Antique Musical Instruments/Boston Musical Instrument--tuba

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Expert: - 6/4/2010


Question
I have an E Flat tuba with 4 valves, string actuated.(Boston Musical Instrument)  I am unable to find a serial number anywhere on the instrument.  Is there a particular place I should be looking, or is it possible this was made before numbers were common.  I would like to determine it's age.

Answer
Yes, it is possible that it was made before they started putting on serial numbers.  Boston was started in 1969, and the serial number chart for them starts with 1880 with the number 6200.  It is unclear to me whether they started with 6200 or whether they started numbering before 1880.  I've not seen any of their instruments with a lower serial number however.

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

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

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