TromboneChat

I'm an "old guy" in my 70's from Kansas. I see from his signature that OneTon is from Wichita -- about 20 miles from me, maybe we'll meet sometime. I have always been just a hobby trombonist who plays just for fun. I've never considered myself a very good player, but I do well enough that I can play in a brass quartet at church, or a street band playing Christmas carols.

I started in 4th grade on an already old Elkhart. In Jr Hi I was moved to tuba because I was one of the bigger kids. In HS I got back to trombone on a school 72H. In college I again used a school instrument, a King bass/large tenor (single rotor, don't know model), and played some tuba again, because I had experience with the tuba, and they needed a tuba player. It was a small private college so I got to play in band, jazz band, and the local community band. I had a chance to buy one of the directors' 72H at a very reasonable price, but a college student who only played for fun couldn't afford it. Many years later I bought an Olds S20 I found in an antique store -- someone had tried to force the slide on backwards and slides were hopelessly stuck in 6th position. Careful use of heat and a rubber mallet separated the slide and a trip to the Slide Doctor made it playable again. I also got a really cheap Special and played both for church and various other small groups. About 5 years ago our house was broken into and I lost both horns and a lot of other stuff, none of it was ever recovered. I was really depressed about the loss of the horns and was otherwise preoccupied, so I kind of lost interest trombones. Recently I ran onto an Olds special on an online auction and it rekindled my interest. I ended up getting the horn which has a pretty good ding in one of the slides. It should be able to be fixed relatively easily.

And now I saw, and got, another trombone on the auction. It was labeled as an Olds trombone and has a flat wrap F section, but from the photo's, it's not like any other Olds I have ever seen. I'll post pictures in the Instruments section when I get it if I can't figure out what it is. I think it will make for an interesting discussion.

I followed the old forum a number of years ago and am glad it has been re-born. I've really enjoyed reading recent postings.

Galen

Olds used a flat wrap F attachment on small bores with F: the Ambassador A-20, the SuperStar S-20, and the Recording R-20. (I had an A-20 for many years).

There also was a bass trombone with a flat wrap that extended toward the bell. 2nd valve was in flat E and was within the main loop. Reynolds offered a similar instrument called "Stereophonic".

According to tracking, it should be here Saturday so I'll post a photo when it gets here.

GT

Hi everybody, this is my mandatory second post as well. Well a little bit about me. I'm 79 years old and I live with my wife in a senior community. I play the Trombone and Euphonium in two bands and It brings me great joy. How did it start? Well.......

In 5th grade in a small rural town in Arizona, Casa Grande, a band class was being offered and I enrolled. The first half of the year was basic music, on a wind instrument called a tonette. After we learned how to read some music in both staffs, the second half started and we went to a music store and rented an instrument and brought it to class.

Well, the first day I appeared with my Getzen student trumpet along with about 40 percent of the class, 30 percent on drums, about and about 39 percent mixture of clarinets, saxophones, Tenor horns, flutes and what have you and one lonely trombone. After several classes I determined that instead of being a little frog in a big pond I wanted to be a big frog in a little pond so I returned the trumpet for a Getzen student trombone and took it home and to class.

Well I was a little guy, weighed about 56 pounds dripping wet and I quickly found that 7th position was in another universe, totally out of my reach and 6th was just at the end of my finger tips. A quick call to the store revealed the existence of the clamp-on slide extender which solved the reach problem but I kept hitting my face n first position. Solved that by opening the angle between slide and bell. Well not really but it seemed to help, It took 3 years to grow and dump that extender and playing became more fun. I played through high school and and got a school Olds silver horn, an ambassador I think, which was great for marching band.

Don't remember what happened to the old Getzen. When I moved to another town and High School, My sister bought me a Conn 88H from someone in the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Man That was a heavy but great horn. I played that all the way through college.

The Vietnam war was still going on and I was about to be drafted and I wasn't playing so I sold the Conn to buy my fiancé an engagement ring. And I went into the Army for what ended up being 20 years. After I got out, I bought a Bach Stradivarius 36 with F trigger and It carried me through many moves to many towns and many bands, including to the Monterey peninsula where I now reside.

I played beside an older gentlemen, for many years. He played an Old Holton Bass Trombone and it sounded wonderful. One day after we finished playing a concert, he packed up his Holton and handed it to me. I was astonished and asked him what was he doing. He said, I'm 92 years old and can't see and hear well enough to perform anymore. I've noticed you admiring this horn and if you will play it, it is yours.

Well, I thanked him and took it home and tried to play it. It had an old two trigger dependent system that used a sliding bar to select the trigger. I tried to use it and finally took it to the Horn Shop in Fresno California, where the trombone repairman said I can fix that for you with a Getzin trigger mechanism and it will be easy and reliable. There was an unfortunate side effect however,

The brazing used to attach the new mechanism partially obscured the Model designation and the serial number. I have another post on this forum outlining the situation and asking for help from the experts on this forum for help on identifying the exact model, serial number and year of manufacture. The bell is rose brass, inscribed with Holton, Elkhorn Wis. U.S.A.

If you are reading this and can help, please go to that post on Instruments and give me some insight on my issue.
Thanks Otto Neely

BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu Nov 24, 2022 4:27 am Olds used a flat wrap F attachment on small bores with F: the Ambassador A-20, the SuperStar S-20, and the Recording R-20. (I had an A-20 for many years).

There also was a bass trombone with a flat wrap that extended toward the bell. 2nd valve was in flat E and was within the main loop. Reynolds offered a similar instrument called "Stereophonic".

The model number for the SuperStar tenor was V-20. The S-20 was their flat-wrap single-valve bass.

The Olds double that's derived from their flat wrap single is the S-23; it's an entirely different horn from the Reynolds Stereophonic, including a different wrap. Olds and Reynolds didn"t come under the same ownership until 1964, a few years after the introduction of the Stereophonic and more than two decades after the introduction of the what eventually became the S-23.

I've seen various Olds flat-wraps that vary from the common models (I have a few on my site); I can provide more information once I've seen some pics.

Can you post a link to the auction?