My new voice

After a very fruitful trip to Germany which I will blog more about in another post, I have come back to Singapore with something new. And that is a Thein Universal Bass Trombone!

I was at the Thein workshop in Bremen on 25 and 26 March 2014 and I spent one afternoon finding the best setup for a new instrument and with the advice and assistance of Max Thein, we swapped leadpipes, slides, valves caps, tuning slides and bells before finally arriving at the setup I eventually decided on. It is a very simple setup which is basically an all yellow brass instrument, single bore slide, and a 9.5 inch screw bell. I have not much details on what the leadpipe, valve caps and tuning slides are exactly in terms of their measurements. All I can say is: This is my instrument, tailored for me. It plays very easily with a nice full sound and I set it up to be more on the consistent side for now. However, even though it is consistent in terms of tone colour in the pitch and dynamic range, it is not limiting and I can still put some other colours into the sound. To me, this will be a very nice instrument in the orchestra. In the future, if I do choose to have a more colourful sound or more flexibility in the sound, there were some Kruspe bells that were very promising! The screw bell was actually better for me than the normal one piece bells as they give me more focus and projection. Another added benefit of the screw bell is this:

This is without a doubt, one of the smallest trombone cases ever made. This is really gonna help me when it comes to flights because it is almost as small as a viola case! The case is made by Marcus Bonna and it was designed in consultation with Ben van Dijk. A truly amazing case.

So that's it! Now I have to put in the effort to get a closer connection to the instrument and I am confident this will serve me well for the future! A big thanks to Max Thein for the assistance and hospitality during my visit to the workshop!