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46-556: Conn-Selmer is the largest manufacturer and importer of band and orchestral instruments in the United States. The company produces a large variety of musical instruments itself and through contractors under the brand names Vincent Bach , C.G. Conn , King , Holton , Selmer, Armstrong, Leblanc , Ludwig , Musser, and Scherl & Roth. Conn-Selmer is also the North American distributor of Henri Selmer Paris woodwinds and

92-470: A child he received training on violin, trumpet and bugle. By age 12 he had concentrated on the trumpet. After he graduated from Maschinenbauschule (Mechanical Engineering School, Ansbach) with an engineering degree, 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

138-443: A concept for the design and manufacture of a functional bass drum pedal . The company added new products to its catalog, such as snare drums and timpani , in 1916. In 1917, Ludwig signed a deal to build rope-tensioned snare drums to support World War I . Theobald Ludwig died in 1918, and William continued on his own. In the late 1920s, the company was sold to the C. G. Conn instrument company. William Ludwig stayed on to run

184-694: A decade after starting-up the Main Street plant, 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. 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

230-594: A former Buescher plant on Main Street in Elkhart Indiana where production started in January 1965. Horns of this period featured an increase in the thickness of bell-making stock to 0.025" from the 0.020" New York standard that was reclassified in Elkhart as lightweight, and denoted by a star on the bell. The wire inside the rim bead changed to being steel and can be detected using a magnet. Elkhart Less than

276-489: A premium brand under the name “Bach Stradivarius” as well as the student line “Bach” horns, manufactured in Eastlake Ohio. Design changes that followed included transitioning from the 2-piece valve casings Bach had always used to a more cost-effective, but lighter, single tube casing. At some point the rim wire was also changed back to brass. Sales of Bach instruments remained strong, as did market reputation through

322-399: A small scale for the duration of World War II , but William got back to the idea of making the company a large drum manufacturer after the war ended. WFL was a competitor with Ludwig and Ludwig. Conn combined their two drum brands into one in the early 1950s, forming Leedy & Ludwig, and then decided to quit the drum business altogether. In 1955, William and his son Bill Jr. were able to buy

368-460: Is a 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 ). Vinzenz Schrottenbach (sometimes misspelled "Vincenz Schrotenbach") was born in Baden near Vienna in 1890. As

414-471: Is the largest manufacturer and importer of band and orchestral instruments in the United States. It has manufactured instruments in six domestic facilities since 2002: It has been heavily involved in outsourcing manufacturing of brands formerly associated with American manufacturers, including Ludwig drums, Glaesel, Scherl & Roth, and Wm. Lewis and Sons stringed instruments to China and Selmer (USA) wind instruments to various Asian sources. The employees at

460-773: The Brilhart line of woodwind mouthpieces, with production contracted to the Runyon Company , and the Lesher Woodwind Company, a manufacturer of oboes and bassoons. In 1970, Selmer acquired additional production facilities from C.G. Conn, who were divesting their Elkhart, Indiana operations. In 1977, Selmer acquired the stringed instrument maker Glaesel. In 1981 Selmer acquired the Ludwig Drum Company . The era of H. & A. Selmer as an independent company ended in 1970, with its acquisition by

506-635: The Leblanc Company , gaining their exclusive distribution rights for Yanagisawa saxophones in the US and Canada. Conn-Selmer kept Leblanc in production of clarinets but ended their brasswind production in 2007, discontinuing their Martin brand and moving production of their Holton brand to Elkhart, Indiana. Conn-Selmer retains the North American importation and distribution rights for Selmer (Paris) and Yanagisawa Wind Instruments formerly held by H. & A. Selmer and Leblanc, respectively. Conn-Selmer

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552-579: The Ludwig-Musser brand. The Ludwig Drum Company was established in 1909 by William F. & Theobald Ludwig, sons of a German immigrant to the United States. William Jr. had been a professional drummer, playing with circuses and touring vaudeville shows, along with the occasional skating-rink gig. Since this work was irregular, he and his brother, Theobald, opened a drum shop in Chicago ; they called it Ludwig & Ludwig. The company started with

