TromboneChat

Been playing trombone for 15+ years now, and have been broke all my life. Just recently found the financial stability to think about upgrading from my 15 year old blessing scholastic, and saw an elkhart blessing b88 on the brass exchange in my price range.

What do folks think of this horn? I play in a large brass band, we play a really wide range of music from many musical traditions, and I play ~3 improv solos every gig. We pretty much only play outside gigs, which may matter for the coprion bell thing.

Good horns. The best Conn 88H will beat it every time, but the Blessing is solid, well built and a good value for the money. Blessing was a sub contractor for many other companies such as Conn and Bach, so many parts on more expensive horns were actually made by Blessing.

We have a guy playing bass in the jazz band with that horn and some kind of large Bach mouthpiece. He covers the parts just fine. He bought it new from a store whose salesman covered all the summer musicals and some other stuff professionally. That salesman would not have sold a horn to our bass player that would not cover the part. You can go with what Doug Bert says about the horn.

Blessing, King, Holton, Olds, and Yamaha have made some intermediate horns that do very well. Some make it onto stages covering professional gigs. The same situation exists in the clarinet world.

The only caveat I have is that you are a little ambiguous about what is getting played in this group. The Blessing will cover any part in an amateur wind ensemble or brass band. In a stage band, it will cover 3rd or 4th. 2nd would be really pushing it in our band and lead would not be a good idea unless you have chops like Slide Hampton or Steve Turre. I would rather cover 2nd or lead with a Holton Super Collegiate than a large bore anything. And a Super Collegiate would cover either part just fine. I believe that Blessing made a B7 (?) smaller bore horn that would better fit those roles. But I have never seen one. I usually take horns that are already beat up to outside gigs. That Blessing looks like a pretty nice horn.

It's a decent large bore instrument. However, outdoor brass band isn't the first place I'd buy large bore tenor like the B88 for. If you also want to play in a concert band or orchestra, the B88 would be a solid choice. But just for the brass band, I'd be either keeping your Scholastic (keep it anyway as a backup!) or using your money to get a better small or medium bore trombone, like a King 3B. Most trombonists in outdoor brass bands use a 3B or smaller. The notable exception I can think of is Josh Holcomb from Lucky Chops, and I can't tell if his horn is a Bach 36BO or 42BO. Otherwise, look at the players in Youngblood Brass Band, No B.S. Brass Band, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, etc. All 3Bs or smaller!

It’s what I use and it works great for me! I find it very easy to hit very high notes regularly. I use it for concerts, jazz band, and even marching band. I used to use an older version of the Blessing Scholastic (from the 70s) in middle school. It was a good horn but the tone was awful. I immediately noticed an improvement in the quality of my sound and range when I switched horns. I’d strongly recommend switching to the B-88!

Bach 36

I have a friend who needed a large bore trombone without breaking the bank and recommended a B-88. He bought himself one so I gave it a try and it felt like a nice solid large bore trombone to me. You can find the medium bore B-78 around, they're just a bit more rare. I think there is one currently one kicking around Facebook Marketplace near Kansas City.

They're pretty good