Antique Musical Instruments/antique buscher clarinet

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Expert: - 6/15/2006


Question
Hello Kenton..i have an old wooden buescher clarinet that i got when i was in 5th grade ...that was 45 years ago....the only numbers i could find on it were E 5399...it does not have any model name on it that i can find...it needs new pads but not sure i want to go to expense...would you have any idea what my clarinet is worth or how i could find out?  thank you for your time....dana

Answer
Dana

I know more about brass than woodwinds, but did look at a Buescher serial number chart.  All of the numbers were just straight numbers.  None started with an E. If you ignore the E then the number would place it in 1905.  Is it possible that the E is and 8 or some other number?  If it were an 8 for example that would bring it up to 1921.

The old Bueschers were known to be quality instruments.  So, I would suspect that this clarinet may be as well.  

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.

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.

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