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J. W. York & Sons Model 70 Trumpet |
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J. W. York & Sons Length = 19-3/8" My first vintage horn was a York cornet found at a yard sale, so seeing this trumpet with its silver and gold finish reminded me of that. When the opportunity comes along to buy a near mint original horn with all its accessories, I hate to pass it up. This one had a beautiful satin-silver plating and only needed a few minor dings removed. This must have been used very little and the only repair needed was to re-mount the rear Bb/A stop rod holder.
Here's the 1925 catalog page for the Metropolitan models. The only difference is that mine has a rod on the tuning slide for a quick change to A.
Every item on the equipment list from 1925 was included - even the spare valve springs!
This is the first mute that I have ever seen with a matching bag. They did this since there is no space designed into the case for the mute. The bag allows you to tuck it in next to the bell.
Even the mute has the frosted silver finish.
I wish all second slides were this well protected. So many get damaged over the years.
For a trumpet this pristine, it's surprising that the plating is worn off the valve stems.
1925 York mouthpiece. All trumpets came with two sizes.
Not sure what the leather loop was for on the lid.
After playing this a few times, I decided to switch the valve springs to the NOS pair in the case. I also cleaned the valves and ports because I had really done nothing to this when I bought it. Now the valves are super-smooth and quiet!
I also experimented with a new silver-plating kit that I bought from Caswell. The valve stems now look like new again and this plating kit works really well for small touch-up areas like this.
Now comes the most incredible coincidence that I may ever find! A year later I was checking out instruments on Etsy and saw the same model trumpet. Much to my surprise, not only was it the same model but exactly one digit lower in serial number! This one was in the Rochester, NY area and the other one came from south of Buffalo. These could have travelled many places in the past 99 years, but it's possible they were both originally sold to a dealer in Western New York. Here they are together again. #80972 is on the top and missing the stop rod.
After many hours of cleaning and polishing, here they are together. Both are in excellent condition, yet the top one was used a lot more and seems to have lost the original frosted finish to handling and polishing. Both play exellent. The top one is 80972, has an added pinky hook, and has lost part of the stop rod for Bb/A.
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