Steve Mumford wrote:
Here's a post from Lou Denaro about the Olds horns:
I believe the clue to the identity of the horn being described here is the articulated change valve mechanism. I recently bought an Olds horn with in line valves and it has such a mechanism. This is definitely not the Geyer wrapped Olds of the 50s and 60s that can be seen on the Hornarama page elsewhere on the web. In addition to the garland on the bell that says "Olds Super" the horn also has four rather outsize in-line rotors covered by very substantial brass valve caps with O L D S stamped ac cross them. Another interesting thing is the main tuning slide set up. As opposed to most standard set ups where the lead-pipe goes down and eventually bends back up 180 degrees to join with a vertically oriented main tuning slide, the main tuning slide on this horn begins at point that is 17 inches from the beginning of the mouth-pipe (where the bend reaches approximately 90 degrees), where it is situated horizontally, thereafter curving around 180 degrees to join the bottom (change valve) rotor. The rest of the wrap, the valves, and the bracing are also unconventional. Some parts seem like they could have been sourced from Carl Geyer, the bracing is from the Buick Roadmaster assembly line, while others, namely the valves with brass caps that could double as shot glasses, and the valves themselves, could have been sourced from Fisher Price or some like operation from that era when children's toys were actually made from brass like materials. It's a very interesting horn and it plays quite decently with the help of a strategically placed acousticoil. I gather this is an Olds Super model from the Los Angeles era, prior to the move to Fullerton, and may therefore be a pre WW2 product (Olds didn't produce much during the War and I believe a boatload of saxes that they did produce for military band use went to the bottom with some ship in the Mediterranean). I believe Bernie Marston refers to the fact that Olds tried to make French Horns before the war in an online interview somewhere on the net.
Lou
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I have a horn like that in my basement. It is indeed an old Olds, definitely before WW II. It was a novel design, but with some serious flaws. I got mine at the original Giardinelli shop in New York. I really liked the way the horn played, but when I got it home and started to work with it, I found some major problems. For starters, it wouldn't come up to pitch. There were 2 Bb slides, one got the Bb side of the horn up to pitch, but sharp to the F side, the other got the two sides in line but flat.
The valves were hand made, hollow built, i.e. sections of brass tubing bent 90° were soldered into a brass cylinder and cut off to form each pair of ports; then circular plates were soldered onto the top and bottom to close off the rotor. Unfortunately the elegant workmanship was wasted, because even after the cylinders had been plated up, the valves leaked badly.
The bell was of red brass, the balance of the body of German silver, if I remember right. The main tuning slide was in the tapered portion of the leadpipe, similar in design to tuning slides on many trombones. One side was smaller i.d. tubing than the other. When the tuning slide was pulled, it effected the tuning by changing the leadpipe taper.
Paul Navarro examined the horn, and declared it a bad buy, so I have stowed it
away for many years and not tried to mess with it. A pity, since the appearance
is striking, especially the elegant valve caps.
Richard Hirsh, Chicago
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