The Getzen 4147IB Is Launched!

As many of you may have heard, Getzen are launching a trombone on 1 June built to my requirements by Christan Griego. It is a great honour for me to be involved in this project, and I’m immensely proud that this instrument bears my name. Getzen is a fantastic, family-run business, and I’ve enjoyed working on the development of this instrument for the last year tremendously.

When we discussed the idea the brief was to make a “classic” trombone. That doesn’t mean to say copying something that has come before; rather it means creating something that will still be being made and played in 50 years. It was a tall order, and the list of requirements that I placed before Christan was enormous. He himself I think would admit that it was a bit of a learning curve, because he’d never produced a narrow slide trombone before. He had also never really played a narrow slide, so for both of us it was a huge learning process. But those of you would know Christan know he is an utter perfectionist and will not stop until he has arrived at exactly what he wants.

The instrument has turned out to be an absolute success. I have had it since November and have been playing it on solo concerts and also for the last few weeks in the Vienna Philharmonic; to be frank, I wish I had had it many years ago. Its sound quality from ultimate pianissimo right up to absolute fortissimo is beautiful, and for me its greatest attribute is the seamless way it glides from the upper middle register to the high register. This is the first time that an instrument for the market has been built solely for my requirements, and one of my strongest requirements was that the instrument that I played would be identical to the one that appears on the market, and we’ve achieved this.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Christan Griego and Brett Getzen for everything they’ve done to provide me with this wonderful instrument.

Please click here to go to the Getzen page regarding the instrument. I hope that when you try this trombone you are as excited about it as I am. I think it’s a winner! Something else that will interest trombone fans is the addition of Matthew Walker (previously at Greenhoe) to the already talented Getzen/Edwards stable. I know that the future of my trombone is in incredibly safe hands!