| Hey!
Well, I was a freshman when I stumbled upon this horn. At the time I was playing a Jupiter student horn (amazing player for what was expected from it), but this "beauty" just caught my eye. Yeah; it was black, dented, and in a smelly, immitation aligator-skin case, but something between it and I clicked. I loved it, and it was only $90. Yeah, first impulses...after more than $600 of fine tuning, but mostly a valve overhaul on all three valves (the valves were leaky and missing the last coat of nickel which aparently was never put on), I had a very nice and good playing horn. It was of .440 bore and had a 4.5" bell, small and comparable to other horns of it's age. Other than that, I had no other info on the horn.
Circled in a highly-detailed ingraving were the words: Cleveland Musical Instr. Co. Clev,d O. After more searching, I came upon the HN White site and found a bit more on the company. From what is said, my horn's company was only in buisness for a few years before being taken over by Mr. White's company because of lack of money to keep running (probably why my horn's valves were missing a coat). During that short amount of time, estimated in 1923, my horn was manufactured. After I had it polished up and the tarnish removed, the horn turned out to be a satin silver finished horn, with bright silver accenting, especially on the engraving. It also had a gold-wash bell and was tunable in the keys of Bb and A.
From further investigation from several repair shops and Anderson Silver Plating, it was decided that my horn was a pro model and that it was a good find because of that. I played on it for two years and then purchased a new Strad. My old horn didn't have rings or saddles for tuning the slides, and the bore was much too small to really use in these modern days. Though that is true, I plan on using it to march with, and I definately shall never sell it.
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Bach Strad 72*
Bach Strad 43*
Marcinkiewicz 11 mpc. |