Dented or stuck trombone slide: what a repair costs

Your slide got dented again. Maybe it slipped off a stand, maybe it took a hit in a gig bag on the train. Now you are looking at a repair bill, a few weeks without your main horn, and the chance it happens again next season.

One trombone player put it plainly on Reddit: "Never march with an instrument you don't want to have to repair." Another wrote, after his own dent: "I thought I loved the horn until I dented the slide."

That is the real cost of a brass slide. Not just the bill. The wait, and the worry that follows you onto every stage after.

A daCarbo trombone lying on a wooden table, with a black carbon bell and black carbon slide tubes — A daCarbo Tenor Jazz. The bell and the long tubes of the outer slide are carbon. The slide bow is metal.

What a dented or sticking slide actually costs

There is no single number for this, because every dent and every tech is different. One data point we do have: on r/Trombone, a repair tech estimated 350 to 400 US dollars, conservatively, to fix a bent bass trombone slide. That is one quote, for one kind of damage, on a bass trombone, not a tenor. Your own repair can land anywhere.

What the price never comes with is a promise about the result. One player wrote about a local slide repair: "I was not happy with the work."

Dents are not the only thing that catches up with a brass slide the longer you play it. Corrosion is the other one, and red rot comes up on Reddit again and again. How it starts and how to slow it is in our article on dents and red rot.

Why a brass slide keeps giving you trouble

A trombone slide is two tubes sliding inside each other, with almost no room to spare. Bend the outer tube, even slightly, and that gap changes. The slide drags in one spot, or it leaks air, or both. A tech can straighten the tube again. Nothing stops the next knock from undoing the work. That is why some players fix the same slide more than once.

What changes with a carbon outer slide

On a daCarbo trombone, the bell and the straight tubes of the outer slide are carbon fiber, not brass. The carbon outer slide cannot bend and cannot dent.

That is not the only thing that changes. The slide stays straight, so the gap between outer and inner slide is very small and the slide is very airtight. That is good for the response. The balance stays the same in every slide position. Your left hand can stay much more relaxed than on a standard trombone.

A ChangeMaker Trombone in two parts on a concrete floor: the slide with black carbon tubes and a gold-coloured metal bow, next to the bell section with a black carbon bell — A ChangeMaker Trombone in two parts. Left, the slide: the long black tubes are the carbon outer slide, the bow at the bottom is metal. Right, the carbon bell.

For the carbon bell and the carbon slide tubes: no dents, no corrosion, no re-lacquering.

Can carbon crack instead? Five times stronger than it needs to be. None has broken since 2009.

What the carbon slide changes when you play, in more detail: Carbon fiber trombone slide: what changes, and what stays the same.

Every daCarbo trombone also has a carbon bell. A carbon bell barely vibrates. How much energy that saves was measured on a trumpet, not on a trombone. The whole story is in our article on carbon and brass.

What carbon does not fix

Carbon parts on the trombone: the bell and the straight tubes of the outer slide. The slide bow and the valve parts are metal. They can still dent, like on any trombone. A carbon slide also is not something only daCarbo makes: Yamaha and Butler make carbon outer slides too, each for a different reason. The full comparison, with models and prices, is in Is a carbon fiber trombone worth it?

Close-up of a carbon trombone slide: two black carbon tubes ending in a gold-coloured metal bow with a water key, next to a black carbon bell — The end of the slide: carbon tubes, and a metal bow that can still dent like on any trombone.

If you want to try one

daCarbo makes three tenor trombones, all with a carbon outer slide and a carbon bell: the ChangeMaker Trombone from €2,990, the Tenor with F-attachment from €4,990 and the Tenor Jazz from €5,310. The price includes tax, customs duty and shipping. You have 30 days to send it back from the day it arrives. Custom builds are not included.

Not sure which one fits you? Book a free 30-minute video call with Andi. You play a little for Andi and tell him about yourself. He recommends a trombone, or he says straight out if none of them suits you.

Sources

Common questions.

How much does it cost to fix a dented trombone slide?

There is no fixed price. The one figure we can point to: a repair tech on Reddit estimated 350 to 400 US dollars, conservatively, for a bent bass trombone slide. Your own cost depends on the damage, the tech and the instrument. Nothing about that price says the work will be good.

Why does my trombone slide keep sticking even after it was fixed?

Because the two tubes have almost no room between them. A tech can straighten a bent tube, but the next knock, drop or hard case changes the fit again. A repair fixes the slide you have. It does not stop the next dent.

Can a carbon fiber trombone slide still get dented?

On a daCarbo, the bell and the straight tubes of the outer slide are carbon. The carbon outer slide cannot bend and cannot dent. The slide bow and the valve parts are metal, and those can dent like on any trombone.

Is a carbon slide the same on every carbon trombone?

No. Yamaha, Butler and daCarbo each make their carbon slides for a different reason, and the parts that are carbon are not the same on each. Our article "Is a carbon fiber trombone worth it?" compares all three.

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Dented or stuck trombone slide: what a repair costs, and how to stop it happening again