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Common Trombone Faults – and How to Avoid Them
15th January 2026Trombones may look simple in their look, but that simplicity hides a lot of precision. A small amount of damage or misalignment can have a big effect on how the instrument feels and plays. In the repair workshop, certain trombone problems appear again and again. Most of them are avoidable with careful handling, regular maintenance, and a better understanding of how the instrument works. Here are the most common trombone faults our technicians see – and how you can avoid them:
Brass Awards 2025
30th December 2025Celebrating Brass Highlights of the Year
The Brass Awards 2025 highlight the instruments and accessories that have made a real impact over the past year. Our selections are guided by hands-on experience from our brass specialists and workshop technicians, focusing on build quality, performance, value and what genuinely excites today’s brass players.
The Ultimate Gift Guide for Trombonists
12th December 2025Trombone players have a wide range of needs depending on their experience level, rehearsal schedule, and performance setting. This ultimate gift guide highlights practical, reliable options across several budgets to help you choose something genuinely useful for trombonists, from beginners to advanced players looking to refine or upgrade their setup.
The Ultimate Gift Guide for Trumpet Players
Selecting an appropriate gift for a trumpet player can be challenging, as many will have specific preferences. To simplify the process, we have an ultimate gift guide offering a range of practical and well-considered options across multiple budgets.
Technician Tales: Common Trumpet Faults and How to Prevent Them
8th October 2025Looking after your trumpet keeps it playing smoothly and sounding its best. Small issues can quickly become big problems if ignored. Head Technician, Abi Taylor, brings you this guide on the most common trumpet faults and how to prevent them, helping you avoid an emergency trip to our workshop!
Christopher Bill at Dawkes Music
15th September 2025Featured in The Trombonist, magazine of the British Trombone Society
In late April, we were delighted to welcome trombonist and YouTuber Christopher Bill to Dawkes in Maidenhead. The event came together at fairly late notice, but the opportunity arose for us to host a workshop with Christopher, kindly supported by Denis Wick, with whom Christopher is an endorsee (he plays a Wick 12CS mouthpiece.) Many thanks to the British Trombone Society for featuring the event in their magazine, The Trombonist.
Understanding Brass Mouthpieces: A Beginner’s Guide
15th August 2025by Matt Sanders (Dawkes Brass Specialist)
All brass players wonder at one time or another whether or not making a change to their mouthpiece will help. Could it give them more range, more volume or a bigger sound? A change in the mouthpiece can yield fantastic results to the player. You can achieve faster, higher and louder from just a small change.
This beginner’s guide to understanding brass mouthpieces will walk you through the golden rules of choosing the right mouthpiece and explain what all the technical details really mean. We spoke to trombonist Christopher Bill, who shared insights into his current setup using Denis Wick products – and why your own setup can make such a big difference to your playing.
GUIDE: How To Test Brass Instruments
16th May 2022We asked professional brass player Rob Blencowe to create a guide for upgrading players to help them try out new brass instruments. This information is intended for players or parents making their first upgrade. Rob uses a Trumpet to demonstrate but the advice is suitable for all brass instruments.
The Learning Never Stops – Brass Training Aids
21st March 2020Whether you’re an old pro or you’ve just started your musical journey, training aids are there to keep you on top of the basics! If a brass player can keep their basic technique top-notch, then everything else will fall into place a whole lot easier. Here are a few products we sell that you can use during practice – or even on the go! – to be sure you build and keep a strong foundation to your playing.
Lightweight Legends! Beginner and Student Brass Alternatives
19th February 2020Continuing from our post on lightweight woodwinds, we also offer a range of lightweight brass instruments. Our selection of alternative brass instruments are great for the mini musician’s first instrument. They’re also ideal for adults – beginners to professionals – looking for fun, robust alternatives to classic models. Read on to find out more about the pBone, pTrumpet, and pBuzz!
Five Trombone Maintenance Essentials
4th December 2019If your instrument is working the best it can, then you’ll have the best tool to practice and perform to the best of your ability! Here are a few bits and bobs for your trombone case to keep up with every day maintenance and care.
LefreQue Part 4 – Trombone
5th November 2019Continuing our series of experiments with the LefreQue acoustic plates, Matt and I tested a few on his trombone. We were both eager to see what sort of effect they would have, especially as his trombone is nickel at the intended placement of LefreQue, with a brass bell. Generally we’ve found it’s best to match the LefreQue material to the instrument’s setup. What happens when we can’t match the materials?
Trumpet Re-Lacquering in the Dawkes Music Workshop
22nd December 2015This Bach Stradivarius Trumpet has had a new leadpipe fitted as the red rot on the underside rendered it un-preppable for relacquer.
If metal is too rotten, it will not be able to withstand the invasive filing, sanding and pressure of the re-surfacing work. During the preparation of the surface, all dents and scratches have to be removed and the metal is filed and polished to a mirror finish. This is the most important stage as any remaining imperfections will show up tenfold under new lacquer.
Restoration in the Dawkes Music Workshop
27th November 2015Sunniva, one of our dedicated workshop repairers, was so happy with one of her latest restoration jobs she shared it on her personal blog. She did such a great job on this J. Higham cornet we thought the internet deserved to see this beauty.
Yamaha NEO YEP642SII Euphonium
13th June 2011“The new standard in Brass Band Instruments” – Yamaha’s tagline for the Neo range of instruments… It rang true for the new neo tenor horn a couple of months ago; it also rings true to this new YEP642SII Neo Euphonium.
At first glance, the new addition to the Yamaha Euphonium range (Neo YEP-642SII) doesn’t seem to have changed much from the Yamaha Maestro. It does boast slightly wider tuning slide bows and a redesigned hand rest, the new emblem is clear on the flawless bright silver plate. It is available in both silver and lacquer and both look exceptionally beautiful, even without the “gold bits” on Yamaha’s Custom range.
Yamaha Flugel Horns – YFH8310Z & YFH8315G – New Model Info
19th May 2010Yamaha have been busy working on two new professional Flugel horns to add to their Flugel Horn range. The YFH-8310Z and YFH-8315G each offer different options for all players.