1551—Nuremberg, Germany

The oldest existing trombone is made by Erasmus Schnitzer. A tenor trombone, it is also the earliest know brass instrument from that manufacturing center, an area which becomes a hot spot in the field for several hundred years (Barclay 30). The tube length of the instrument, a tenor trombone, would indicate it was pitched in C, but, considering rising pitch standards, may have been considered in B-flat at the time (Gregory 30). The instrument, as with all early trombones, has a relatively narrow bore; no spit valve; flat, removable stays; very little terminal flare; and no stockings (Baines, Brass 111). It is held in Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Herbert, Trombone 311). Most experts now feel this is a composite instrument; i.e., it was assembled from different 16th century parts that may not have originally belonged together. Because of this debatable history, some scholars feel that the 1557 tenor trombone by Jörg Neuschel, held in Vienna, is the earliest extant trombone (see 1557, below).