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Greetings,

I have what is probably a really dumb question but please bear with me. How do you identify the model of a Besson Euphonium. I know there are Sovereigns, and Prestige's, and Imperials and I don't think I have any of those. As a matter of fact, mine says nothing on the bell other than the following:

50 Medals of Honor
Besson
(there is a "Star" here)
London-Paris-New York
Made in England

It is a Silver 4 valve compensating instrument. The serial number is 573XXX. Valves 1-3 have a different valve cap than the 4th, which has the cone shaped cap. Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks,
James

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/media/_file/b ... pdf#page23

tells the year of manufacture to be 1975.

That is after the introduction of the Sovereign line, but before 1979 when some weird crossover models between the Besson New Standard and the Boosey & Hawkes Imperial lines were seen.

I never saw a Besson instrument that originally came with a mix of plain and cone shaped valve buttons. As far as I can see your instrument has the valve caps usually seen with the cone shaped buttons, so your 3 top buttons likely are replacements.

To me your instrument looks like being a Besson New Standard, which was one if the parallel top lines until the introduction of the Sovereign line around 1970. The other top line was the Boosey & Hawkes Imperial.

Klaus