Silver King 2b’s

[Jmac]

I’m considering looking for a silver 2b. Are there differences in them? I see some advertised as sterling, some have gold wash bells. Some go for $2500 and some sell on eBay for under $1000. Missed one for around $800;recently. Can anyone school me on this?

[BGuttman]

There are 2B trombones that are silver plated over brass and there are 2B trombones that have solid sterling silver bells. The sterling bells are called "Silvertone" up to the early 1950s and SilverSonic after (King lost a trademark suit with Sears). The solid sterling bells have a Sterling mark (an L with a cross through it) on the bell stem. Usually Silvertone/SilverSonic trombones have brass slide and tuning slide crooks and a brass gooseneck. These could be plated over as well. Silver plated bells usually sound like unlacquered bells while solid sterling has different sound properties.

Any silver finish can have a gold "wash" in the bell. It's a VERY thin gold plate done by rubbing the bell with a solution containing gold salts (the gold in the solution gets replaced by silver and deposits on the bell). Gold wash has NO effect on sound that I've ever been able to detect. Of course the placebo effect could still be active.

There was a small bore King called "Liberty" which had a single bore. A Liberty 2B had the dual bore. There is also the 2B Jiggs which has single bore.

Are you confused enough yet?

[Jmac]

Am I confused yet? Yes I’m getting there. Thanks for the info. An important question you answered was the sterling silver sounds different and silver plate sounds like brass.

[RichEKelly]

You forgot to mention the 2b+. .500 tubes on upper and lower, gooseneck in between the stock 2b and a 3b in size, and a tenon that fits the 3b bell. On mine, (80's era I believe) the cross brace on the slide is thinner than all my other king horns, the slide bow uses ferrules instead of being expanded, and the spit valve is the trumpet style in-line with the rest of the slide. Only available with brass outers I think. I strongly suspect they used parts from the Benge 170 when making the original slide, though new ones seem to follow the King style parts.

[Sniffynose]

Does anyone know- Is the 2102 with all parts silver on it sterling or plated?

[Burgerbob]

Does anyone know- Is the 2102 with all parts silver on it sterling or plated?

Can be either way. You need to get a look at the bell stamp to see if it's a Silvertone or Silversonic, which means it's sterling. Otherwise it's a brass 2B in silver plate.

[Sniffynose]

The 2102 I found is only labelled with the number. Probably a 90’s horn.
Literature online (pictures) says that the ones silver but with brass tuning slide and crook have the sterling bell.
I think this one is plated.
Thanks for your help

Plays more open than my. 75’ 2b silver plate liberty though!