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Antique Musical Instruments/The Indiana B-flat Trumpet Elkhart Indiana

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Expert: - 7/5/2007


Question
I have a  B flat Trumpet I think it was manufactured before 1952. It has the words The Indiana Elkhart Indiana
on the Bell I can not find a serial number on it where would I look for the serial number and  who would be the manufacturer of this instrument and what would have been the years it could of been made.

Answer
The Indiana Company was started in 1938 by the Martin Company but allowed them to operate independently until 1942.  After that the Indiana was a student line for Martin.

The serial number lists for Martin are sketchy and I've never learned whether they used the same serial number scheme for the Indiana products or not.  So, finding the serial number will not do much good.  However, they are normally on either the 2nd valve casing or the bell engraving on most instruments.  

Antique Musical Instruments

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Kenton Scott

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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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