TRUMPETS & CORNETS

TROMBONES

Born Vincent Schrotenbach in Vienna, Austria in 1890, Vincent’s early musical training was received on the violin. Later, his musical interest and musical intrigue turned to the trumpet. As a young student, Vincent showed an interest and aptitude for science, and later, graduated with an engineering degree from the Maschinenbauschule. With a continued interest in music, he turned his professional interest to that of trumpet performance, taking the professional name of Vincent Bach while in England. Vincent eventually ended-up in New York City during WWI with, according to legend, only $5.00 in his pocket. While in New York, he gained employment working in vaudeville through connections with the famous Oscar Hammerstein and his brother Arthur. After sending a letter of introduction to the conductor of the Boston Symphony, Karl Muck, he was invited to audition, and received a position in the symphony. The following year, Vincent held the position of principal trumpet in the Metropolitan Opera and Ballet orchestras. He, in fact, performed the American premiere of Stravinsky’s Petroushka and Firebird Suite. While on tour in Pittsburgh, a local repair technician tried to make improvements on Vincent’s personal trumpet mouthpiece. After the tech effectively ruined his mouthpiece, Vincent searched desperately to find a replacement, and soon discovered how difficult it was to locate a mouthpiece of reasonable quality. This motivated Vincent to begin to learn as much about mouthpieces as he could. In the beginning Vincent practiced on old mouthpieces and eventually began to make new ones in a back room of the Selmer Music Store in New York City. In 1918, he purchased a foot-operated lathe for $300, and opened a small work shop and office at 11 East 14th St. and began manufacturing his own mouthpieces. To make ends meet, he continued playing part-time at the Rivoli Theater. His mouthpiece business grew, slowly at first, but eventually prospered into a booming success. In 1924 he expanded his business to begin manufacturing trumpets. Early players of his trumpets often referred to his trumpets as “a real Stradivarius”, hence, the name Bach Stradivarius. Trombone manufacture followed in 1928. This was a very risky time for business, as the stock market "crash”, and the resulting Great Depression was soon to follow. There continued to be a strong demand for his instruments and mouthpieces, however. In 1961, at the age of 71, Bach put his company up for sale. After receiving a dozen offers to purchase the company, he chose to sell his company to The Selmer Company (even though Selmer was not the highest bidder). Following the sale, all the tooling and machinery was moved to Selmer’s Elkhart operation. Vincent remained with the company for a while to aid in the training of the Selmer staff. Note: Vincent Bach used the trade names of Stradivarius, Mercedes, Mercury, Minerva, & Apollo. For some unknown reason, Bach numerical order varies from time to time. For example, in 1928 the Apollo serial numbers were 8600 - 8700. In 1939 the Mercury models had serial numbers in the 10,000's. The first Minerva (#2722) was manufactured in 1958.

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August 2010
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