You are here:

Antique Musical Instruments/trombone: Silvertone - made in Elkhart

Advertisement

Expert: - 9/29/2009


Question

Silvertone
Hi Kenton,  
I recently picked up a horn with the Stencil "Silvertone" and "made in elkhart" on it.  It has straight braces, no logo of any sort on the counterweight, appears to have a slightly smaller bell than my King 606, and is mostly lacquered (some parts nickel-silver).  In spite of the abuse that it's seen it plays decently and sounds 'obviously' better than my King.  I'm thinking of having the BAChorn Doctor overhaul it eventually. I think it'll make a great small bore jazz horn.

All of my research points to it being made by either Buescher or Conn in the 60's or prior and resold by either Sears or Montgomery Wards.  Can you give me any insight on which/who made it and possibly when they stopped making this model.  It has a lovely stencil on it.  I'm attempting to attach a pic of the stencil on the bell.

Thanks for any info!
Jonathan

Answer
It seems as though the likely candidates are Conn, Buescher and Blessing.  I have never seen anything beyond speculation on which factory Sears instruments came from.  And, possibly they weren't limited to just one maker.  It is also unclear whether Sears simply re-branded horns made by foreign and domestic makers or whether they provided specs that the maker then needed to follow.  Generally, the term stencil refers to a horn marketed by one company but made by another.  The bell logo is generally called an engraving.  Sears seems to have discontinued using Silvertone as a brand around 1973.

Well, I'm not sure this is the best way to do this, but Jonathan, would you care to share the URL of your WEB page?  Others may be interested.
    Questioner's Rating
    Rating(1-10)Knowledgeability = 10Clarity of Response = 10Politeness = 10
    CommentWow...that was a quick response! It's a hard horn to find info on. Yup, I was pretty sure my research had been thorough. If you happen to come across any info on this in the future please feel free to drop me a note. I intend on posting as much info on this horn as I can accumulate on my website/blog (including references). Thanks! Jonathan


  • Add to this Answer
  • Ask a Question

Antique Musical Instruments

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

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.

Experience

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

Education/Credentials
B.S. Ed, M.S.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.