Very Early Bach C Trumpet
Here's another case of "What were they thinking?". Previous
owners had no idea that this Bach Bb trumpet had started its life
as a C trumpet. It must have made sense to somebody sometime
to convert this trumpet rather than buy a used Bundy for their
kid. As painful as the starting point is for me, I really enjoy this
sort of challenge. I had worked on Bach C trumpets #145 and
150 previously and numerous early Bb trumpets, so I am very
familiar with Bach's designs from that time. The goal, obviously
is to bring it back, as close as possible to how it was originally
built. I was able to make a mouthpipe that was close to the
original dimensions and making the receiver, brace and ferrules
was more straightforward. At first examination, it wasn't very
clear which bits of tubing were from the original trumpet and
which were replacements but once everything was disassembled,
it was much easier to determine. The tuning crook, waterkey,
finger hook and ring, diagonal braces, caps, stems, buttons and
most of the ferrules were original, so my starting point wasn't all
bad. The bell took some detective work. One of the confusing
facts is that a number of the early C trumpets were rebuilt by
Bach with later, longer bells. By carefully comparing
measurements with other Bach C trumpets and studying the
taper of this one, it became clear that it was the original short bell
with a section added in the obvious spot. Removing the large
ferrules from the bell taper was more difficult that would be
expected. The guy that lengthened the bell first attempted to
silver solder the section in place. When that failed, he cut the
bell at one of those joints and slipped the two ferrules over to
cover his mess. The ragged ends of the break could not be
reattached with silver solder so I had to resort to another ferrule
joining the bell and creating the correct length. In the end result,
that ferrule is the only clue to the horror that this trumpet has
experienced. The valves needed plating and refitting which
brought this great old Bach C trumpet back to its exceptional
playability.
owners had no idea that this Bach Bb trumpet had started its life
as a C trumpet. It must have made sense to somebody sometime
to convert this trumpet rather than buy a used Bundy for their
kid. As painful as the starting point is for me, I really enjoy this
sort of challenge. I had worked on Bach C trumpets #145 and
150 previously and numerous early Bb trumpets, so I am very
familiar with Bach's designs from that time. The goal, obviously
is to bring it back, as close as possible to how it was originally
built. I was able to make a mouthpipe that was close to the
original dimensions and making the receiver, brace and ferrules
was more straightforward. At first examination, it wasn't very
clear which bits of tubing were from the original trumpet and
which were replacements but once everything was disassembled,
it was much easier to determine. The tuning crook, waterkey,
finger hook and ring, diagonal braces, caps, stems, buttons and
most of the ferrules were original, so my starting point wasn't all
bad. The bell took some detective work. One of the confusing
facts is that a number of the early C trumpets were rebuilt by
Bach with later, longer bells. By carefully comparing
measurements with other Bach C trumpets and studying the
taper of this one, it became clear that it was the original short bell
with a section added in the obvious spot. Removing the large
ferrules from the bell taper was more difficult that would be
expected. The guy that lengthened the bell first attempted to
silver solder the section in place. When that failed, he cut the
bell at one of those joints and slipped the two ferrules over to
cover his mess. The ragged ends of the break could not be
reattached with silver solder so I had to resort to another ferrule
joining the bell and creating the correct length. In the end result,
that ferrule is the only clue to the horror that this trumpet has
experienced. The valves needed plating and refitting which
brought this great old Bach C trumpet back to its exceptional
playability.
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