#Conn trombone serial numbers k prefix trial
#Conn trombone serial numbers k prefix professional

#Conn trombone serial numbers k prefix trial

The marketing policy adopted by management involved allowing its distributors to arrange short-term loans of Gibson instruments on a trial basis. This was a disaster, coupled as it was to an uninspiring reworking of the Selmer range of speaker cabinets and the introduction of a poorly designed range of solid state power amplifiers.Īfter being passed around several other owners, Selmer once again found itself owned by the Gibson Guitar parent company, this time through a holding company called Norlin Music USA.

The factory which purchased from Music and Plastic Industries. During this period, the Selmer range of Treble & Bass 50 & 100 valve amplifiers appeared to be stylistic relics from pre-1959 and the decision was made to move the manufacturing facility to a disused brush and coconut matting works dating from 1914, based in rural Essex. By this time Marshall guitar amplifiers had cornered the market, and the Selmer manufacturing facility was an expensive drain on resources. This was the beginning of the end for Selmer UK.īy the early 1970s Selmer UK had been purchased by Chicago Musical Instruments, then the parent company of Gibson Guitars, which Selmer was distributing in the UK.

#Conn trombone serial numbers k prefix professional

The management of the company made various lukewarm attempts to gain endorsement from aspiring musicians but became increasingly distant from the developments in pop culture from the mid-1960s considering that its role was to support 'real' or established professional musicians and not the headliners of the pop industry. In the early 1960s, despite Selmer's apparent market domination, The Shadows' and The Beatles' endorsement of Vox amplifiers relegated Selmer guitar amplifiers to a distant second place in sales. With the growth of skiffle music and the arrival of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, Selmer UK began producing guitar and bass amplifiers. Model names were the Astra, Emperor, Diplomat, Triumph and Arizona Jumbo. In 1967, Höfner actually produced a small range of semi-acoustic and acoustic guitars for Selmer UK These were badged with the Selmer logo and most had a Selmer 'lyre' tailpiece. They were also the primary importers and distributors for Höfner guitars, a well-known German guitar company, from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. By 1951 they were manufacturing electric organs and in 1955 they gained the exclusive licensing rights to make Lowrey organs and Leslie organ speakers for the UK. They expanded their manufacturing facilities by purchasing another P.A. In 1935 Selmer UK began producing sound reinforcement systems under the Selmer name. They concentrated primarily on licensing, importing and distribution rather than manufacturing, and by 1939 had grown to become the largest company in the British musical instrument industry. Selmer UK Ī semi-independent branch of Selmer for the United Kingdom was created in 1928 under the leadership of two brothers, Ben and Lew Davis. Selmer & Cie retaining a minority interest in 1923, then sold to its American partner George Bundy in 1927, ending the financial interest of H. The H&A Selmer (USA) Company, originally a retail partnership between the two brothers, was incorporated to expand with H. Alexandre Selmer established himself in New York in 1909, opening a shop that sold Selmer clarinets and mouthpieces. In 1904, Selmer clarinets were presented at the Saint Louis (USA) World's Fair, winning a Gold Medal. In 1898 Selmer opened a store and repair shop in Paris and started producing clarinets. in 1885, Henri began making clarinet reeds and mouthpieces. At 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. 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. In the late nineteenth century, brothers Alexandre and Henri Selmer graduated from the Paris Conservatory as clarinetists. 2 Historical list of Selmer instruments.