a brass horn and people will look down on it, I can now practice for hours. I'm really happy and enjoying what, for me, is a necessary compromise.

[HawaiiTromboneGuy]

As long as you’re still playing and making music, that’s all that matters! Glad you’re happy and enjoying your pbone!

[Pauly]

Thanks. All the best to you.

[brassmedic]

Yes, the black ones have the best sound.

[Matt K]

That reminds me that I bought a red pbone with the intention of mounting it to something and haven't gotten around to it. Curious what a plastic bell on an otherwise brass instrument would sound like. Hmmmm need to dig that back out

[timothy42b]

You might consider doubling on the jHorn. I have one, so do a couple other forum members. They're basically a pEuphonium. It's an ultra tight wrap, giving you a full Bb euph in a small light package.

[Pauly]

You might consider doubling on the jHorn. I have one, so do a couple other forum members. They're basically a pEuphonium. It's an ultra tight wrap, giving you a full Bb euph in a small light package.

That's really cool. Thanks for the tip.

[CheeseTray]

This guy sounds quite nice on the jhorn but reviews for it are generally not good. If your pbone is decent, I suspect that you're better off with it,

[Finetales]

I've played the jHorn, it's not worth it unless you're buying it for comedic purposes. It is genuinely hilarious hearing it played in person, but that gives you an idea how musically useful it is.

[Doug Elliott]

Looks like it uses a french horn or alto horn mouthpiece

[andym]

I own 2 pbones (different colors) and have used them for travel and for playing on small boats. They’re fun and can be decent.

If at some point you want to play a brass instrument, consider the ergobone support. I’ve used it and it does take the weight off your hand and arm.

https://www.ergobrass.com/trombone/

But if the pbone is good for you then enjoy!

[timothy42b]

Looks like it uses a french horn or alto horn mouthpiece

The performer in that video uses his french horn mouthpiece. Like the pBone, the jHorn can be improved with a real mouthpiece instead of the plastic one that comes with it. Unlike the pBone, the jHorn has a nonstandard taper and it's hard to find a good fit.

The mouthpiece that comes with the jHorn has a hard plastic shell and three different sized soft cup inserts, which is kind of an ingenious solution to targeting everything from trumpet to tuba players. Unfortuneatly none of them work that well. The low range is best with the large cup. But the partials are so wildly off you'll have to use alternate fingerings. The middle cup is much closer to in tune but the low range feels like false tones. Somewhere there's a compromise. This would be a good 3D mouthpiece challenge, especially with that weird shank size.

I have occasionally got a decent tone out of it but not repeatably. It's like golf, once in a while you have a great drive and wish you knew what you'd done differently.