

This doesn't completely disprove the Agard account but at least it means trombones wentĪt least to 54,571 before the merger Agard describes. Jan 2004: an Olds Super trombone was seen on ebay with a serial number of 54,571.even including a nice closeup That suggests that trombone serial numbers went higher than previouslyīefore the merger of trombones and trumpet into a single serial number UPDATE: I now have a report of an Olds Recording trombone s/n 56,668. Such a trombone exists but I haven't really looked hard for it since my focus has been on trumpets and cornets. Serial number between 48,000 and 100,000 would disprove the Agard account. For trombones, the uncertaintyįor horns prior to 100,000 would be substantially greater. In the 70,000-100,000 range (but the uncertainty is at most a year or two). At worst, they create some uncertainty for manufacture date of trumpets/cornets I don't know how to reconcile these accounts so I'll just present This does not agree with the published serial number records, which indicate that they reached 90,000 inįebruary 1953 and 100,000 in October 1953. According to Agard, the last 1953 trumpets being in the 68,000 range while trombones in the 48,000 range. Agard's account is correct, trombone serial numbers lagged behind trumpets until they were merged inġ953.

The impact of this discrepancy is probably minimal on the actual trumpet serial number charts.

Since this began as a study of trumpet serial numbers, most of the data collected has been from trumpet owners, so This conflicts with the Robb Stewart article, which was also based on interviews with former employees. Note: According to longtime Olds employee Don Agard, the trumpet and trombone serial number lists were not combined until 1953. I welcome any evidence that can help me improve on these guesses: In arriving at these numbers I have attempted to reconcile the Robb Stewart data with the firsthand reports. You can read my reasoning for the pre-1946 numbers, or the 1946-1952 numbers. His data can be found here.īelow are my original guesses as to beginning-of-year serial numbers for pre-1952 Olds horns. Robb Stewart has put together some improved serial number dates based on
