King 7B bass trombone age

[Tenzin]

Hi everyone, i recently bought a used King 7B. Everything works fine! I wanted to find out when the instrument was made. I believe that King stopped producing King 7B's for like 20-30 years?
The serial number is 40 312333. In the internet I found serial numbers starting with a similar number from 1990. So it must be from this year right?

[BGuttman]

King uses a 6 digit serial with no prefix. The serial should be on the bell side of the joint.

King only started the 7B in the 1970s with a serial around 6xxxxx. My 1980-ish 7B has a serial 877xxx.

Somewhere in the mid 1980s they redesigned the wrap so the bell brace is like most other F-attachment trombones with the F loop having two bends near the bell brace instead of a single graceful loop leaving room for your thumb behind the bell brace.

The 7B was eventually supplanted by the Benge 290 around 1990.

I would suggest posting pictures, but you need 3 approved posts to do so.

[octavposaune]

The 40 means 1990, I had a 2106 that prefix was 41 which was 1991!

[chromebone]

7B-8B production was started around 1980-81.
The 8B was the one supplanted by the 290 by the mid 80’s, it did not survive the brace relocation redesign, the 7B remained in production until the late 90’s-very early 2000’s.

[octavposaune]

I was told by the Eastlake factory that all King bass trombone manufacturing ended in 1996. I was inquiring about repair parts with the parts person (Sonja for the older techs who used to order from UMI etc..) when all parts for King basses went obsolete.

[Tenzin]

Hey everyone thank you for your answers! So sad they stopped making King bass trombones. What where the reasons? Because of the Benge? But Benge bass trombones are also no longer factored, are they?

[BGuttman]

With the merger to make Conn-Selmer there were too many brands making bass trombones. The big sellers were Bach (50) and Conn (62H, 112H). King was #3 and was eliminated. Sad. There were a number of us who played King basses for many years.

[Dennis]

Hey everyone thank you for your answers! So sad they stopped making King bass trombones. What where the reasons? Because of the Benge? But Benge bass trombones are also no longer factored, are they?

Benge-the-brand no longer exists, which is a shame. UMI bought the brand and tooling when Eldon Benge retired in Burbank. They took it to Cleveland, and then killed it.

[chromebone]

Hey everyone thank you for your answers! So sad they stopped making King bass trombones. What where the reasons? Because of the Benge? But Benge bass trombones are also no longer factored, are they?

Benge-the-brand no longer exists, which is a shame. UMI bought the brand and tooling when Eldon Benge retired in Burbank. They took it to Cleveland, and then killed it.

Benge Trombones were always made by King at the Eastlake factory using King tooling, Eldon Benge had nothing to do with them. King had owned Benge Trumpets since the early 70’s, and Benge Trumpets were made at the LA plant until UMI took over King, at which point Benge trumpet production was moved to Eastlake until Conn-Selmer took over and killed the brand.

Chuck Ward (he literally told me this today) said Benge trombones were originally going to be branded as Kings; they were basically updated Kings, but orchestral players weren’t interested in trying them until they were rebranded as Benge.

As for the Benge 290, it replaced the 8B, was produced alongside the 7B, and went out of production at around the same time as the 7B in the late 90’s.

[JohnL]

For those who are curious, here's a timeline for Benge (both Elden Benge the man and Benge the company/brand):
https://www.brasshistory.net/Benge%20History.pdf