TromboneChat

Hello, I have a question for you. I recently bought a Minick trombone (the seller says Minick). It looks similar to what Minick designed, but I can’t see his signature. Are there other instruments that Minick designed that don’t have signatures? As far as I know, he writes his signature.

Mine was on a linkage lever.

Not a "signature," but I've seen MINICK stamped on levers.

Mine is on the lever and the leadpipe

All the Minick's I had so far had stamps on the valve lever.

I don't think it's anywhere.

Had one with. MINICK stamped on counterweight and flange of bell brace.

That's not a Minick trombone though, right? Isn't it a Conn trombone with the F attachment modified by Minick? Minick did make his own bells, but I think I can see part of the Conn engraving on that one. When he stamped his name on the lever, it was normally a custom built lever made of thick square stock brass. This still has the original lever, and I don't know that he was in the habit of stamping the stock lever; I don't think it would even fit. It does look like other Minick-modified F attachments that I have seen, though.

Like Aidan and others mentioned, I've had horns where Larry's name was on the trigger lever and/or counter weight.

What makes this Conn look "Minick-ized" to me is making the bell detachable.

Compare it to this one that was posted by Horn Guys.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/PD22gE ... tid=WC7FNe

I was curious, so I asked Brassark, and he got the answer that it might be one of Minick's earliest conversions, or that it might be the work of George Strucell, a technician before he started the store.

I still think it might be a conversion by George... no way to know for sure, but I don't know any other techs using those RC airplane linkages for valve levers besides George and Larry. George was the first person to do this valve wrap design before Larry made it famous.

For visual comparison, here's my Mt Vernon 42B that was converted by George Streucel in the mid 1960s for Byron Peebles. You'll notice the similarity to this Conn