Re: silver bugle horn


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Posted by Wade on November 02, 2003 at 13:05:54:

In Reply to: silver bugle horn posted by Anthony on November 01, 2003 at 22:19:12:

What you have is an old piston/rotor contrabass bugle that is pitched in G. It was most likely manufactured in the late 1960's, so it is quite far from an antique. And the finish is not silver. It is good old chrome, like a bumper from an old '69 Impala. Silver plate looks very different when you set the two side by side. And these instruments were never silver-plated. The vast majority were chromed, with a few being sold in plain old lacquered brass. In fact, the only examples of lacquered Ultratones that I ever personally saw were owned by the Bridgemen of Bayonne, NJ.

This thing is worth maybe $300 to $500 to a very small, non-DCI drum and bugle corps that might need an extra one in great shape. But piston/rotor G bugles were phased-out of use by the DCI Rules Committee years ago.

Since it is a bugle (meaning that it is not fully chromatic) it is essentially a white elephant: they are still fairly common, so any collectors can get them for about $150 dollars. And it is not a viable musical instrument, which makes it worth $0 to tubists.

While a very interesting thing to have and to play on, it is basically worthless.

Again, this is the value:

To a small corps: $300-$500
To a collector: $150-$200
To a tubist: $0

Sorry to be the bearer of mediocre tidings, but that is what you have and what it might be worth.

Wade "with all that chrome you could use it as a hood ornament" Rackley




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