Expert: Kenton Scott - 6/30/2008

Question
I recently purchased a sliver three valve baritone from an antique store. It is beat up quite a bit but for $43 I couldn't pass it up. It is silver and has slide extenders placed on the main tuning slides. The only marking on the horn itself are the ones on the valves to match them to their housings. The mouthpiece has "Al-tru" on it as well as "York B.I.C.O" I would like to at least know the age and possibly what level horn it as. Any other information also would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer
Sorry, but you can't tell the brand of a horn, by the mouthpiece that is in it.  Mouthpieces get swapped around all the time.  

If you want to send pictures to me at kenton@punxypa.com I might be able to give you a rough idea of how old it is.  But, otherwise it would be difficult to say beyond asserting that it is no newer than the 1st quarter of the 20th century.