I purchased my Cerveny CVT 576-4-0 F Bass Trombone a couple of years ago. The folks at Cerveny build me a additional longer main turning slide which lowers the pitch of the horn one full step to Eb. One also needs to pull the other four valve slides a bit more to achieve the proper pitches for the valved notes. In other words my Cerveny CVT 576-4-0 F Bass Trombone is also an EEb Bass Trombone. Either as an F or EEb horn it is a most interesting and fun horn to play. I did, initially, encountered three problems

The first problem I noticed was condensation got trapped in the 3rd and 4th valve slides. Since the horn is quite heavy and long one should definitely have water keys put on those slides.

The second problem I had was finding a suitable mouthpiece for the horn. The mouthpiece that came with the horn was too small for me. The mouthpiece receiver is too narrow to accept North American bass trombone mouthpieces and to large to accept standard tenor mouthpieces. I had the Schilke company cut me a couple special mouthpieces which did the trick for me.

The third problem is intonation. The horn, with either the F or the Eb slide, is a hard horn to play in tune. After experimenting with alternate fingerings and making several compromises it’s now a very good player.

If one is a slide trombone player I can see no advantage to playing this horn. If one is a tuba or baritone player, like I am, this a great alternative for playing bass trombone parts.

Overall I love this horn and it was well worth the extra time and effort to get into being a great player.

Gary Wardall Manitowoc, WI Oct. 9, 2009