Vintage one valve bugle

[crew70advisor]

I have an old WFL single valve bugle with #63 on the valve. how do i determine if this is a tenor or soprano bugle and the approximate age????

have been told it's a soprano and also told it's a tenor bugle.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

gary

[Jeff]

I have an old WFL single valve bugle with #63 on the valve. how do i determine if this is a tenor or soprano bugle and the approximate age????

have been told it's a soprano and also told it's a tenor bugle.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

gary

Can you post a picture, that would be a great help.

WFL was a company owned by the great William F Ludwig, who is the father of our activity. It was active from 1937 to 1955, so you can roughly date it from that. The earlier bugles had a locking device for the valve, later models (post WW II) do not.

Tenor bugles are larger than the soprano and some almost look like they have a flugelhorn bell. Other can be identified by the slow flare of the bell, making it more conical. Typically a tenor has a bell from 5 1/2 to 6 inches in diameter. However some sopranos also have a 5 1/2 inch bell, so it gets tricky.

Jeff

Edited May 7, 2006 by Jeff

[crew70advisor]

here's a few images from the ebay auction i got it from. hopefully this helps.

gary

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=7392736389

[crew70advisor]

added note, the bell is 5" across.

[Jeff]

here's a few images from the ebay auction i got it from. hopefully this helps.

gary

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=7392736389

That is a WFL model 501 soprano bugle in chromium. I would date it to the 1950's, likely 1952-1956 range. The WFL tenor of that era had a 5 3/4 inch bell. Your bugle sold for $68.00 in chromium without the case, which was $15.00 extra based on an ad in Drum Corp World of June 1956. This was one of the top bugles of it's era, so you have quite a nice instrument based on the ebay photo. Looks to be in very fine condition.

Jeff

Edited May 7, 2006 by Jeff

[crew70advisor]

thanx for the rapid feedback. now i know what to look for in a tenor bugle.

i have a start-up venturing crew with our local vfw and they want to get a classical style drum and bugle corp using vintage instruments. i'm helping by gathering a few for my own personal collection and am still learning about the vintage bugles. once i get more astute, my council would like me to put on a demonstration and history of the bugle. i'm starting with the g-d's and will eventually move up to the f-trigger models.

thanx again for your help.

gary

ps- what source do you use to find the models, old prices, etc? is there an on-line source? thanx again.

[JimF-LowBari]

How "vintage" is vintage? :P Beginning of the year I bought single value tenor and Bass Baris off of a notice in DCP. Horns were from the 50s and belonged to a Shriner corps that was selling old equipment for a fund raiser. Think I was the only one who bought so let me know if you're interested and I'll dig up my emails. From what I remember there was a selection of sops and baris from different makers.

PS - Only thing I look at in eBay to know if it's a tenor is mouthpiece size. Unless a tenor could be something other than a Bari.

Edited May 8, 2006 by JimF-xWSMBari

[crew70advisor]

How "vintage" is vintage? :P Beginning of the year I bought single value tenor and Bass Baris off of a notice in DCP. Horns were from the 50s and belonged to a Shriner corps that was selling old equipment for a fund raiser. Think I was the only one who bought so let me know if you're interested and I'll dig up my emails. From what I remember there was a selection of sops and baris from different makers.

PS - Only thing I look at in eBay to know if it's a tenor is mouthpiece size. Unless a tenor could be something other than a Bari.

in the 30's thru 50's, there were soprano and tenor bugles. the only difference was a slightly larger bore on the tenors creating a darker sound. these eventually became what we now know as flugel horns. they were slowly phased out during the 50's (to the best of my history knowledge). this was my question as to telling the difference between a tenor and soprano which was answered superbly. so now i know to look for a bigger bell with a slow flare (flugel-like).

you may be thinking of tenor bari's which were phased out after holton and getzen produced the bass bari bugle. understand the confussion when someone says tenor bugle, most people think of the bari's.

[JimF-LowBari]

Hey, thanks for the info as I was one of the corn-fused ones :P That's what I get for concentrating on Baris only.

Will have to re-read History of Drum Corps chapters on horns now.......

[Jeff]

thanx for the rapid feedback. now i know what to look for in a tenor bugle.

i have a start-up venturing crew with our local vfw and they want to get a classical style drum and bugle corp using vintage instruments. i'm helping by gathering a few for my own personal collection and am still learning about the vintage bugles. once i get more astute, my council would like me to put on a demonstration and history of the bugle. i'm starting with the g-d's and will eventually move up to the f-trigger models.

thanx again for your help.

gary

ps- what source do you use to find the models, old prices, etc? is there an on-line source? thanx again.

My info has come from old drum corps newspapers, drum corps guides, bugle catalogs, ebay auctions, and talking to guys older than me. After 10 years, my resources have become fairly extensive.

Jeff