Vincent Bach & Stradivarius French Horns
Vincent Bach designed, engineered, and built prototype Bach Stradivarius French Horn models from the 1940s through his consulting work with H. & A. Selmer Co. in the late 1960s. In the early 1980s, the Bach Stradivarius Double French Horn and the Selmer 77 Double French Horn were introduced.
Below is a summary of the various French Horn projects that Vincent Bach worked on, or his engineering was used +over a 40-year period from the 1940s to the 1980s.
IMPORTANT:
Vincent Bach Stradivarius model French horns are NOT to be confused with Bach-branded French Horns, which were student/intermediate instruments built by Selmer, King, and Conn and branded as a Bach French Horn.
1942 - 1945
Bach Stradivarius French Horn
Engineering Development & Prototypes
Vincent worked in the early 1940s to develop a bach Stradivarius French horn to meet requests he had received. During WW2, Vincent’s factory almost exclusively shifted to military trumpet and trombone orders and the repair of older Bach instruments.
During this same time, Vincent had time to develop and engineer a French horn model to carry his name. He assigned his brother (Hans) son (Hans Vincent) to complete the engineering documentation from Vincent’s note. The original blueprints are still in the Vincent Bach archives in Elkhart. The excerpt below is from an article by Selmer published in the 1980s.
” The oldest, Hans Vincent Bach, was named for both his father and uncle. He attended Northeastern University as a coop student in Mechanical Engineering. In 1942, he worked at his Uncle Vincent’s factory in the Bronx as part of Northeastern’s work/study program.
About that time, Vincent Bach completed the design work on some French horns. (These instruments, which were only prototyped, were photographed for a 1976 Selmer Bandwagon tribute to Vincent Bach shortly after his death.) One of Hans Vincent’s jobs at his uncle’s factory was to create engineering drawings of the newly designed French horns.”
What is believed to be one of the Bach New York prototype french horn development/benchmarking samples was at J. Landress Brass‘s shop a few years ago. These photographs were from a visit by Bach loyalist in 2018 to J. Landress Brass. The bell logo was hand-engraved in this example.
It is now in a private collection of a Vincent Bach collector.
1968 - 1971
Bach Stradivarius French Horn
Vincent Bach Consulting & Prototypes
From the Selmer Bandwagon, issue Number 81 (1976), an article “Bach for the Connoisseur” discussed the various unusual instruments that Vincent Bach had manufactured and prototyped over the years, including the development of Bach Stradivarius French horn.
Two prototype French Horn examples are shown below.
1982 - 1988
Bach Stradivarius Brasses
Bach Stardivarius Double Horn, Model 197
MSRP $1795 (1984)
The advertising campaign promoted symphonic brasses, including Bb & C trumpets, cornet, trombone, and double F/Bb french horn.
1986
Bach Instruments Catalog (1986)
Bach Stradivarius Double Horn
Model 197, 197S
“The Bach model 197 “Stradivarius” double horn is nearly identical to the Selmer model 77. Both models were built in the Bach (Elkhart) factory by the same craftsmen who built the famous Bach trumpets and trombones. It was originally built as a direct rival to the Conn 8D, Holton 179 and King Eroica, so at the time, Selmer considered it to be a professional-level symphonic double French horn.
At the time, it sold for the same price as a King Eroica, a Conn 8D, or a Holton 179. Unfortunately, they only built this model for a couple of years and then discontinued it. “
– edited from a TubaForum.net post
197 Bach Stradivarius Double Horn
Specifications
- Key of F/Bb
- 0.468″ bore
- 12.5″ two-piece lightweight yellow brass bell
- Tapered, hand-lapped, string action rotary valves.
- Double pull rings for 2nd valve tuning slides
- Solid Nickel leadpipe
- Nickel-silver inner and outer slides
- Clear lacquer finish
- Genieunce Vincent Bach mouthpiece
- Wood shell case
- Silver plated finished (mode 197S)
- MSRP
Model 197; $1795.
” In bell spinning, fine brass is drawn over the mandrel to precise and exacting dimensions. With the care learning in 22 years’ experience, LeRoy Olinger spins a rim wire into the bell of a 197 bach Stradivarius horn.
source: Selmer Bandwagon, Number 91 (1976), BachLoyalist Research, ...