598-496: 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

644-533: The Vincent Bach facility in Elkhart, Indiana represented by United Auto Workers Local 364, struck on April 1, 2006, and as of July 30, 2009, the union was decertified. Out of 230 workers that went out on strike approximately 70 returned with the remaining workers having been subject to recall until July 30, 2010. In 2006, calls were made for the American Federation of Musicians to boycott

690-455: The "type-E" valve, actually according to Roy Hempley the "New type-E" appears on the first such shop cards, occasionally combining type-E with type-C or others for reasons Bach may only have known. To accommodate this, the tight "2-over, 2-under" wrap gained in height, departing further from Besson designs than the previous horns had. The company experienced stresses, but survived the depression and expanded again afterward. Post-war During

736-421: The 1970s and 1980s, but in the 1990s both the size of the workforce and the warranty costs began to increase dramatically. Sales decreased at the same time. A strike in 2006 (see below) then led to significant changes in staffing and work rules, many of which had been transplants from automotive repetitive manufacturing that were applied to the job-shop format of an instrument maker. Modern Changes continued at

782-626: 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 . At the outbreak of World War I , he was in England and was forced to flee to the United States in order to escape detention as an enemy alien . He resumed his career as a performer, interrupted by another term of compulsory military service, this time in

828-653: The Bach facility after reorganization. Long time employee Tedd Waggoner took the lead role in the company until his retirement in 2018. Minor changes to design such as a longer receiver and reintroducing the oldest Bach bell taper happened during this period, as did the ramping-up of a new 190 series of "Artisan" trumpets that replicated the 2-piece casings and steel rim wire of Early Elkhart production. New private owners began an aggressive program of upgrading to automated CNC lathes and milling equipment as well as robotic buffers in 2017. The Chicago C trumpet, reintroduced earlier through

874-738: The Boston Symphony Orchestra that same year. In 1904, Selmer clarinets were presented at the Saint Louis (USA) World's Fair, winning a gold medal, and Alexandre Selmer was First Clarinetist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Alexandre established himself in New York in 1909, opening a shop that sold Selmer clarinets and mouthpieces. The H. & A. Selmer (USA) Company grew out of that retail operation. In 1910, Alexandre returned to France and

920-474: The H. & A. Selmer store was managed by George Bundy. The store expanded its product line, selling "Selmer" branded wind instruments and mouthpieces from manufacturers in the US in addition to Selmer (Paris) products. In 1923, the H. & A. Selmer Company was incorporated to expand its retail operations. A 49% share was sold to C. G. Conn Ltd while Selmer (Paris) retained a minority interest. In 1927, Bundy gained full ownership, establishing independence of

966-520: The Ludwig trademark back from Conn, and over the next few years their company and its products transitioned from the WFL brand to being called "Ludwig" again. Despite initial success, Ludwig's global breakthrough would occur February 9, 1964, when The Beatles made their historic American TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show . The Ludwig logo, displayed on the front of Ringo Starr's bass drum, could be seen by

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1012-451: The Mt. Vernon mystique is in part due to the early advocacy of these in particular. The design of the trumpet changed at this point in time to include the full wrap height still built today, to feature a flat-faced tuning slide, and to one which required the tuning slide be pulled an inch rather than the customary 1/2 inch to be in tune. This last, by some workings of the physics, is said to "loosen

1058-587: The U.S. distributor of Yanagisawa saxophones. The origins of the Conn-Selmer company begin with the H. & A. Selmer company. In the late nineteenth century, brothers Alexandre and Henri Selmer graduated from the Paris Conservatory as clarinetists. They were the great-grandchildren of French military drum major Johannes Jacobus Zelmer, grandchildren of Jean-Jacques Selmer, the Army Chief of Music, and two of 16 children in this musical family. At

1104-521: The US military as a musician. While Bach was on tour in Pittsburgh in 1918, a repairman destroyed his mouthpiece , and Bach began experimenting with mouthpiece repair and fabrication. Beginnings 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

