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G trombones and wibbleage thereof

Warning!-the following will probably only interest you if you are a
completely anally retentive bass trombone freak. Well, that's half the
list then...LOL

Just recently I borrowed a G bass trombone from Maurice Bale in Coventry
to play with our University orchestra for a performance of the Monteverdi
Vespers in a few weeks. Having a play around with it really made me
appreciate the difficulties of this instrument-and why it was
finally discarded by bandsmen and orchestral players alike:)
It's a 1920 Boosey and Co model, without a thumb valve, originally built
in sharp pitch, and hence with added bits of tubing(except the slide
didn't have quite enough added-7th position is about an inch off the
end!), and a handle to reach the far positions(which, for me, is anything
further out than a sharp 5th). The handle actually helps quite a bit on
long shifts, as you can just pivot the wrist to send it zipping in and
out, but really good tuning is tricky. Some of the passages historically
written for G bass are suddenly ridiculously hard-one example is the fugue
subject from 'Joan of Arc'(1925) by Denis Wright-a really poor piece, but
it contains this (fastish) semiquaver figure which sends the bass
trombone flying in and out from 7th to 1st and back again. I've tried it
from memory and it's just completely impossible!-unless the trombone has a
thumb valve, but I don't think that these were very popular in brass bands
at that time(let me know if I'm wrong).
 Which, eventually, brings me to my question-what sort of level of
attainment did the old G trombone players reach? Are there any solos for G
trombone? Are there any recordings of G trombone solos? Does anyone have
one (cheap) for sale (preferably with thumb valve)? 
 If you've got experience of playing this beast/instrument, please could
you write back with any tips on playing it as opposed to the normal Bb/F/D
I play(probably about the handle, but I did have a little fright when
presented with a part in alto clef:P )

thanks for making it this far through without dying of boredom,

Dave Taylor
University of Warwick band
Rolls-Royce (Coventry) band
p.s.
Our section for the Vespers mentioned above is now a "proper" trombone
section-Eb Alto, Bb Tenor, and G Bass. When was the last time that that
happened that anyone can remember?


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