I also have a wonderful 50 year old Alexander 103, and I've had the bell converted (not because of any thinness, just for portabiliity). There are two ways to do the conversion, a right way and a wrong way - the right way is naturally more costly. It involves unsoldering the entire bell section from the horn, sliding the coupler over the narrow end until it fits tight, then soldering it into place before any cutting.
I wonder how you determined the age of your horn. I sent Alexander several pictures, and they could only say that it probably was from the mid '50s. I have the original case, which has a bakelite handle and slightly rusting hardware.
Jim in New York City
At 10:36 PM 11/03/03 -0600, you wrote:
Hello All: I have a wonderful 50 year old Alexander 103 with a bell that is so thin it wrinkles when you look at it wrong. I think converting the bell to detachable will help a lot. I'm in Canada and was hoping to find a shop that has experience with converting bells in country......and failing that, I guess the next best would be taking the horn to someone in the States. I'd take a try at doing it myself, but this horn is just too special to take the chance!
Gary in Regina, Canada
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