1150-805: The backing of Kirkland Messina, Selmer Industries acquired the Steinway Musical Properties company, the parent company of piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons , in 1995 and changed their own name to Steinway Musical Instruments . The domestically produced Bundy brand was discontinued shortly afterward, replaced with student wind instruments sourced from Asia and sold as Selmer (USA) woodwinds and Bach brasswinds. In 2000, Steinway Musical Instruments acquired United Musical Instruments (owners of Artley, Armstrong, Benge , C.G. Conn , King , Scherl & Roth), then merged it with The Selmer Company's instrument manufacturing operations to form Conn-Selmer in 2003. In 2004, Conn-Selmer acquired

1196-443: The centering" and "open the blow" (make it take less energy to match pitch with others and make the horn respond). Selmer at Mt. Vernon In 1961 Vincent Bach was 71 and the company was acquired that year by The Selmer Company , with Bach staying on as a consultant and continuing to work until at least 1974. Bach accepted the bid from Selmer even though some others of the 13 which he received were higher. Selmer asked Bach, as

1242-517: The company for Conn (which also owned the Leedy Manufacturing Company at this time). Eventually, William Ludwig decided to leave Conn and start a new company of his own. He was unable to use the Ludwig name since that trademark now belonged to Conn who continued to market Ludwig & Ludwig drums. In 1937, William bought a factory building and started The WFL Drum Company (his initials). The company continued producing drums at

1288-652: The company hired replacement workers , and roughly a third of the strikers returned to work. The strike ended when workers voted to dissolve the relationship between the company and the United Auto Workers union. Ludwig Drums Ludwig Drums is a United States musical instrument manufacturer, focused on percussion . It is a subsidiary of Conn-Selmer . Products manufactured by Ludwig include timpani , drum kits , and drum hardware . The company also makes keyboard percussion instruments , such as marimbas , vibraphones , and xylophones , through

1334-621: The company incorporated, had 10 employees and moved into a small factory at 237 E. 41st Street in New York. In 1924 Bach began producing cornets and trumpets under the Stradivarius by Vincent Bach Corporation name. In 1928, tenor and bass trombones were added to the product line as the company expanded and relocated. Bronx In October 1928 the company opened a factory in The Bronx to produce cornets, trumpets and trombones (both tenor and bass). Shortly after this move, Bach removed

1380-510: The company. H. & A. Selmer (USA) remained the sole importer of Selmer (Paris) products, including saxophones and brasswinds once exports of such instruments to the USA commenced. In 1936, Selmer changed its distribution strategy, abandoning most retail and becoming a wholesaler of instruments and supplies. Selmer went on to establish itself as a leading distributor of student-grade instruments under its Artley and Bundy brands. In response to

1426-413: The electronics firm Magnavox . Magnavox was sold to Philips Electronics in 1974 and the Selmer properties were sold to the investment firm Integrated Resources in 1989. With the 1993 bankruptcy of Integrated Resources, Selmer was sold to the investment firm Kirkland Messina and reorganized as Selmer Industries, Inc. , with The Selmer Company name used for its instrument manufacturing operations. With

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1472-651: The entire Steinway-Conn-Selmer instrument company due to its permanently replacing union workers at its manufacturing facilities. The employees represented by United Auto Workers Local 2359 at the Eastlake, Ohio Conn-Selmer manufacturing plant called a strike on July 26, 2011, after working without a contract since February 2011, and settled with the company on October 21, 2011. In 2013, the Paulson & Co. investment firm acquired Steinway Musical Instruments. Vincent Bach Corporation The Vincent Bach Corporation

1518-476: The first task in his new (lifetime) position as technical consultant, to redesign his trumpet so as to eliminate the unique one inch pull required to be in tune, in favor of a standard 1/2 inch pull. This design was dubbed the model 180. Early Elkhart It is believed that Vincent Bach continued customizing a small number of horns at the old Mt. Vernon facility for special customers. The bulk of tooling, along with many parts and assembled horns, were relocated to

