eclipse trumpets

Please can someone tell me why there was a period when bach did not specify the model type on the mount vernon bachs?

Regards

Leigh

lonelyangel

Hi Leigh - I am not an expert on Bach but I seem to remember being told that when Bach began making trumpets they were all custom built. Eventually the most popular or most pleasing combinations of bore, leadpipe and bell flare were asigned model numbers. I don't know but maybe the model numbers emerged after the time that Bach moved to Mount Vernon.

The ubiquitous ML37 refers to the number 37 bell (which apparently was the 37th bell shape that Bach tested) which comes with, I think, a 25 lead pipe as standard (again the 25 lead pipe was the 25th taper that he produced. As you can see this would indicate a fairly lenghty period of R&D or trial and error to arrive at a winning combination - something that I appreciate you know all about.

I am sure there are some Bachophiles out there who can put me straight if I am way off the mark here (Romey 1, are you out there?).

See you on Friday. Noel.

PS Are you going to post any of those photos you took yesterday?

Sol

Even though the bell numbers weren't always stamped on the Mt. Vernons, that doesn't mean that certain bell sizes weren't used. For example, I have a Mt. Vernon from 1956. ML is stamped on the valve casing, but the bell isn't stamped with a number. I know that the horn has a 43 bell since I got a hold of the instrument's shop card (photocopy) from the factory. I don't know why the bells weren't always stamped, though.