The Vincent Bach Corporation is a US manufacturer of brass instruments that began early in the early Twentieth Century and still exists as a subsidiary of Conn-Selmer, a division of Steinway Musical Instruments. The company was founded in 1918 by Austrian-born trumpeter Vinzenz Schrottenbach (Vincent Bach). Vincent Bach Vinzenz Schrottenbach (sometimes misspelled "Vincenz Schrotenbach") was born in Baden near Vienna in 1890. As a child he received training on violin, trumpet and bugle. By age 12 he had concentrated on the trumpet. After he graduated from Maschinenbauschule (Mechanical Engineering School, Ansbach) with an engineering degree, he entered into compulsory military service in the Imperial Navy, worked as an elevator operator, and then was re-conscripted during which time he served as a military musician in the Austrian Marine Band. When he left the military the second time, Vincent decided to defy his family's wishes and pursued a career as a solo cornetist touring Europe. At the outbreak of World War I, he was in England and was forced to flee to the United States in order to escape detention as an enemy alien. He resumed his career as a performer, interrupted by another term of compulsory military service, this time in the US military as a musician. While Bach was on tour in Pittsburgh in 1918, a repairman destroyed his mouthpiece, and Bach began experimenting with mouthpiece repair and fabrication. Vincent Bach Corporation New York Period Beginnings Time frame: 1916 - 1928 Products: Mouthpieces Brand names: Vincent Bach Location: Serial Numbers: N/A The Vincent Bach Corporation began when Vincent purchased a $300 foot-operated lathe and began producing mouthpieces in the back of the Selmer music store in New York. He established his shop across the street from the musicians' union. He ran an advertisement that read "How to become a wizard on cornet without practicing" and accumulated $500 in orders in a short time and began his career as a manufacturer. This period came to an end when Bach was drafted into the US military where he served as bandmaster and bugle instructor during WWI. Start-up Time frame: 1918 - 1919 Products: Mouthpieces Brand names: Vincent Bach Location: 11 East 14th Street, Selmer Music, New York, New York Serial Numbers: N/A Start-up continued Time frame: 1919 - 1922 Products: Mouthpieces Brand names: Vincent Bach Location: 204 East 85th street, New York, New York Serial Numbers: N/A Bach resumed his mouthpiece business