TromboneChat

Recently purchased a vintage King 3B Silver Sonic w/ SN 3834xx which I believe puts it as 1963 (although dealer said ‘61)
I don’t see a SN on bell section. There is # on inner and outer slide.
Also, there is no gold lacquer inside bell. What years did they do that?
There is some tarnish on bell and appears that clear lacquer is flaking (some came off while I polished). Would there be tarnish under the lacquer? It appears to be, not sure if it shows up in pictures. I would be ok with just removing all of it on silver bell. Is this normal/done.
It’s in great shape and plays well. Thanks for any help!

As far as I know, all 3B SS had lacquered Sterling Silver bells with gold wash bell interiors.
Does anyone have different information?

The lacquer is pretty durable in my experience.

383xxx serial number should put the manufacturing year as 1961.

I've seen a couple SS without the gold wash. I'm not sure if it was removed or some came that way.

The gold wash was probably removed after the fact.

Should there be serial number on bell section and I’m just not seeing it?

Lacquer doesn't actually stick well to silver, so the lack of gold wash could be due to a refinish?

I think the anniversary models didn’t come with the gold wash inside of the bell. ‘60s vintage should have.

Years back, I owned a 2BSS - a 1993 100th anniversary model - that had no gold wash from the start.

I had an early 70s 3BSS I got from DJ that didn’t have the gold wash, but it had been refinished so I assumed they had just not bothered to redo it.

My 1965 2B SS had no gold wash. Was in as-new condition.

I have played several 2B and 3B SS with no gold wash inside the bell, so to me it seems there were deviations and inconsistencies all over the production line. The other possibility, is that there were some model variations within the SS-line of horns, and the top of the top models were gold plated, and the second tier were not.

....but I really don't know

FSBone58 wrote: Tue Jun 10, 2025 5:22 pm Should there be serial number on bell section and I’m just not seeing it?

Serial number is on the bell connection point, where the slide tenon goes in I believe.

Chemist speaking here: gold wash is a VERY thin layer of gold. It is made by rubbing the surface with a gold salt solution and allowing some gold to replace the silver. Overall thickness is on the order of a micron or so. Easily polished off. Also, thin layers of gold can dissolve into the silver in a solid state reaction over decades. With the thickness of a plating it won't be apparent, but with something as thin as a wash it could just have disappeared into the silver material.

Interesting, thanks for the info!
I’m still at a loss when looking for SN on bell section of my 3B.
It’s not there and no evidence that it has worn away or anything!?

My mid-60s 3B does not have a serial number on the bell, only on the inner and outer slide. The only way to date the bell section would be the engraving, I believe, and it wouldn't give you a specific year, just an era.

I think, as Bruce suggests, the gold wash has probably worn off. You don't see too many old H.N. White era silversonics with their gold wash these days.

Thanks Slide,
That is what I suspected!