Kanstul Brass Serial Numbers
Vintage Instruments can usually be dated by serial number. Trombones will have the serial number either on the back of the hand slide or on the neck receiver where it attaches to the handslide. Sometimes the serial number will be on both the handslide and the neck receiver. Vintage King Trombones, H.N. White Era will often have the serial number on the tuning slide, but not always. Here is what we have seen at our shop by brand/maker:
Conn (before 1970) Handslide Tennon below threads, outer handslide (lower outer tube at the top in back), No serial on Bell section, but model number is on bell. You can find more helpful information on the Conn Loyalist Website https://cderksen.home.xs4all.nl/ConnSerialsConnBrass.html
Vintage Instruments can usually be dated by serial number. Trombones will have the serial number either on the back of the hand slide or on the neck receiver where it attaches to the handslide. Sometimes the serial number will be on both the handslide and the neck receiver. Vintage King Trombones, H.N. White Era will often have the serial number on the tuning slide, but not always. Brass & Woodwinds Strings Percussion Marching Instruments Synthesizers & Music Production Tools Electronic Entertainment Instruments Audio & Visual.
King (Pre UMI Era) Outer handslide two places, below cross brace and lower cork barrel. Neck Receiver, Earlier models also tuning slide. Here is a website dedicated to King tromobones from the H.N. White era http://www.hnwhite.com/serial%20trombone.htm
Holton is usually on neck reciever. Holton Loyalist website: https://www.holtonloyalist.com/
Vincent Bach is on back of handslide cork barrel, earlier models also had on back of outer handslide, bell sections not serialized. Bach Loyalist https://www.bachloyalist.com/
This are the most commonly seen vintage brands, obviously not a complete list. We do keep an archive of sold instruments on our website here and try to photograph the serial numbers.
Kanstul Brass Serial Numbers Lookup
The Martin Companies
Frank Holton and Co.
Vincent Bach
Col. C.G. Conn & Co.
Harry Pedler Companies
Boston Musical Instrument Co.
Bohland&Fuchs stencils
Sistek Music and Cleveland
Ross Hickernell
F. Millard Company
Willard Bryant - Rex*
O.F. Berdan - Detroit
Connections Among Makers
Getzen History Chart
Fred Forman's cornet
Cold War Collectives
HN White - first for students
HN White's first cornet product
Study - Instrumental Inheritance (pdf)
Evolution of the Modern Trumpet (pdf)
Drum & Bugle Corps Origins
Birmingham [Mi] Bands (pdf)
Kanstul Brass Serial Numbers Manufacture
H.N. White Co's History of the Trumpet and Cornet (1924)
Jim Donaldson's biography of Renold Schilke at EverythingTrumpet.com
Niles Eldredge's Brief History of Piston Valved Cornets at Nick DeCarlis' VintageCornets.Com
Dale Olson's History of F.E. Olds at Robb Stewart's site
CG Conn History articles at the Conn Loyalist
Contempora Corner histories of F.A. /grammerly-app-mac-1095.html. Reynolds
Chris Charvat's HN White History
Woodwind & Brass Co (Britain) history of Antoine Cortois
Mitruolia/Myers The Distin Family
Robb Stewart's biography of Earl Williams
Jari Villenueva's History of Taps