Last week I made one of my visits to the Thein factory in Bremen.
Together with my friend and colleague Hendrik Jan Renes we had a great time with Heinrich Thein and Olav Brandt.

Olav Brandt and Ben with his newest set-up. Great work done Olav!
Thanks!!!
Besides having a good time we worked on my newest valve-system. I received it before the summer and already played a few projects on it. Olav made some modifications on my previous system which make the the notes come out just a bit easier.
During the period I played on this new system I had the idea that the system took a little bit more air.
Together with Olav we found a new lead-pipe and bell that fitted the system much better.
I used this set-up yesterday in our concert of Zemlinsky – Lyrische Symphonie with Yannick in the Gergiev festival.
My first impression is Wow!
Bringing home the new bell together with an other slide gives me two complete bass trombones at home with many different combinations possible. Great to experiment with myself and also a change to give interested bass trombonist the possibility to try out this Rolls Royes under the bass trombones as Gergiev always calls my horn!