1927 New York Bach Stradivarius Bb trumpet

New York  Bach Stradivarius "Faciebat Anno 1927" .462  Bb trumpet

We've had the pleasure to have had a number of early New York Bach trumpets pass through our hands.  Each one is  a work of art and a living piece of history.

Typically, the shop card provides the start of a road map to tell how the trumpet began, but in the 90+ years since these early Bach trumpets  were made, often there have been alterations or modifications.  In the case of this 99 year old Bach, the shop card provides few clues, but yet the instrument appears to be strikingly unmolested and retains all of its original parts.    The leadpipe is clean and clear but there is a area of red rot showing up on the inside radius of the tuning slide crook. 

The shop card only provides the bore size of .462, the leadpipe as #2, nickel slide and "Experimental".  There are no further clues on the shop card about what was "experimental" about this trumpet.  

The trumpet is stamped "ML" on the valve casing above the serial number, which does not seem to square with the .462 bore marking, but we have a 1928 Bach in our collection that has this same ML stamp and a .462 bore noted on that shop card, so while this seems odd, it isn't unique.   

As a player, it has a similar feel and sound to our 1928 Bach, which is a 6/6 model that became more common in this era.  

We've consulted with some vintage Bach experts and one of them had this to say: "I took a good look at the pictures. The bell on #542 is a #6. So with the shop card showing the #2 pipe, you've got a 2/6 combination.

That's a really interesting setup. The #2 is one of Bach's earliest leadpipe designs and was actually used on his first trumpet. The #6 bell is also one of his very early designs and comes out of the period when he was experimenting heavily with Besson influenced tapers. The 6/6 eventually became one of the better known early New York combinations, but this being a 2/6 makes it particularly interesting.

The shop card calling it experimental makes sense to me given how early it is and the combination of parts"

As a player, it has a similar feel and sound to our 1928 Bach, which is a 6/6 model that became more common in this era.  

The valves from this era were chrome plated and this appears to be the original plating.  The valve plating shows some wear, but the trumpet is playable and as with some other Bach trumpets from this era with chrome plated valves, we've experimented and found that Blue Juice gives the best results and will include a bottle with this trumpet. 

All parts appear to be original with matching serial numbers on the spring barrels, top caps, and valve stems.  

An early NY Bach 6 mouthpiece in very good condition is included.