Roy Benson Bass Trombone MOD.BT-260 Lacquered Finish

Thumb rest fell off on first play. It was glued on and the glue gave way. We need this horn to last at least 4 year, I don’t trust it.
What else is glued on?
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I’ve had this horn for a few weeks now and been very pleased with it. It sounds good and plays well. I’m not a professional, but did have a local professional play and inspect it before deciding to keep it.

The horn was not ready to play out of the box. I did clean the slides and oiled the rotors before playing. Out of the box, the slides were sluggish and the Gb rotor was very slow to return. Once cleaned and oiled, everything was very responsive.

The finish is good, but not flawless. Mine has a cosmetic defect near one of the turning slides. Not really noticeable unless you inspect it closely.

It does include a soft side case with backpack straps.

The trombone is manufactured in China and supposedly engineered in Germany.

I’ve been a trombone player for 7 years now, most of it on tenor. However, I’m a bass trombone player for my local community band, and for over a year, I played on a Jinbao JBSL 831 (a Chinese stencil of the Yamaha YSL-830), and this certainly *feels* like an upgrade. The case especially feels “premium” compared to the Jinbao bass which I bought for the same price (about $700).

The mouthpiece feels a lot nicer (looks like a copy of a Denis Wick/CKB mouthpiece), probably about a 1.5G. I’m coming from a CKB 1.25H, so it feels a lot smaller than it is, but it still allows me to sing in the full range of the instrument (double-low F to a high Bb). The slide extremely lightweight, but is a little noisy. Once oiled and lubed, it’s almost virtually silent.

It has a thumbrest next to the F trigger which is a little confusing to hold, but once you get used to it (and you do very quickly), it is very comfortable and ergonomic. Same goes for the brace on the handslide, the curved brace makes the slide very very comfortable to hold.

The valves themselves are slow, so you might want to get them cleaned/serviced. I didn’t have any rotor oil on hand, so I can’t say how they are once properly oiled. They’re also quite quiet compared to my Jinbao (which also has metal linkages). Everything feels solid, but I’ll give it time, and update this review if I remember to.

As far as playing, it is definitely a little difficult to slot notes. I’m missing notes that I would not otherwise have problems with on my other bass, but I suppose that’s something that comes with practice and getting a real feel for the instrument. However, the trigger ranges are very solid, and I could hit every note I normally do, and you can push dynamics without your sound becoming too brittle.

If you’re on a budget, I would not turn my nose up at this horn!

I’ll put the cons first so you know the important info before my opinion:

Cons:
– Hand brace broke on first day
– Cheap have that slightly ‘cheaper-quality’ feel in terms of build quality
– Supplied mouthpiece isn’t super-great; horn can be a little tough to center for non-bass trombonists
– Valves can be a bit noisy with all-metal linkage

Pros:
– Very inexpensive for a double trigger bass
– Good sound, easy to play
– Comes in a nice case, ready to play

I meant to rave about this trombone, but you’d have to really try it yourself to see how you like it. I found that it was a *little* bit tough to get notes to land directly in the “center” where I wouldn’t have such a problem on other basses. But the horn sounds great once you learn it, and makes a fantastic instrument on a budget or where something professional-level isn’t needed. You’ll likely have to take it to a shop to get the “hand rest”/brace for the left hand resoldered again, as it WILL fall off within the first few uses.

Good horn – might get one for my own band sometime!