

bought Benge, and built a new production facility in Anaheim. The Los Angeles Period starting December 1970 occurred because Donald Benge sold the company to Leisure Time Industries and production was moved to Los Angeles. The Jubilee line was discontinued because they could not make a significantly cheaper trumpet without compromising quality.
#Benge trumpet serial numbers serial numbers
These have serial numbers starting with 300, and have details which are unlike any other Benges. The Burbank Benge spec list from 1969 includes the short-lived Jubilee line. The Claude Gordon model was designed to duplicate what he found to be a better playing trumpet in the pre-WWII, French Besson.

In the late 60s, Benge produced a Claude Gordon Trumpet but it was not to his full. The logo no longer sported the music staff and are engraved: Custom Made by E. The production was 5/week up to 1960, and 22/week from 1960 to 1971. He was killed in a car accident in 1960, and his son Donald took the reins of the company. In 1953, Benge retired from playing and moved to southern California. BENGE, spelled out with notes on a musical staff indicated the Resno-Tempered bell.Īll the Chicago Bb trumpets are. Resno-Tempered is a process of hammering and annealing a one-piece bell to shape it. The Benge bell changed from Hand Tempered to Resno-Tempered where it remained until manufacturing was suspended by Conn-Selmer in 2005. Schilke had machine tools experience and helped Benge set up his manufacturing shop. Benge was a friend and neighbor of Renold Schilke. Around 1934, at his home in Chicago, Benge started making a trumpet based on the French Besson.
