I have a C. G. Conn 88H U.S.A that I bought second-hand a few years ago.

The seller bought it used so he estimated the age of the instrument at 20~ years old, and it was around 4 years ago.

I searched all over the web to see where the serial number is but I couldn't find an answer.

The only numbers I could find are 2 of the same numbers on the slide section and one behind the valve handle (Pictures attached).

Can someone help me identify my trombone's age?

p. s.: The number on the slide section is 1 8410.

Pictures (Google Drive):

[url]<LINK_TEXT text="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ASCpxG ... sp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ASCpxGfT5SEqCsGJOBx4IoCgNXnodNaX/view?usp=sharing</LINK_TEXT>

[url]<LINK_TEXT text="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhPZjp ... sp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nhPZjpC7yz6o_C7X5p3Y-j-nRM5-8dNM/view?usp=sharing</LINK_TEXT>

Probably a UMI horn - United Musical Instruments was King, Conn, Benge before being gobbled up by Steinway/Selmer around 2000.

The slide numbers are just for identification during production. The serial number is the one on the bell brace.

Looks like the 5 suffix denotes the year 2000 according to Conn Loyalist

That is UMI product from Eastlake, OH. The serial numbers were perhaps not sequential, like they were with the Elkhart years. When I worked at Greenhoe, we built the Conn 88HTG bell sections, and sent them to Eastlake where they put the bell with a slide and case. We had cross brace tubes with serial numbers similar to yours. None of those serial numbers were sequential.

[quote="hornbuilder"]That is UMI product from Eastlake, OH. The serial numbers were perhaps not sequential, like they were with the Elkhart years. When I worked at Greenhoe, we built the Conn 88HTG bell sections, and sent them to Eastlake where they put the bell with a slide and case. We had cross brace tubes with serial numbers similar to yours. None of those serial numbers were sequential.[/quote]

Matt, was it only the 88HTG bell sections that were made by Greenhoe? I have an Eastlake 88H bell section that plays very well, IMO. Since I'm not sure what the TG means, I don't know if that is what I have. Mine looks like the standard red brass bell, traditional wrap, standard rotary valve 88H. It does appear to have gold-colored lacquer throughout.

And there is a serial # on the crossbrace.

88HTG. Conn 88H (H was the letter designation for trombone at Conn) T - thin bell, G - Greenhoe valve section.

So you could buy an 88H with regular bell or 88HT with light bell (both of which were 90/10 red brass

We only assembled the horns with Ghoe valve sections. Anything else was made in Eastlake.