Few brass makers changed address as often as Vincent Bach — and few address changes matter as much to players and collectors. The same model, a Stradivarius 180, can come from four different factories across a century, and the factory is often a bigger factor in sound and price than the year itself.

The good news: the serial number alone places a Bach trumpet in its era. Here are the boundaries the archive uses, compiled from published Bach charts.

New York (1925–1930)

The first Stradivarius trumpets carry single-digit and low serial numbers — number 14 is commonly cited as the first Strad sold, in 1925. Early production ran from Vincent Bach’s New York workshops; numbers up to roughly 900 belong to this period. Surviving examples are museum-grade, and almost every one is documented by the collector community.

Bronx (1930–1953)

From around serial 900–1450 the factory moved to the Bronx, where Bach produced through the war years and beyond. Bronx-era horns saw the model line expand beyond the Stradivarius; the trade names Mercedes, Mercury and Minerva appeared in this period with their own numbering quirks.

Mount Vernon (1953–1965)

Serials from roughly 12,000 to 30,000 are the Mount Vernon era — and this is the range collectors pay premiums for. The workshop period produced what many players consider the finest Stradivarius trumpets ever made. Bach was purchased by Selmer in 1961, but production stayed in Mount Vernon until 1965.

Elkhart (1965–present)

From serial 30,000 onward, Bach trumpets are built in Elkhart, Indiana — the same town as Conn, King and Holton. A secondary boundary worth knowing: the former Conn plant was folded into production in the 1970s, and modern charts continue without interruption through today’s 800,000+ range.

One caveat: trombones are a different book

Bach trombones carry their own sequence (from roughly 11800 in 1970 onward), and on many instruments the bell and the slide were numbered separately — the bell section is the part to date from. A letter prefix, meanwhile, usually marks a student or non-domestic line that cannot be dated from the standard chart at all.

Curious where your own instrument falls? The archive’s Bach serial number lookup returns the year and the era together — the era is the part of the answer worth knowing.