King 2b question

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tntitan
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:31 pm

King 2b question

Post by tntitan »

So I was perusing the listings on Reverb for fun, and I found a listing for a King 2b that was listed as being “silver-plated”. What got my attention though was tuning slide and the inside of the bell are both gold-wash and I thought oh it must be a Silversonic. But the bell clearly is marked as a Liberty - no mention of sterling silver. I’ve never seen a plated King with gold wash accents. Anybody else have one or have seen one before?

Also it got me wondering, how do the silver-plated horns play compared to the SS and the brass horns?
tntitan
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:31 pm

Re: King 2b question

Post by tntitan »

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BGuttman
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Re: King 2b question

Post by BGuttman »

Before the advent of lacquer spray guns (around the 1920s) most trombones were either raw brass or silver plated. So a lot of the very old top end trombones were silver plated.

Silver plating is much thinner than lacquer and thus the instruments tend to play a little brighter (although this difference is very subtle and could easily be missed by most of us mortals). Many think removing the lacquer from a brass instrument makes it more responsive. Again, a very subtle difference.
Bruce Guttman
Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra
"Almost Professional"
Elow
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Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2020 6:18 am

Re: King 2b question

Post by Elow »

Tuning slide probably isn’t original, i think liberty’s had those 3 piece counterweights. The slide grip just looks like brass that probably wore off a bit and someone just buffed the rest off. Bell is a mystery
Dennis
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Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Re: King 2b question

Post by Dennis »

The bell doesn't have a sterling hallmark or refer to "SilverSonic", so it's almost certainly silver plated rather than a sterling bell. If my memory is working right today, the gold wash was part of the top trim level in the HN White era. Full gold-plate was a special order option.

This example has a two-piece counterweight which would date it in the 70s rather than the 60s. A 70s date would also argue against a silver bell. When the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market, HN White stopped making silver belled instruments (and in fact, a lot of SilverSonics ended up being scrapped).
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