PSH

Hey guys,

Can anyone give me a little info on the first horn I ever owned? It's a King Silvertone. It's in relatively good condition, and I may add some pictures later, but the markings on the bell are as follows:

King Silvertone
MADE BY
The H.N. White Co.
Cleveland
OHIO

On the 2nd valve casing, it says:

"King"
made by H.N. White Co.
Clev. OH

and the serial # is 273358

It's a nice looking horn. The bell is silver plated with a lot of designs engraved in it, and the rest of the horn is a gold lacquer finish.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

~Preston

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PSH

Cool website. As it turns out this horn was made in 1946-7. Sweet!

Thanks,

Preston

__________________
"Taxes, that's your real inalienable right!" -Wynton Marsalis

Zaraskabat

I'm sorry Preston, that horn is only worth about 20 bucks but I would be happy to take it off your hands....... Heh heh! Seriously, I envy you, I want one of those so much and they always go for more than I can afford every time I see one. One of these days I will get one though. I would love to see pics of her when you get them posted by the way. Here is another interesting King site you might enjoy:
Henderson N. White maker of King Band Instruments. The H. N. White Company.
Ken

PSH

I guess maybe it's value has gone down a bit. My dad paid $35 for it at a pawn shop. Which may have been a little much considering the bell was completely black, and none of the slides worked. But I feel I got my moneys worth. Unforunately the 3rd valve leaks and the lead pipe is a little bent . It just needs a little TLC I suppose. Where did you (Zaraskabat) happen to find out how much this horn is worth, by the way?

I'll get some pictures taken tomorrow!

~Preston

__________________
"Taxes, that's your real inalienable right!" -Wynton Marsalis

Zaraskabat

Preston, that was a joke, the 20 bucks comment. I have been watching the old silvertones sell on ebay for a while and they do tend to bring good prices. In fact I recently saw someone sell just the bell alone from a trumpet for more than I paid for some of my horns. The tarnished bell and the stuck slides are not a problem, the bell I think is silver on those, not plated brass, and should polish up very nicely. A shop can get the slides unstuck rather inexpensively. The bent leadpipe might be more costly but still not all that bad. What would get pricey is the valves. If you only paid 35 bucks for it, man, you got a deal in my opinion. You can see some good examples of the old King Silvertones being auctioned on Ebay, I happen to think they were some of the prettiest horns made, and some of the best sounding so I personally would have no hesitation spending good money restoring one, especially if I only paid 35 bucks for it in the first place.

I am a little confused with your initial post, is this a horn you just got and it is your first, or have you had it a long time? Because if you are new at owning a vintage horn, you might want to research a little before you do anything to it, for example if it needs to be buffed be very careful about who does the work, it is easy to remove too much of the metal, especially around the engraving. And the laquered part, you need to really think about why you would have anything done to that finish if you think it needs to be done, and what it will do to the value of the horn.

To get an idea what this horn is worth, just start searching for one as if you were looking to buy one. Go searching on ebay, check the classified ads here and on other trumpet forums, google it, I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

Ken

PSH

I guess I should work on recognizing sarcasm when I read it...haha.

I've had this horn for a while and it has since been restored. The bell polished up nicely and everything works fine. I think I'll just leave the lacquer how it is. It looks relatively good but there are a few spots where it doesn't exactly shine. It just needs a little fine tuning but otherwise I really like how it sounds. I have had it for a while,but wouldn't consider myself an expert in owning a vintage horn.

~Preston

__________________
"Taxes, that's your real inalienable right!" -Wynton Marsalis

Zaraskabat

Cool, I am no expert either, I just dabble. I hope you post a pic soon, I would love to see it!
Ken

PSH

So after a few days of digging around, I finally found the camera. Here's my cornet: the picture is attached. I hope it works. I'm not really sure I did it right.

Let me know what you think!

~Preston

Attached Images

DSCN2300.JPG (28.7 KB, 36 views)

__________________
"Taxes, that's your real inalienable right!" -Wynton Marsalis

Zaraskabat

Cool beans man! She is showing her age but she is still pretty in my book! About the only thing to top it would be a Silversonic, they made them babies so jazzy looking. I envy you that you still have your first horn, I wish now that I still had mine. It was a Getzen Super Deluxe cornet with a copper bell we bought new in 62 or so. I keep seeing them with brass bells but I have not seen one like mine yet. It is funny, at the time I traded her in I thought she was ugly, man was I dum!
Thanks for sharing her with us Preston,
Ken