Nirschl B300
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I'm new to the forum and was wondering if anyone had more information about a trumpet I just bought on eBay. I didn't pay much ($275) and I think it's about 12 or 13 years old. I think it was designed in. Germany, manufactured in Taiwan and assembled in Elkhart. Has a one-piece bell and great valves. Silver plated and a bit heavy. Thanks for any info you may have.
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Nothing about it looks familiar to me, but there is a pretty darn good factory in Taiwan that makes horns for Carol Brass and for Austin Custom Brass. I own a Manchester Brass Professional Bb custom made for Trent Austin's shop and it is a dandy, so don't be concerned that it was made in Taiwan. Looking at it I'd say it is probably a student horn.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirschl
It is not even a shadow of the former company. These horns have nothing to do with the Nirschl quality from Germany. They can still be OK, at least as OK as China, India and Brazil produce.
The Meister can be found here:
http://www.walternirschl.de/sites/home.html -
"Designed in Germany" or "German Design" is about the same as saying, "my ancestors are from Germany, but I was born in the USA, my parents were born in the USA, my grandparents were born in the USA." It doesn't mean much.
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I was told by the seller that he was the second owner and bought the trumpet in 2010 for $700. I was told by another person that the trumpet listed for $1800 but sold for about $1200. Funny that the bell has Geretsried/Elkhart engraved under the name W. Nirschl. For what it's worth I've owned several nice horns including a 1962 Conn Constellation and a nice Bach student horn. This horns plays and sounds good. Thanks for all the replies.
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@ras100 said in Nirschl B300:
I was told by the seller that he was the second owner and bought the trumpet in 2010 for $700. I was told by another person that the trumpet listed for $1800 but sold for about $1200. Funny that the bell has Geretsried/Elkhart engraved under the name W. Nirschl. For what it's worth I've owned several nice horns including a 1962 Conn Constellation and a nice Bach student horn. This horns plays and sounds good. Thanks for all the replies.
The main thing is that it plays well. Everything else only matters when it comes to resale value.
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Here's a bit from the web:
https://www.guitarcenter.com/W-Nirschl/B-300-Series-Bb-Trumpet.gcThat word "Geretsried" is a very good indication that its manufacture may be connected to the Miraphone company which is the only musical instruments company in the small town of Geretsried.
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Ok, here's further information. Walter Nirschl - yes, he's still in business! - is a craftsman who got into difficulties and then put his workshop under the umbrella of bm symphonic, the parent company of Miraphone and a few other brands. During the first years of his cooperation with bm symphonic, he was a part-time employee of bm and put together some top-intermediate trumpets getting the parts from a variety of sources and just putting them together and getting in the finishing touches. Until very recently, he specialized on professional low brass, mostly with rotaries, and produced one model of rotary Bb, the "Model Uwe Komischke", named after a Munich-based professional trumpet player and professor (who, by this time, has switched over to Dowids). The "Elkhart" stamp was put on for a bit of customs and tax evasion... after finishing, they took out the valve cylinders and sent trumpet bodies and valve cylinders in separate packages, to be re-united in Elkhart, thus making both packages "unfinished goods" which at the time incurred less import duties than finished trumpets. And of course, "made in Elkhart" still has a good sound in the US...
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Many thanks for the research. I didn't buy the trumpet for resale - just looking for a decent instrument to hack around at home. I had some trouble with the Nirschl 3C and 3E mouthpieces so I picked up a Bach 7C mouthpiece which I used to use 100 years ago as a student and it made a big difference in sound and range. If I give up the trumpet again I'll bring it into my local school band department and donate it to a worthy young student. Meant to up load the picture of the bell so here it is.
