Hand support - fitting instructions
The Michael Rath hand support is very easy to fit to your trombone. 
This is a short step-by-step guide to fitting and adjusting your hand support correctly so that you get the maximum benefit from the device.
This is the hand support kit. In it you'll find the bracket which attaches to the main bell stay of your trombone, the hand support pad, which will rest on the back of your left hand and two L shaped arms. There's also an allen key in there as well.
The first step is to attach the hand support bracket to the main bell stay of your trombone. To do this, first unscrew the two pieces of the bracket and then position the bottom half underneath the main bell stay. Holding this in place, align the top piece of the bracket directly above and insert both screws. 
Tighten the srews up to fasten the two pieces of the bracket back together taking care to tightern it up evenly and not to overtighten. The main bell stay is actually a hollow tube, and tightening the screws up too much may damage the lacquer and potentially crush the main bell stay underneath the bracket.
Once you have the bracket in place on your bell section connect one of the L shaped arms to the main hand support pad. 
The choice of which L shaped arm to use will depend on the position of the bracket that you've just fitted.
As a general guide, the squarer of the the L arms is usually better for bass trombones, and the other L arm is generally better with tenor trombones, but you may need to try both to get the best position for the hand suppot on your trombone.
Now you can insert the other end of the L arm into the receving hole on the bell stay bracket and tighten up the receiving screw.
At this stage you should have the hand support fully assembled, ready to adjust it to suit you.
The hand support is designed to give you as much flexbility as possible with the position of the pad on the back of your left hand. The pad can be rotated through 360° and moved up and down the L arm.
You need to adjust the position of the hand support pad so that it sits across the back of your left hand when you hold your trombone in the playing position. Your hand should fit snugly between the pad and your slide.
If the pad isn't fitting snugly across the back of your left hand, it won't give you the best support when you come to play your trombone. You might find that you need to loosen the screw on the bell stay bracket which connects to the L arm so that you can move the pad closer to your hand.
When the hand support is in the correct position you should be able to let go of the slide stay with the fingers of your left hand, leaving the hand support to take your trombone.
It's worth spending some time doing this and experimenting with various positions for your hand support as experience with lots of players and different instruments has shown there is an optimal position which will dramatically increase your comfort when holding and playing your trombone.
Michael Rath hand supports have been designed and successfully tested with a number of different makes and models of trombone in addition to all Rath instruments. Aside from perhaps more obvious applications with bass and contra bass trombones, has proven to be equally as successful with Bb/F tenor and Bb tenor trombones.
