B&S Trumpets
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Any experience with them? Bought one on GS tonight, and it appears to be a Strad clone. I see some online discussions where they compare pretty straight forward with them. Looking forward to getting this one.
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Great horns - we just got a bunch in. I wouldn’t really call them Strad clones as they have their own playing characteristics. I’m rather fond of the Challenger II models we have - excellent all-around horns that would work in about any situation.
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B & S is one of those companies that make a "better Bach." Their rotaries aren't bad, either.
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Not a lot on the Internet on them. I am assuming this horn is B&S simply because the letters were on the number on the lead pipe, and others were bidding on it. It has s 3rd valve slide stop screw similar to older Yamaha trumpets. Not the nuts like a Strad.
It may be an early B&S? I either got a steal or i made GW wealthy and got a Trumpet shaped object;)
Here are the before pics
I think its decent quality. it is a silver finish , not a chrome one;) Let me know. Will post after photos later.
Seems well built. Survived getting slides unstuck.
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All that tarnish was a clue to the silver finish. Cleaned up nicely.
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I assume by the lack of responses it might not be a B&S horn and no one wants to make fun of me for paying too much? LOL!
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B&S is a well known German company in a traditional brass making region in Germany on the Czech border. They are very serious about what they do.
B&S stands for Blas und Signalinstrumentenfabrik = Wind and fanfare instrument company. They have been around for a ling time.
I consider the Challenger series NOT to be the best horns that they build, but to be the better Bach trumpets.
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Is it a B&S? Maybe - not sure. Did you pay too much? No idea - don’t know what you paid! One sign that it could be a B&S is if it has a serial under the mouthpipe- that’s the true serial and not the number on the valve block. Between that and your model number you may have more to research with. Hope it plays well for you!
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Thanks for the reply! one of those pics has the serial number on the leadpipe, did you see the pics? There is no other writing, even on the bell. In case you can't see pics, number on leadpipe is 955BS1102
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@N1684T On a B&S, that is the spot for the model, the serial would be on the underside. I would post a pic of one of ours, but I’m not at work. I’ll see if I have a moment to take one tomorrow.
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After reading so many hallelujah stories about B&S trumpets I had to give that brand a try.
Mod. 3137 Challenger I: Bach 180/37 copy. A well made horn, good valves but the sound didn't even come close to my old Elkhart Bach 180/37. Sold it to a German guy
Mod. MBX. 72-ish bell, ml. bore, l leadpipe and tuning slide. Good sounding horn but to me way too heavy. I traded this one in for a Yamaha 8130 Z. The latter was way easier to play for me
Mod. eXquisite Malcolm McNab. Copy of his old m-bore Vincent Bach Stradivarius. This one I ordered from Thomann; in 2009 they where the only shop who had them in stock. Beautiful made instrument but for me so hard to play that I was glad that I could return it. The m-bore Conn 22B 'Victor' turned out to be a way better match, that one I played for years until I exchanged her for a Getzen Eterna
At least I gave it a try but I.ll have to say that to me the B&S trumpets where one big disappointment
Getzen, Conn, Melody Maker and -too- many Warburton pieces
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@Dirk020 said in B&S Trumpets:
After reading so many hallelujah stories about B&S trumpets I had to give that brand a try.
Mod. 3137 Challenger I: Bach 180/37 copy. A well made horn, good valves but the sound didn't even come close to my old Elkhart Bach 180/37. Sold it to a German guy
Mod. MBX. 72-ish bell, ml. bore, l leadpipe and tuning slide. Good sounding horn but to me way too heavy. I traded this one in for a Yamaha 8130 Z. The latter was way easier to play for me
Mod. eXquisite Malcolm McNab. Copy of his old m-bore Vincent Bach Stradivarius. This one I ordered from Thomann; in 2009 they where the only shop who had them in stock. Beautiful made instrument but for me so hard to play that I was glad that I could return it. The m-bore Conn 22B 'Victor' turned out to be a way better match, that one I played for years until I exchanged her for a Getzen Eterna
At least I gave it a try but I.ll have to say that to me the B&S trumpets where one big disappointment
Actually, the analysis of what went wrong is a bit different. We are creatures of habit. If we have something much different than what we are used to, there is a necessary period to acclimate - which can be months. Naturally when we are looking for a new horn, this makes "change" not so easy or economically feasible. In this case you were disappointed - and understandably so, but at the end of the day we do not know if it was the instrument or an inner unwillingness to change. This is exactly the point that screws a lot of peoples lives up. Projection of fault. We do not know if a "problem" is hardware or software. To test this concept, take your best playing horn and play it in a church with good acoustics, in a bedroom, outdoors near a lake, in a bathroom and take notes about the blow and feel. It will be 4 different instruments - with the only difference how you hear yourself. Another test is to insert earplugs when playing - we hear ourselves worse and the trumpet gets "stuffier".
Now we can argue that an instrument with "inferior response" is not one that we should buy - but sometimes we are so influenced by the factor blow that we ignore many other parameters that could expand our playing. Anyone that tries a very heavy trumpet like a Monette or Harrelson needs time to get the ears and brain organised.
My personal rule of thumb is to never buy anything unless I can clearly and rationally define what is missing from what I am using. That guided me from Bach to Schilke and then finally Monette mouthpieces.
My trumpets each have a defined palette of colors for specific playing jobs.
