Posted by A Liberty No 2 ?? on November 14, 2003 at 18:24:02:
In Reply to: Question about a trumpet....... posted by Matt on November 14, 2003 at 17:58:44:
How old is this trumpet? I have a 1937-ish King Liberty No. 2 (NOT Liberty 2B), which is a medium bore horn with a dual main slide arrangement. One part pulls out all the way, the other part doesn't (there's a nut that can be loosened to get it out)
You can check on e-bay to see if there are any for sale and what they're worth. I picked mine up as a potential jazz horn for my daughter for around $100 a few years ago. Case was in fair shape, the horn was like new -- no a single dent, no laquer wear, and valves that looked they'd never been played.
As a trumpet, it was reasonably in tune, but relatively hard to blow because of the smallish (medium .448") bore, which was typical in the 1930's. The medium large (ML) (.458 - .460) bore that's standard to day was uncommon before WWII and even into the '50s, and larger bore horns (.463 and larger) were rare. So, modern players generally don't like, and don't play the older trumpets the way many tuba players like to play old tubas. Before the 50s, many jazz players used medium bore horns, as did most players. By the mid-50s, many jazz lead players were using medium large and large bore horns, such as the Martin Committee.
Even now, most Bb trumpets are sold in ML bore and probably most C trumpets are sold in L bore.