Olds Special - Inner slide tube replacement ?

[davebb]

I'm looking at an Olds Special for sale online - It's difficult to pin down the details but I think it's from the 1950s - It looks like it is from before the tri-color era.
I understand that these are dual bore 0.485/0.500. Is it possible to source inner slide tubes (readily available for some other brand) which will fit ?

Thanks
Dave

[Bonearzt]

IF they are the original "fluted" inner tubes then no replacement are available.

Otherwise, yes, new tubes can be sourced. Just need the measurement of the stockings.

[JohnL]

A Special should have round inners. Even if it's an oddball with duo-octagonal tubes, you can always replace them with round ones. It won't be "original", but you're buying it to play, not to display.

As regards duo-octagonal tubes - I believe Mike Bulow (M/K Drawing & Bending) has some original dies and has produced a few tubes, but it's not something he offers on his website.

[Posaunus]

As our resident Olds expert JohnL wrote, Olds Special trombones typically had cylindrical slides (0.485" and 0.500" bore, as noted), for which replacement tubes are apparently available. The "duo-octagonal" slides were supplied on Super and Recording trombones (I presume to reduce friction & drag?).

At any rate, I have an Olds Recording R20 (0.495/0.510" dual bore, w/ F-attachment) made in 1976. The upper tube was replaced with a cylindrical tube of the appropriate diameter, the bottom tube remains duo-octagonal (still in good shape). The slide is near perfect - impeccably smooth - and It plays great!

[Cymrych79]

It's difficult to pin down the details but I think it's from the 1950s - It looks like it is from before the tri-color era.

This has nothing to do with the OP's question, but what IS the date range on the tri-color bells? I have a 66-67 Special (Fullerton) in tri-color from my high school days that I just got repaired, buffed and re-lacquered but I couldn't find any details about when that scheme was used by Olds. I think I've only seen one other Special in tri-color, on Reverb, and that one is from the LA years if I remember correctly.

[JohnL]

Based on catalogs in my collection (viewable on my site) and other places around them web, I think the tri-color Special was introduced in 1957-1958 and was replaced by the nickel-plated version sometime around 1970-1973.