Expert: Kenton Scott - 2/19/2010

Question
I recently bought a very nice (10-20 year old reconditioning my guess) Buescher True Tone 4 valve Euphonium, serial# 44644, which I think dates it to 1918.  It plays fairly well, but it has some intonation problems.  That doesn't matter too much, I love playing it, and am madly in love with the old thing.  I am very curious about how rare this old thing might be.  I have read all I can find about Gus Buescher and his company.  A lot of people are nuts about Buescher saxes, but I can find very little about their euphoniums.  Do you have any idea how many Buescher euphoniums were made, especially before the 1963 sale to Selmer, if not before the 1926 sale to Elkhart?  Do ya think that Conn-Selmer have kept any of the old Buescher production records?  Are there any books or other resourses that you know of about Buescher?  Any information would be appreciated.  Many thanks!

Answer
It sounds like you have done good research already. But you might want to check out this old catalog, if you missed it:   http://www.horn-u-copia.net/books/Buescher%201909.pdf

Generally the old records were not considered valuable and were discarded.  I would presume that would be the case for the old Buescher records.