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Thread: Besson sovereign

  1. Besson sovereign

    Hi I am trying to find the year of manufacture for my besson sovereign euphonium
    Serial number BE967-898103

  2. Gary,

    Your Sovereign would have been made sometime between 2002-2005. The last instruments manufactured in the Edgeware, London plant ended in 2002 with serial number 890008. The tooling (and in process inventory) was then moved to the Schreiber-Keilwerth factory in Markneukirchen, Germany and production continued with parts being manufactured in Germany and finally assembly occurring in the UK. This process continued until Besson went into receivership in 2005. Instruments of this era are considered to be "Made in England" since the final assembly occurred there. The later "German built" Besson's started production in very late 2006 using all new tooling.

    Doug
    Last edited by daruby; 02-14-2021 at 05:02 PM.
    Adams E3 0.60 Sterling bell - Prototype top sprung valves
    Concord Band
    Winchendon Winds
    Townsend Military Band

  3. #3
    Welcome to the forum! An advantage of a forum vs. Facebook/etc. is that we can organize things on a functional basis instead of a newest-is-first basis. We have a Reference category, under which is Instrument Serial Numbers, and there is a Besson/B&H section there:

    http://www.dwerden.com/forum/showthr...sey-amp-Hawkes

    I'd suggest looking at the 3rd link included in my post there. It is a PDF. If you go to the last page you'll see that your horn is in the 2002 or slightly later category, but beyond 2002 there isn't much that I can find. That is about when British Besson went bankrupt. I haven't found a list of numbers from the newer Buffet/Besson horns.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
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