Dating Elkhart Bach Trombone

[alagrange]

I've got an Elkhart Bach 42G. The serial number seems to put at between '75 and '77. I thought it was a corporation model as I've read on here that those ended somewhere around '80, and yet mine doesn't say Corporation on the bell. What do you guys think about this?

[BGuttman]

The key question is "How does it play?". Remember that the slide has the serial number but it could be mated to any bell. So you have a mid 1970s slide with SOME bell; possibly later, possibly not. If your only reason for asking is for sale, use your own judgement.

[alagrange]

I think it plays well. I am mostly curious about the instruments history, when it was put together, how old it is etc.. I have no intensions of selling, just want to learn more about my horn's history.

[BGuttman]

Unfortunately, the idea of putting matching serial numbers on all parts of a trombone went out of fashion in the 1940s. Now the serial is on one part and if there is a second part that is easily swappable you can never tell if it is original.

Add to that the common practice of letting the customer sit in a room with a pile of cases and swap bells and slides until one pair was preferred resulted in many slide and bell "mismatches" even among dealer stock.

Also, in an instrument's life one part could have been completely "trashed" and it was revived by mating the old (still good) part with a new replacement for the bad one.

All in all, it's possible to find an instrument that is not fully original. Hence my statement about "how does it play". That is the true value of the instrument.

If you really wanted a pure "Corporation" horn you would have to buy it from the original owner who would confirm that it was never tampered with. Good luck with that.

[Burgerbob]

Yup, you probably have a Corp slide and a later bell section.

[hornbuilder]

Can you post a photo of the stamp/engraving on the bell?

[alagrange]

I'll try to get one on here after work. I did realize upon reading the above comments that I have been looking at the valve lot number instead of the slide number.... doh! The slide number is in the 155,XXX range so, I think that makes the horn a lot newer than I had previously thought. I will, however, take a closer look when I get home.

[alagrange]

I took a closer look. The slide does have a serial of 155,xxx placing it after 1994 which seems to be the most recent listing for serial numbers on Bach's website. So, the parts seem to be of the same era, just a lot newer than I thought. I do wish there was more serial number listings available for newer instruments. Perhaps, it's too soon for anyone to care about that.