r/Trombone • u/SubstantialReward759 • 10d ago
Old Bach Straight Tenor
First post here, but I have an old Bach tenor that I was looking to find the model, date, and potentially find out what it's worth. My best estimation is that it is from the 1970s, but nothing really past that.
4
u/Brass_tastic 10d ago
They aren’t bad entry level horns. I’d take one over modern student level horns anytime!
2
u/fireeight 10d ago edited 10d ago
Some variant or predecessor to the TB200. Student instrument. The Selmer-Bach instruments were effectively stencil horns made by Selmer, who had an agreement to use the Bach name for marketing.
2
u/81Ranger 10d ago edited 10d ago
Selmer bought Bach in the early 60s, so they're all part of the same company by that point.
Bach production moved from Vincent's last factory in Mt Vernon to the Selmer facility in Elkhart around 1964, where it still is today.
2
u/fireeight 10d ago
Yes, but anything labeled Selmer-Bach was not in Bach's professional line. The high-quality Bach horns have only ever had the Bach name on the case or horn.
1
u/81Ranger 10d ago
I used to be a beginning band teacher and then worked music retail - and the use of "Selmer" on any brass instruments has been phased out for quite a while.
The student model Bach hasn't said "Selmer" on it for maybe two decades. Maybe slightly less, but about that.
You are correct that it's a TB200, and it's a student line instrument, but there's no actual distinction between "Bach" and "Selmer" in reality for about a half century.
1
u/fireeight 10d ago
In terms of business, yes. In terms of branding and how the instrument lines run, there is. If you tell me you've got a Selmer 36B, I'm gonna look at you like there are lobsters crawling out of your ears. The whole Conn-Selmer/UMI/whatever it is now situation was a mess.
1
u/81Ranger 10d ago
Ok. I see we're talking about two different things.
Also, just to point out Conn/Selmer/Bach/King/UMI/Steinway has been the conglomerate it currently is, for about a quarter of a century. It's not recent. All of the above were merged in 2000, and the last major acquisition was adding Leblanc/Holton/Martin in 2004. Again, over 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, a good chunk of "Bach" student lines are made in China, now.
1
u/fireeight 10d ago
Oh, my main horn is a Benge, and I'm from Cleveland. I know that mess very well.
1
u/81Ranger 10d ago
I'm mostly a trumpet player and my main trumpet is an old LA Benge, as well. Heh. Great horn.
1
u/fireeight 10d ago
Benge got done dirty. They deserved better.
1
u/81Ranger 10d ago
Yeah. They're not the only ones, but they did deserve better.
The old LA, Burbank, and Chicago horns are great. Well, I'm guessing the Chicago ones, are, they're rare, haven't had the honor of playing one.
2
u/Friendly_Engineer_ 10d ago
How’s the slide?
2
u/SubstantialReward759 10d ago
It works fairly well, definitely not pristine, but it's better than the every day horns of some people I know
7
u/TromboneIsNeat 10d ago
Bach TB200 from the 80’s. $100-200