TromboneChat

Has anybody here ever heard of a King "special"? All the bell says is -King Special made by H.N. White cleveland ohio.
the only other markings anywhere on the horn are the matching serial numbers on the bell and inner/outer slide.
the serial number is 192141 which as far as I can tell dates it to 1935-40. However they H.N. White website nor any other website I can find shows a " special" model. It is a small bore horn I think, although I do not know exactly where to measure to find out. Does anybody know what this is? or what it may be comparable to?
Thanks
-John from Ohio

Welcome to the Chat group!

I have never heard of that model before either. The correct way to determine the bore size is to measure the inside diameter of the inner slide tubes. Be sure to measure the upper and the lower it might be a dual bore horn. A picture of the horn would be great to see. You can tell a lot looking at a picture of the horn!

ok, i am no expert at reading calipers, but i get a measurement of approx .475 maybe a few thou smaller. I will see about posting some pictures soon

Here are pictures.

The markings on the bell

Serial number

Sorry, those pictures looked way better on my phone... I hope it gets the point across though. let me know if a more specific picture of something is wanted.

Curved bell brace dates it to at least the 1920s.

Bell lock nut dates it to at least the 1930s.

Bore size indicates something like the Liberty (single bore predecessor of the 2B).

Never heard of this model either.

Thanks for the info everyone. The slide on this trombone is pretty bad. The shop I took it to said that I would probably need to replace the inner tubes to get it acceptable. Do you think this is worth it? Should I leave it as is for history sake? Or value? I don't really know what i have here, i bought this trombone 15 years ago as a marching horn and updated to a horn with a better slide pretty quick. That being said, i love the sound this horn can produce and I would love to make it a player again.