Earl Williams was a great innovator of the trombone and produced some of the best and most unique custom trombones around. He worked for the Olds company in the early part of the century. In the late 1920’s he started producing custom trombones with Spike Wallace, bass trombonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. These instruments, The Wallace Trombone, made by Wallace and Williams are beautiful pieces of art, usually featuring intricate engravings of dogs, indians or arrows (all things that Earl was passionate about). After the partnership was broken up, Earl began producing his own horns out of his shop in Venice, later on Melrose St. in Los Angeles and finally in Burbank. The model 9 is one of the more rare models produced by Earl. It features a 9” bell, with a medium bore slide. The “J” tuning slide is fully tapered from neckpipe to the bell and is a unique feature of this horn. Also, the rotary valve (which I believe looks like a Berni Marston rotary valve) is actuated with a very cool valve linkage that uses a tension rod and not a spring. Earl also made the coolest spit valves ever and is a nice touch on a cool horn. I think this one was made in the late 1960’s. Thanks to John Noxon and my good friend Thomas Zsivkovits for help in acquiring this horn for me

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