u/Manuel_the_Redeemer

It started out innocently enough. I went into my local music shop to pick up a horn they had repaired. As I was checking out, Stephen, the tech, casually mentioned, “Oh, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve got something I want you to see.”

Thirty minutes later, my credit card was cooling off and I was the owner of a 1935 Bach Stradivarius cornet, finish 5½, gold plated and elaborately engraved, complete in its original case. Along with it came the guarantee certificate personally signed by Vincent Bach, a copy of the shop card, and an original 1935 Bach sales brochure.

 

To make it even better, I was able to speak with the previous owner and learn the instrument’s history from new. It originally sold to a professional musician in Zurich in 1935. He kept it until the early 1950s, when he sold it to another Swiss musician. I bought it from that man’s son, who is an engineer and an amateur trumpet player.

 

The shop card says the finish started out as a 5, quadruple gold plated, but at some point that was upgraded to a heavily engraved 5½. The engraving was done at the factory – the style is completely correct for a factory job. The condition is almost perfect; some minor finish wear around the valves, but no dents and no restoration. The mouthpiece is unusual: it’s a gold-plated New York Bach, stamped simply “SPECIAL.”

This is my oldest Bach instrument, and my only example from the "Faciebat Anno" period. It's a New York Bach, serial number 542. The early shop card lists it as an experimental model, pipe 2. In his book Vincent Bach and his Trumpets, Ron Berndt indicates that the bell is an experimental type, while the shop card mentions the nickel slides. I have been told by a Bach expert that this horn was actually built in 1926 and was one of Vincent Bach's shop horns until he sold it in 1927. This is certainly possible - in this period, he left the last digit in the date off until he actually sold the horn, and he routinely sold his personal and experimental horns as new when he was ready to get rid of them. I have not seen any documentation to support the 1926 date, but it fits the narrative. I was surprised by the way it plays - it sounds, well, like a Bach Stradivarius. It may be a century old, but it is unmistakably a Strad. It would fit in just fine with a modern Bach section.

My latest addition to the collection is a 1938 Olds Military Model cornet, serial no. 4902. I purchased this horn from a local collector. '38 is pretty late for an Olds Military, and this horn is slightly out of the ordinary because it has a smooth lacquered bell instead of the hammered brass that was standard for the Military Models. The smooth bell was a catalog option on this model. It's in surprisingly nice condition, especially since as far as I can tell it's never been refinished. The rather beat up Olds deluxe leather case has done a good job of protecting this horn. The mouthpiece that came with it is an Olds 12, which is the most common cornet mouthpiece of the first generation of Olds tulip mouthpieces. I assume that it's original to the horn - in any case it's what Olds would have supplied with this cornet as new. The Military Model trumpet is known for its very bright, highly directional sound. I've found the cornets to be less extreme - no one is going to mistake this for a British Shepherd's Crook cornet, but I find the sound to be very similar to the Olds Super cornet of the same era, and it's perfectly useable in an ensemble situation today. Of course, it will peel the paint off the far wall if that's what you want, but it will equally well sing with the choir when that's what is required. This is my second Military cornet - I also have a 1934 with the hammered bell, and they sound very similar.