1564-403: The joint efforts of Waggoner and retired engineer / Bach historian Roy Hempley (1940-2020) expanded in sales and was augmented by a "Philadelphia" C. On 1 April 2006, workers at the Bach plant in Elkhart began a strike that lasted three years. The main issues were the union's desire to preserve employee compensation and company's goals to increase product quality. Production was interrupted until

1610-549: The premium line Bach Stradivarius. The services of Mr. Vincent Bach were retained for design of student-line brasswinds. In 1963, Selmer acquired ownership of its main supplier of student saxophones, the Buescher Band Instrument Company . Selmer continued distributing identical Bundy and Buescher instruments until it discontinued the Buescher name in 1983. In 1966, Selmer acquired the rights to

1656-461: The reputation of Selmer (Paris) instruments among aspiring professionals. In 1958 Selmer acquired the Harry Pedler and Sons brasswind plant in Elkhart, starting in-house production of Bundy student-line brasswinds. In 1961, Selmer acquired the brasswind manufacturer Vincent Bach Corporation . Selmer moved production from Bach's Mount Vernon, New York facility to Elkhart in 1965 while retaining

1702-535: The second valve casing along with the bore letter code and serial number. At first, the instruments built at the new factory were identical to the bulk of what had been produced the few years before These were typified by the same wrap height and .020" bell stock Bach had been using primarily after the war. Mt. Vernon It is instruments and mouthpieces from this Bach era that are still aggressively sought-after by many who believe that none-other are of this quality. However, several Bach periods each have their fans and

1748-424: 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. After WWII, Bach was similarly creative in the first years with manpower and material shortages. The wrap height increased slightly during these years, and the tuning slide while still a "D" shape, became correspondingly flatter. Early Mt. Vernon Over

1794-493: 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. This period came to an end when Bach was drafted into the US military where he served as bandmaster and bugle instructor during WWI. Start-up Start-up continued Bach resumed his mouthpiece business and started selling how-to guides and music. Incorporated By 1922

1840-399: The television audience of about seventy-three million people. As it happens, Starr chose that brand upon joining the band simply because he liked the oyster pearl black color of the drum kit he chose. [Ringo Starr] put our name on the front of his bass drum head ... [because] he was so proud that he had an imported drum set from America, especially from a famous company like Ludwig, that at

1886-575: The time of purchase he insisted on having the Ludwig name painted on the front of the head! The publicity resulted in Ludwig's sales doubling quickly to $ 13 million, which prompted production to increase to a 24/7 production as the company became the foremost drum manufacturer in North America for twenty years. Ludwig acquired the Musser Mallet Company, a manufacturer of xylophones , marimbas and vibraphones , in 1965. Ludwig

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1932-488: The time, musical instruments and accessories were primarily hand made, and professional musicians found it necessary to acquire skills allowing them to make their own accessories and repair and modify their own instruments. Establishing Henri Selmer & Cie. in 1885, Henri began making clarinet reeds and mouthpieces . In 1898, Henri opened a store and repair shop in Paris and began producing clarinets , and Alexandre joined

1978-658: The unavailability of Selmer (Paris) instruments after the German defeat of France in 1940, Selmer sought alternate sources for wind instruments and distributed them under their new student-line Bundy and intermediate Signet brands. In 1950, George Bundy retired and sold his shares to partners Joseph M. Grolimund, Jack Feddersen, Milt Broadhead, and Charles Bickel. Starting in 1952, the Selmer Artist program offered special deals for musicians who agreed to perform and record exclusively with Selmer (Paris) instruments, boosting

2024-446: 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. Mt. Vernon horns can be identified by the Bach manufacturing stamp listing Mount Vernon NY on

2070-639: 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. In 1933, Bach settled on

2116-525: Was a strong presence in the marching drum market. During the 1970s, Ludwig's "Challenger" line of snare drums offered sophisticated tuning and strong build quality. Ludwig drums were used by many leading drum and bugle corps. On 4 November 1981, William F Ludwig II sold the business to the Selmer Company (now Conn-Selmer ). Selmer closed the Damen Avenue factory in the ensuing years and moved

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