Because it’s so common for slide work to be requested serparately from bell section work, these jobs are priced and described separately. Both receive ultrasonic cleanings. Bell section tuning slide tubes will be polished, and any valves will be aligned and restrung. Hand slides however tend to require extra work… First, before the ultrasonic cleaning, the inside of the outer slide must be polished to remove any build-up or corrosion, and the inner slide stockings are polished. Every dent or impact on a slide will bend the slide tubes, so great care must be taken to remove every single tiny dent from the tubes. Because of the tension on the slide from the damage, the inner and outer tubes will typically still require extra time being straightened even after the dents have been removed, and finally the inner slide must be adjusted to ensure the inner tubes are parallel to the outer tubes.

In some cases, slides are so damaged that they must be disassembled to remove tension in order to properly align the tubes. This extra work results in the increased price for a slide rebuild. If there’s severe damage to the hand slide crook, this will also result in an increased charge to remove the slide crook both to remove the dents and realign the outer slide.

If you’d like to have a custom slide built, please reach out to schedule a consultation. I’m happy to order specific tubes that meet your needs. If you’d like to be able to swap between leadpipes, I can pull the existing one from your inner slide and modify it to be removeable. From there I can modify most other leapipes of similar bore to also work with your handslide. Please note though, that with some older trombones, sometimes there can be so much corrosion that the leadpipe can’t be pulled without the leadpipe or inner slide tube being damaged. This is extremely rare though, and I will always make sure a customer is aware of the possibility and potential extra costs if their slide appears to be higher risk.

I also offer custom built thumb triggers and paddle levers for your valve sections. These are usually requested when someone loves the sound of their trombone but doesn’t love the feel of a paricular trigger. If you do love the feel of your trigger, but not the string linkage, I can also modify it to have a mechanicaly linkage. For mechanical linkages, either ball and sockets or miniball ball bearings can be installed. If your rotor is noisy, I can also reduce noise by tightening the front and back bearings. An example of these results can be found HERE.

Should the knuckle on your valve be severely damaged, I can either create a patch or fabricate a completely new knuckle to replace a torn off one, securing into the handslide receiver like the original.

Like other brass instruments, I offer lacquer stripping with either a scratch brush or satin finish. Satin finishes can be done in either a brushed or swirl design. If there’s a lot of pitting or scratches, a swirl satin finish can sometimes hide more that a single-direction brushed finish. If you’re unsure what finish you’re interested in, I can recommend what finish would best fit your time and budget upon assessment of the instrument.

In the future I hope to be able to offer luster finishes and relacquering overhaul services. If you’re interested in relacquering, keep and eye on my blog or social media for updates!

Finally, I offer valve trombone cutting should you need a Bb/Si valve trombone cut to C/Do