TromboneChat

Hello everyone,

I just thought I would share with you a project that I worked on with historical instrument maker Tony Esparis.
Started in 2019 and finished in 2021, this project set out to build a replica of the Hans (Johannes) Hainlein Nurnberg Bass Sackbut of 1631 held in the Grassi instrument museum in Leipzig.

The aim was to make as an exact reproduction as possible useing the building techniques that Hainlein would have used himself, including unsoldered friction fit joins, all handhammered parts including the inner and outer slide tubes as well as incorperating the crook tuning system suggested by Heyde.

The original instrument in Leipzig has only one crook, playing it at D - 466 tuning. This crook is detatchable and if removed with the bell placed directly on the slide, the result is an in tune G - 466. Applying Heyde's idea to this insturment then becomes relatively straight forward, building tuning crooks that sit between the bell and the slide matching the original.

For this insturment as you will see below in the images, there are multiple options now available for tuning.


This is the insturment in G - 466 without any tuning pieces. G - 440 via a half tone crook F - 466 with whole tone crook F - 440 which can pull to F - 430, this is the first of the replica crooks with inbuilt tuning slide, copying the design of the original D crook but slightly smaller. D - 466 which pulls to D - 440. The instrument in this set up is how you will see the insturment described and displayed in the Grassi Museum This is the C crook at 466 which like the F and the D can be pulled out to C - 440 The final combination of crooks brings the instrument at AA contrabass - 466
In the tunings G and F it has full use of 7 positions, in D, C and AA it has 6 positions.

Some more photos of the insturments engraving and casting work by Tony.The engraving work is a replica of what is on the original instrument.
One interesting thing about the original instrument was that the bell, which normally would have been made from one single sheet of brass, is made out of one large piece with two smaller sheets soldered into the bell in a sort of zipper pattern. This was not common for the time, but for this project we wanted to see how this would effect the sound and playing of the insturment, so we took the risk (and a melted bell or two) and included this in the final product version. I've had this instrument now for a couple of years, and I have to say it plays fantastically across all the different tunings. I've used all of the tuning configerations (except for the AA) in concert, sometimes switching between tunings mid concert when required. In its smaller configeration of G it has a nice light baritone quality to it, the F tuning allows for a wide range of colours in the sound, the D tuning is very rich and full, the C is just a powerhouse but it also has a very nice soft sound. The AA i've only played in practice but it has a great sound and responce in the low register but becomes somewhat stuffy in the upper, but with the amount of tubing it has to go through that is kind of to be expected.

If you like I can post more photos in the comments from the instrument.
Tony Esparis now produces this instrument as one of his Bass models, along with his fine reproduction of the Oller bass sackbut, customizable of course with which tuning you would like and any modern modifications you wish, ie non-handhammered slide.

Any questions or comments, Im always happy to share and answer.
Best
Sam. N

Beautiful! I'd love to try one.

Do you know how the price compares to an Egger or Meinl?

Finetales wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:12 am Beautiful! I'd love to try one.

Do you know how the price compares to an Egger or Meinl?

Hey Finetales,
In general Tony's instruments cost less the those from Egger or Meinl.

For a quick comparison the Egger Ehe Bass with Historic style and no extra tuning parts or hand hammerd slide is 9,500CHF or €10,000. The MDC version is 13,000CHF or €13,750.
This instrument from Tony, though based on a different design, with all the crooks and the hand hammerd slide, plus case and a historical schnitzer bass mouthpiece replica, cost me considerably less then that.

How is this possible? Tony builds the instruments by himself and while he works out of a wonderful workshop in Spain, it is not a"factory", so he doesn't have to pay staff wages or large rental fees for property. Because of this his insturments can cost less. The trade off of course is that you have to wait longer for your instrument to be built, and you don't often have to opertunity of trying multiple different slides and bells.These things you do get if you choose to go with Egger or Meinl.

Hey Sam! Nice to see you join!


I've tried Sam's instrument a year ago and I have to say I was very impressed. The sound and response are fantastic. It is now one of the two instruments I recommend when asked about the different options on the market. It's a great instrument!

The original is very interesting, I had plans to make a copy of this very instrument with a different maker, which sadly couldn't happen because of Covid and a bunch of different obstacles, and I'm so glad that another maker brought the same project to fruition. It brings a new option on the market, where before there was essentially only one original being copied by all of the main sackbut builders.

I hope Tony is able to eventually have a demo model available to bring to conferences and workshops because people really should check it out and try it!

Finetales wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:12 am Beautiful! I'd love to try one.

Do you know how the price compares to an Egger or Meinl?

Just a correction on the figures for the Egger: Egger does make a similar instrument with all of those tunings (and a couple more), which I helped design and previously posted about here. Price actually starts at 7790CHF before tax/import (that is about 20-25% more than Tony's assuming his prices haven't gone up in the last couple years, but still, not quite as bad as 9500), and that does include all of the tuning crooks and bits. However at that price it indeed doesn't include hand-engraved decorations like Tony's (which are exquisite), and some of the tubing (most notably the slide) is extruded and not seamed. Tony's craftsmanship is really top notch.

Meinl doesn't currently make anything similar to this, as far as I know. If they did, based on their pricelist, I would think their price for something similar would start around 9-10k.

Hey Max!
Yeah, they finally got me haha, I hope you're well.

That's great to know. I couldn't find it on the website, so I didn't want to speculate on how much the Egger with the modular tuning would cost. It's great to see it's ready for production and sale. It was a pleasure to play on the prototype the last time we caught up.

Yes, its looking like a great time coming up in the early music trombone scene for new and different models of sackbuts that haven't been reproduced yet. Exciting times!

Best
Sam

Gorgeous!

That is one amazing instrument! Is there any video of it being played, even if only to demonstrate the range of tones it can produce? The AA crook, in particular, is something I'd love to hear.