James,
I don't know if you caught this, but I thought I would repost it.
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Back in January I received a very detailed answer to the question, "How have Bach Strad. trumpets changed over the years?", from Daniel C. Oberloh of Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works. I thought you folks might find it interesting.
"Early differences are the nickel hex braces, this changed in around 1940
to what we are familiar with today. The next was the master tuning slide
crook in the early 50's which was made wider on later instruments made
in the Mt. Vernon shop after 1955. The first obvious change Selmer made
was the rim of the bell in 1965. Elkhart bells have a round bead
compared to the 1964 and earlier models that have the traditional French
half round bead. The major changes made were in the early 70's. The
first was in the way the bells were manufactured. Instead of the
traditional funnel shape or fan pattern they used a newly developed
flower shape that simplified the forming process and required a
completely different approach to shaping the flair. Selmer Changed the
way bells were bent in around 1973 using a frozen soap filler instead of
alloy material of pitch. Around 1974 the valve casings were made in one
piece construction instead of two, this was when the nickel-silver
spring barrels ceased to exist on the lacquer instruments. These chances
were made for the most part to increase production and boy did it. In a
publication an interview with Mr. Bach stated that in his nearly forty
years of making instruments (1924-1960) he made no more then 5500
cornets and trumpets total. I have been unable to verify this but I
would not be surprised if it was in deed the case. With changes in
production technique the units manufactured grew by leaps and bounds.
From 1924-1960 serial numbers reached around 20,000 by 1970 they were over 60,000, 1980 over 200,000 they are now well past 500,000. So, with the manufacturing changes made, the actual shape is for the most part the same but the construction, though contentious in my opinion is considerably different then that employed during the time in NewYork. I
hope this answers some of your question."
- Daniel C. Oberloh
http://www.oberloh.com
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Greg