Since the Benge 165 played very well and (for me) similar to the Conn 88H, I always believed that bit of folklore. I was told by many people that the bell was identical to the Conn 8H/88H bell. I have always wondered about the Benge 165 model trombone (.547 intermediate model). Unfortunately, I cannot tell you anything about the Benge 175 trombones or their history (except that they are undervalued and really seem to be fine trombones). So there is no relation between Benge trumpets and Benge (King) trombones. I don't believe that King ever manufactured trumpets under the Benge name – trumpet manufacturing had ceased before the purchase King only bought the brand name. The 165F bell was not annealed as the 190F was. The closed-wrap 165F was introduced (probably early 1990s) as a "step-down" version of the open-wrap 190F that had been marketed to professional orchestral players. I believe that my Benge 165F (S/N 8430xx) trombone was made at the King factory in Eastlake, OH between 19 – but I may be wrong about those dates. Most orchestras didn’t take King’s own line of instruments seriously, so they combined a new design with the cachet of the Benge name (legendary amongst trumpet folk) to try to get a piece of the symphonic/orchestral market. Some time after that (late 1980s?), King introduced the Benge line of trombones to complete head-to-head with Conn’s 88H. I understand that prior to that, Benge had only made trumpets. Thanks to previous Trombone Forum posts, I learned that King apparently purchased the Benge name in the mid-1980's.
#Conn trumpet serial number location serial numbers
Finding information on Benge serial numbers is puzzling.