TromboneChat

I’ve done good bit of searching here, other forums, and on the interwebs....

Does anyone know of a compatibility chart somewhere of brands of finger buttons that are compatible?

I’m asking specifically as it relates to the Getzen Frumpet I just bought, which is missing one....but have been wondering this for years actually. So at a minimum, do anyone know what other brands are compatible with the Getzen - just in case I’d like to switch it up? Despite literally half (Frumpet, tuba, and straight tenor) horns in my stable being some form of Getzen and offshoot brands, I’m not honestly that familiar with them. For example I’m not sure if they’re all like this, but it’s the type with the felts recessed into the valve top cap as opposed to on the underside of the button.

I definitely am considering this horn an “instrument-shaped” item and not a concert horn. I’ll likely doing any number of silly things with it. And getting some goofy eBay-special buttons seems like a good place to start since I am not one of the people who can play with a missing button without it bugging them.

Cheers and thanks for all the wisdom around here

If just one or two finger buttons are missing from a valved instrument, it can sometimes be impossible to find buttons that match what you still have. For this reason, it is sometimes best to replace all of the finger buttons. If you replace all of them at the same time it accomplishes a couple things:

1. Looks better because you have a matching set.
2. Allows all corresponding felts and corks to be the same or similar because the finger buttons have the same measurements.

Take your instrument to your local tech and he/she should be able to check the threading on the finger buttons. From that information, they can give you a set if they have them in stock or order a set of the appropriate size. It's no big deal and finger buttons are not that expensive.

Thank you. Yes, the intention is that i’ll plan to replace all three. I wasn’t sure if i was overlooking some cool master list with the threading of common brands. Just thought I’d check. I know there is a long history of stencil brands, badge engineering, shared factories, etc....and I definitely have seen y’all rattle off lists for compatible tenons, and the like

If we were not in the pandemic, I’d have been to the local shop/tech 8 times by now....but still severely limiting how much time I’m going out. Case and point, I decided to just try to sell the bell to that Yamaha 354 with the busted slide and cut my losses in lieu of going out quite yet. :\

Thank you so much for the ongoing wealth of knowlege. I heave a few active areas of expertise as well, but rarely will those topics come up in these conversations lol So, for now I’ll just be a sponge.

Cheers

The closest thing to a "master list" would be the Allied Supply catalog. They don't carry everything, but they try to supply the parts that are needed for repairs on most brands. Since Allied is owned by the Getzen company, they tend to have most of the Getzen replacement parts. Unfortunately, I don't think Allied carries any Frumpet specific parts because the instrument has not been in production for 30+ years.

The Allied part for Getzen TRUMPET finger buttons is A320 (A320-S for silver) and those have an 8 X 32 thread. However, your instrument is a FRUMPET, which might use a different size finger button or thread. I had one in my shop about a year ago and I cannot remember what the finger buttons looked like......wish I still had it! Anyway, since there is no guarantee that your horn has the same finger buttons as the Getzen trumpets, I recommend that you have the thread size checked before telling any shop to send you the parts.