Vincent Bach Corporation

The Vincent Bach Corporation is an US manufacturer of brass instruments that began early in the early Twentieth Century and still exists as a subsidiary of Conn-Selmer, a division of Steinway Musical Instruments. The company was founded in 1918 by Austrian-born trumpeter Vinzenz Schrottenbach (Vincent Bach).

Vincent Bach Corp.
Subsidiary
IndustryMusical instruments
Founded1918 (1918)
FounderVinzenz Schrottenbach
(a.k.a. Vincent Bach)
Headquarters
Elkhart
,
Indiana
Number of locations
1
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Scott M. Gervais - General Manager
ProductsTrumpets,
Cornets,
Flugelhorns,
Trombones,
and Mouthpieces
ServicesBuild to order
Number of employees
175
ParentConn-Selmer, a division of Steinway Musical Instruments
Websitebachbrass.com

Vincent Bach
Main article: Vincent Bach

Vinzenz Schrottenbach (sometimes misspelled "Vincenz Schrotenbach") was born in Baden near Vienna in 1890[1]. As a child he received training on violin, trumpet and bugle. By age 12 he had concentrated on the trumpet.[2] After he graduated from Maschinenbauschule (Mechanical Engineering School, Ansbach) with an engineering degree,[3] he entered into compulsory military service in the Imperial Navy, worked as an elevator operator, and then was re-conscripted during which time he served as a military musician in the Austrian Marine Band.

When he left the military the second time, Vincent decided to defy his family’s wishes and pursued a career as a solo cornetist touring Europe.[4] At the outbreak of World War I, he was in England and was forced to change his name and flee to the United States in order to escape detention as an enemy alien.[2] He resumed his career as a performer, interrupted by another term of compulsory military service, this time in the US military as a musician.[3][5]

While Bach was on tour in Pittsburgh in 1918, a repairman destroyed his mouthpiece, and Bach began experimenting with mouthpiece repair and fabrication.[2]

Vincent Bach Corporation

New York Period

First New York Period

  • Time frame: 1918 - 1922
  • Products: Mouthpieces
  • Brand names: Vincent Bach
  • Location: 11 East 14th Street, Selmer Music, New York, New York
Set-up shop at: 204 East 85th Street, New York, New York[6]
  • Serial Numbers: N/A

The Vincent Bach Corporation began when Vincent purchased a $300 foot-operated lathe and began producing mouthpieces in the back of the Selmer music store in New York. He established his shop across the street from the musicians' union. He ran an advertisement that read "How to become a wizard on cornet without practicing" and accumulated $500 in orders in a short time and began his career as a manufacturer.[2]

Second New York Period

  • Time frame: 1922 - 1928
  • Products: Mouthpieces, Cornets, Trumpets
  • Brand names: Stradivarius, Apollo, Mercury[6]
  • Location: 237 E. 41st Street, New York, New York[6]
  • Serial Numbers: 1-1000 (approximate)

By 1922 the company incorporated,[6] had 10 employees [2] and moved into a small factory at 237 E. 41st Street in New York.[6] In 1924 Bach began producing cornets and trumpets under the Stradivarius by Vincent Bach Corporation name.[2][7] In 1928, tenor and bass trombones were added to the product line as the company expanded and relocated.[2]

Vincent Bach trumpet mouthpiece

Third New York Period

  • Time frame: 1928–1953
  • Products: Mouthpieces, Cornets, Trumpets, Flugelhorns, Trombones
  • Brand names: Stradivarius, Apollo, Mercury,[7] Mercedes[6]
  • Location: 621 East 216th Street, Bronx, New York[7]
  • Serial numbers: 1000 – 12,599

In October 1928 the company opened a factory in The Bronx to produce cornets, trumpets and trombones (both tenor and bass).[2] Shortly after this move, Bach removed the “Faciebat Anno” marking from his bell engraving that had been in use since before the 100th horn, and began stamping the bells with “Model” followed by numbers for the bell mandrel and bore size. Some horns have "New York 67" as the location on the bell and are sometimes mistaken for a "67" bell model, however 67 was the pre-zipcode postal code for the Bronx. This practice continued through most of this period. The bell mandrel number had previously appeared in Bach’s script “Vincent Bach Corporation” that has been an enduring marking on Bach horns.[7]

The company experienced stresses, but survived the depression and expanded again afterward. During the Second World War, Bach coped with a shortage of workers and materials and, while not converted to produce war materials as many competitors were, the company cut back on production. Throughout the early years, Bach resorted to mixing parts and modifying earlier horns returned to their ownership during this period to provide requested instruments to customers. Some horns built from extra parts or reconfigured bear an X on the serial number on the second valve casing, others had a digit added to the original serial number. In some cases, the same serial number exists on another horn.[8]

