A recollection from Arthur Ubry
We received an email with some personal information
about Rudy and wanted to pass that on to you.

I knew Rudy in the early 1940's. His son (Victor?) was running the NYC store and Rudy and his wife were living in South Plainfield, NJ. We kids used to visit as they were friendly and had sweets for us.

I had just started to learn music in school and Rudy and my Father worked out an arrangement for me to get a trumpet. Rudy had a workshop that had mostly brass instruments. He assembled a small-sized trumpet (cornet) that I could play. I remember he custom made a mouthpiece for me. The case was also custom made for the instrument. It served as a sled many a Winter!

I remember that Rudy could rebuild a valve and never change the tone on the instrument. I learned later that only a true master could do that. The inscription on the bell was "Wurlitzer Lyric". Rudy was Czechoslovakian, and I learned, as I grew up, that my Family immigrated from Czechoslovakia! They were Bohemian descent. I donated my trumpet to a high school in Florida when I lived there...Arthur Ubry

Bill Barnes ( "cleanhead" ) Story
- taken from email dated 10-20-07 - special thanks to
Kid Dutch ( his Kid Dutch website and Vintage Mute site )
 who hooked us up with Bill-

When I lived in Manhattan in the early 1970's I would often go up to Mike Fiore's shop over the Rod Baltimore Music store. Mike had worked for Rudy Mück for a long time and he owned the Rudy Mück name after the last of the involved Mücks passed on.  He usually had a nice stock of old Mück instruments and unusual mouthpieces like Costello and Bukur, and it was a fun place to go and hang. Moreover, my wife's office was only a block or so away and it gave me an excuse to go and have lunch with her.

Mike did indeed tell me a funny story about Rudy Mück, and here it is:

He described Mr. Mück as a somewhat proud, grouchy European type. Bobby Hackett had ordered a cornet to be made, and it was ready for buffing. As Mike approached the buffing wheel with it, Rudy said "NO - I will buff Mr. Hackett's cornet, not You", a clear indication that only HE was worthy to service the great Bobby Hackett.

As he proceeded to buff the horn, it caught in the high speed buffing wheel, was yanked out of his hands, and began to whirl at considerable speed, banging against the table at every revolution. Mike said he had to restrain Rudy from trying to grab it, as this could have resulted in serious injuries to his hands.

Finally the cornet came free of the wheel, shot across the room, and slammed against the wall. It was a total loss, a scrambled mess. Rudy glared at Mike with a Jackie Gleason/Ralph Crandon type slow burn, and said :" NOT ONE WORD !"

Shortly afterward, Bobby Hackett came in and asked if his horn was ready, and without saying anything Rudy showed it to him. This story explains why, although he played many different makes of horns, Bobby Hackett never played a Rudy Mück cornet.

Rudy Mück was the MAN in NYC for trombone slides. Cliff Heather, a staff studio trombonist who got me my first trumpet, told me every top trombone man in the City went to Rudy on a regular basis just to have their slide perfected. This included Tommy Dorsey.

I moved to Florida in 1976. I heard that a few years later Mike Fiore retired and moved to Bradenton Florida. He is probably not alive anymore, as he was even older than I. I have a lot of Rudy Mück info if your interested in that sort of thing.

Bill Barnes

We received an email from a viewer who passed on some unsubstantiated information from a very knowledgeable person of Vincent Bach history.  If we can substantiate this, we will.

Vincent Bach and Rudy Mück at one time swapped some parts - trombone parts for French horn parts. Rudy Mück hired some of Bach's workmen by offering higher pay in the mid-1930s and, after that, Bach had nothing good to say about Mück.

If Mück's trumpets are anything like Vincent's, Bach had nothing to do with that. Bach guarded his processes and designs very well. Of course lots of people owned them, so they could be cloned to some extent.

So it doesn't appear that the two instrument makers were "best buddies" but more rivals -- all hearsay, of course, but plausible nonetheless.

A recollection from L. Carpenter - We received an email with some personal information about Rudy and wanted to pass that on to you.

My dad was one Rudy's best friends. In fact he was my brother's godfather, in fact his middle name is after Rudy. My dad ( Angelo Valenzano) worked at Rudy's store on 48th street and my mom always told us that they had met some famous jazz musicians but since I was so young I never really understood how cool that was until I became a jazz lover myself. My dad passed in 1962 but I remember Rudy and his wife coming to our apartment to visit. Unfortunately my mom lost touch with them after my dad died but my son put me onto your site. Really interesting to read, only wish my dad had lived long enough to tell me some of the stories of working with Rudy. Would love to hear more about his adventures!    L. Carpenter