Antique Musical Instruments/Identifying a Martin trumpet

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Expert: - 4/9/2008


Question
Hello, I found a Martin trumpet in an attic. It is silver plate, has fancy engraving on the bell which includes "the Martin band inst. co. Elkhart In. in the center. On the palm side of the valves and "M" is stamped. The serial # is 14563. The largest slide is interesting in that it has two sections that slide out, an inside section and then a section at the end. This slide has the only spit valve on the horn. Why would they have a 2 section slide? Is this a standard or student trumpet? Thanks!

Answer
That is an old one.  It dates to between 1906 and 1919.  It would be a professional level instrument.  The two section slide is to give the horn a wider pitch range that it could be played in. It is likely that it could be played in A to C. You would take the middle section out to play it in C, and with both sections for the other pitches.  

Antique Musical Instruments

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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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