Velvetone Baritone anyone ever heard of this?

tubaplyer · Post by **tubaplyer** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:17 pm

Just bought one and wanted to know what I am getting my self into

thanks
A

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:58 pm

What does the engraving on the bell say exactly?

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:19 am

Looks like it says "Velvetone"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 7424367084

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:06 am

I think the old silver 'Velvetone' clarinets were made in Italy. Wasn't 'Velvetone' a name that one of the big chain stores sold under? IE... Montgomery Ward or someone like that? Maybe the 'Velvetone' line of instruments were made by multiple companies and just sold under that name.

tubaplyer · Post by **tubaplyer** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:11 am

Seriously anyone know?
I have not recieved it yet and I wanted to get a head start on what to expect

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:49 am

the elephant wrote:I think that Dan is correct. I think that this brand was the stencil for a mail order catalogue company like Wards. It was not Sears, which used a different name.

Wards was "Silvertone" and "Concertone", wasn't it?

Anyone with a Langwill's out there?

Al · Post by Al » Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:12 pm

Silvertone was the Sears brand name for instruments. I had a trumpet from the '60s that was truly awful.

Al

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:19 pm

Al wrote:Silvertone was the Sears brand name for instruments. I had a trumpet from the '60s that was truly awful.

Sears and Wards both used the "Silver" word--I think Wards used "Silver tone" and Sears used "silvertone". Sears also imported Tourville instruments, many of which were made by Bohland and Fuchs and were pretty good.

imperialbari · Post by **imperialbari** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:10 pm

Stencil patterns may be very hard to trace, as they never are dictated by musical parameters, but only by economical dittos.

I dare to differ with Joe S in his assumption of this instrument having Czech roots. I would also with some assurance say, that it doesnâ€™t come out of any of the post-WWII German nations.

The leadpipe has a sway to it before entering the tuning slide, which I donâ€™t remember having seen in Czech/German instruments. Until the wall-fall anything piston valved coming out of Warsaw-Pact countries was made to the cheapest possible standards with the avoidance of any production steps adding costs. They didnâ€™t play these instruments themselves (their tradition was all rotary). These instruments were sold to Western Europeans schools and kidâ€™s parade bands going really cheap. We also were poor in post-war Western Europe. We rarely had school related bands like in the US. Our bands more often were organised like the US drum&bugle corpses (pun intended!) or part of Christian youth organisations (Iâ€™m a product of the latter form).

From my experience I would say that this instrument doesnâ€™t come out of Belgium or the Netherlands either.

I cannot tell, whether it is French or Italian. Though I lean towards the latter option.

B&H/Besson had their 4th line instruments made in Czechoslovakia. Only with their rotary French horns they had outsourced their top lines to Markneukirchen in GDR or Brno in Moravia. Against every economical likelihood the UK was flooded with low-end Italian made compensating double horns branded Anborg. Even the name is unlikely, as it rather belongs to Norwegian, Swedish, or my own language.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre