During the time Valco was dissolving, Robert Engelhardt and Al Link formed a company called Engelhardt-Link. At the auction the new company purchased the bass and cello portion of Valco. Included in the sale were all the assets, remaining inventory, jigs, forms, and tools necessary to produce basses and cellos. Fortunately, Engelhardt-Link was also able to convince a couple of very knowledgeable employees to stay with the company and continue production of upright instruments as they had been produced in years past. Cellos represent a larger part of the business than basses.
Serial numbers are consecutive with all sizes and models of instruments running together.
Engelhardt produces twice as many cellos as they do basses with schools and beginning musicians being their biggest market. Why this number was chosen, no one remembers. Serial numbers for the Engelhardt basses are well organized and assigned to the instrument just before the instrument leaves the factory. Excellent records are kept and in short periods of time company personnel can tell a caller the year in which an instrument was made. Since Engelhardt has been manufacturing basses, only a few things differ from the original Kay production since all the same forms and tools are used in the production of the instruments.