Antique Musical Instruments/Elkhart built by Buescher

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Expert: - 1/22/2008


Question
I recent bought an old beat up trumpet. On the bell it says Elk Hart and had an elk head engraved on the bell. Below that is the inscription "Built by Buescher" Elkhart Ind. USA. The serial number is 53752. Above the serial # is say 37B. Can on the the experst give me some background and an approximate year this trumpet was built.

Answer
The Elkhart Band Instrument Company (not to be confused with the Elkhart Musical Instrument Co which was started by Gronert in 1912 and merged with Martin in 1917. ) was started in 1924 by Buescher President Andrew Beardsley.  After Beardsley's death in 1928, Elkhart Band Instrument company was merged into Buescher.  Elkhart used Bandmaster, Tempo and Windsor as tradenames.    Buescher  used Elkhart Band Inst as a trademark.

The Elkharts used a different serial number sequence than Buescher, and no serial number list exist of which I am aware.

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Kenton Scott

Expertise

Please note: My area is BRASS instruments, not other wind, string or percussion instruments. I will provide information on antique, obscure and out of production BRASS instruments. 1) Please don't ask for evaluations, I'll not provide them on this site. 2) I am often asked very similar questions, so I'd invite you to first check on Horn-u-Copia.net. Much of the information I have garnered about this topic, I have posted on this WEB site.

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I perform in several historical bands, have informally researched the area, repair brass instruments, and operate a Forum dedicated to the topic at http://horn-u-copia.net

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B.S. Ed, M.S.

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