Mount Vernon Period
Vincent Bach Mount Vernon manufactured trumpet (#26XXX) in an Elkhart case circa late 60s
  • Time frame: 1953–1964
  • Products: Mouthpieces, Brass Instruments
  • Brand names: Stradivarius, Mercury, Minerva, Mercedes[2]
  • Location: 50 South MacQuesten Parkway, Mount Vernon, New York[6]
  • Serial Numbers: 12,600 – 29,999

Over the years, the company produced several ranges of trumpets, cornets, flugelhorns and trombones, using the brand names Apollo, Minerva, Mercury, Mercedes and Stradivarius. The Vincent Bach Corporation moved in 1953 from New York City to Mount Vernon, New York. Mt. Vernon Bach horns are prized for being hand-assembled instruments.[3][4] Mt. Vernon horns can be identified by the Bach manufacturing stamp listing Mount Vernon NY on the second valve casing along with the bore letter code and serial number.[4] It is the instruments from this early Vincent Bach era that are still the sought-after trumpets with the new modern version being similar but not the same quality.

Elkhart Period
Bach logo on a 30,000-series Mellophonium.
  • Time frame: 1965 – present
  • Products: Mouthpieces, Brass Instruments
  • Brand names: Stradivarius, Bundy(Selmer name no longer used), Bach
  • Location: 600 Industrial Parkway, Elkhart, Indiana[6]
  • Serial Numbers: 30,000 -

In 1961 Vincent Bach was 71 and the company was acquired that year by The Selmer Company, with Bach staying on as a consultant[9] and continuing to work until at least 1974.[10] Bach accepted the bid from Selmer even though some others of the 13 which he received were higher.[2] It is believed that Vincent Bach continued customizing a small number of horns at the old Mt. Vernon facility for special customers.[11]

The bulk of tooling, along with many parts and assembled horns, were relocated to a former Buescher plant on Main Street in Elkhart Indiana where production started in January of 1965. Less than a decade later, production moved again to a Conn factory belonging to the Selmer Company on Industrial Drive in Elkhart, alongside of which the Conn-Selmer corporate offices are located presently.[2][4] The Bach line of brass instruments continues to be made in Elkhart, Indiana, using the same blueprints and the same techniques as the originals. They are sold as a premium brand under the name “Bach Stradivarius” as well as the student line “Bach” horns, manufactured in Eastlake Ohio.[12]

Strike

On 1 April 2006, workers at the Bach plant in Elkhart began a strike that lasted three years.[13] The main issues were the union's desire to preserve employee compensation and company's goals to increase product quality. Production was interrupted until the company hired replacement workers, and roughly a third of the strikers returned to work.[14][15] The strike ended when workers voted to dissolve the relationship between the company and the United Auto Workers union.

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References
  1. Tarr, E.H., 2003. East meets west: the Russian trumpet tradition from the time of Peter the Great to the October Revolution, with a lexicon of trumpeters active in Russia from the seventeenth century to the twentieth (No. 4). Pendragon Press.
  2. Priestley, Brian, Dave Gelly, Tony Bacon, The sax & brass book, MIller Freeman Books, San Francisco, CA, 1998, p. 1970
  3. History of Bach Stradivarius Archived 2009-11-30 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Hempley, Roy & Lehrer, Doug, Play it again Mr. Bach, 2002, Bachology essay at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=4 retrieved 5/31/2011
  5. Note: Bach served in the same field artillery regiment credited with bringing the "Cassion Song" to John Philip Sousa in 1917. The result, "The Caisson Song," would become the official U.S. Army march, "The Army Goes Rolling Along." See http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/mcb/Library/M0126.htm Archived 2007-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
  6. BachLoyalist.com Timeline of the Vincent Bach Corporation and Serial Number List at http://www.bachloyalist.com/serials/serial_trumpet.htm retrieved 6/2/2011
  7. Hempley, Roy and Lehrer, Doug, New York Bach Stradivarius Trumpet and Cornet Bell Markings, 2004, Bachology essay at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=1 retrieved 5/31/2011
  8. Hempley, Roy and Lehrer, Doug, Bach’s X Horns, 2001, Bachology essay at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=2 retrieved 5/31/2011
  9. Dundas, Richard, 20th Century Brass Musical Instruments in the United States, p. 5
  10. Pavlakis, Christopher, The American music handbook, The Free Press, Calhun Publishing, 1974, p. 655
  11. Hempley, Roy and Lehrer, Doug, Bach’s Bugles, 2004, Bachology essay at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=7 retrieved 5/31/2011
  12. Vincent Bach website http://www.bachbrass.com/ retrieved 5/28/2019
  13. Conroy, Tommy (5 August 2009). "Conn-Selmer strike ends". South Bend Tribune (Indiana). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  14. Marilyn, Odendahl (05 August 2009). "Three years later, the Vincent Bach strike -- and the union -- ends quietly Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine ". The Elkhart Truth
  15. Stuckey, Mike (12 April 2010). "Little sympathy, but much at stake for strikers". eTruth. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
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