Back when I was a kid in Jr High school I started out on a school 6D but soon wanted my own horn. This was back around 1973. My band director told me the local instrument shop in New Haven CT had gotten in some double horns for $400 and that they were great horns for the price. I ended up buying one and still have it to this day. The horn is a copy of an Alexander 103. The word "Germany" is engraved on the lead pipe and the engraving on the bell reads "Sonora". It was unlacquered yellow brass. I sent it out and had it silver plated and that seemed to give a darker and warmer tone. It plays amazingly well. So well that one time a local pro who tried it offered to exchange his Elkhart 8D for it. I turned it down.

I was wondering if anyone here might have any information at all about this horn. Manufacturer or any other details.

Thank you.

Sonora, I believe used to be an American-owned Germany-operating company where a German manufacturer made the instruments and then the American company stamped it Sonora. Their trumpets are very well known and quite highly-regarded. I heard they moved their operations to Elkhart, Indiana with Blessing now.

Thanks. That's a lot more information than I started with.

Here is what it looks like after having it restored.

http://www.imagebam.com/image/d3b49f562287963

http://www.imagebam.com/image/40bdab562287983

At the best of my knowledge, Sonora was one of several brands used by the East German conglomerate VEB Blechblas- und Signal-Instrumenten-Fabrik when exporting out of the Eastern Bloc.

After the end of second world war, Germany was divided into a East Germany, former the Sovjet Sector, and West Germany, former the American, French and British Sectors (more or less). East Germany was known as DDR, meaning german democratic republic or GDR sometimes seen stamped. All instrument makers were put under a state controlled umbrella, the VEB. In order to get western currency a lot of instruments were exported. Instruments from this era, 1950 to 1989, could have names as Sonora, Adler, Weltklang, Lafleur, B&S, Meister, Trafford and so on. If you made a larger order you could get your own brand stamped as well. The quality of the instruments varied from quite basic up to world-class for the time.

An interesting little tidbit of information is that Eastern bloc refused taking any Marshall plan money considering it to be imperialistic. This meant that Eastern Germany industry sectors developed much slower than in the west. Eastern Germany even received food help from China some years in the 1950-s, although I believe the people in China to be even more famished. But when making instruments, often enough the major quality factor is the skill of the workers. Despite problems sourcing some materials the skill made possible to create really good instruments.

After the fall of the wall in 1989 some of the factories were reborn as private ventures. Some of the names from the time does survive as continuation from older times. Some of the names though are now used to brand Chinese or Indian instruments of generally inferior quality, so beware.

/Gunnar

Thank you