TromboneChat

So My father who was a Band director for 58yrs recently passed away in February of this year and I happened to be cleaning some things out of the studio he use to teach private lessons out of attached to our home this past weekend. I ended up seeing his Horn I vividly remembering him playing while teaching me to play around the age of 4. Unfortunately due to residing on Anna Maria Island in FL, Bradenton/Sarasota area, on the west coast of Florida, we encountered devastating flooding due to Hurricane Helene last week and as there was a mandatory evacuation, when we finally were allowed back onto the barrier island we call(ed) home, our house being one-story and built in 1950 was flooded with about 4ft of Saltwater. As we were basically gutting the actual living qts of the home, it occurred to me that my dads horn was out in the studio and had likely been floating or submerged in a sea of debris and saltwater. I found it as I knew where it was always kept and rinsed it as best as I could in hopes of the salt water not completely rusting the entirety of the horn he had always coveted and I also inherited. That being said the original case I'd have loved to have kept was irreparable due to the fact it was submerged and in pretty worn shape as it was to begin with. What I'm super curious about is being able to date the horn as accurately as possible by the Serial Number I located after reading different posts in this forum as well as others. The Serial Number of the Horn is 180246 and would also be grateful if anyone could give me any feedback as to possible avenues of restoration due to the finish having been worn extensively for many years prior to even the storm water issue altogether. It appears the bell was a darker color of brass sort of a deep amber color and recall if looking differently than all of the other horns I'd ever seen as a kid while growing up. The color was beautiful and unique and Even having played horn throughout HS and most of college I never came across anyone my age or even teachers who played anything close to a similar looking trombone. Any Info on the possible color or name of the finish and weather this can be re lacquered or whichever process Olds used to make these horns look so unique would be greatly appreciated or if anyone with knowledge of this particular brand of Trombone can tell the month and year it was produced by ser number, it would be greatly appreciated as it still plays and sounds amazing. I would like for it to appear as I remember it as a child learning to play, and even if restoring it, in turn devalues it, I'd like to have it look like it originally did and do not intend on selling it anyway. [/b]

Best I could come up with. https://www.horn-u-copia.net/serial/Oldslist.html

Owned one of these years ago. Recording trombone and trumpet/cornets. One of the prettiest horns, ever made.

Known for dark and big sound.

There are are locations of manufacture.
LA and Fullerton (most desireable) and Abilene, TX. (Actually Olds and Reynolds brand name was sold. This plant later build Conn trombones)

There are techs, on this forum, who could help with re conditioning/refurb.

Serial Number Index:
https://www.adams-music.com/en/repair_a ... mbers/olds
(AFAIK, this is "official" information that originally came from the Olds factory; the lists that go back farther are reconstructions by Olds researchers)

Various Olds catalogs here:
http://itsabear.com/Olds_Docs/Olds_Docs.html
and here:
https://olds-central.com/catalogs/

The different colors are due to different alloys being used to make certain parts. The bell, for instance, has a higher copper content that the typical yellow brass. The contrast will still be there if the instrument is refinished...

BUT

If it were my family heirloom, I might just have it thoroughly cleaned and put in good working order but leave the finish be. It's part of the horn's (and your family's) history now.

Olds trombone production never left California; there was one model (the V-25 SuperStar bass trombone) introduced in the 1970's that was a rebadged Reynolds TO-02, but those were also made in Fullerton.

The serial you provided points to a 1955 serial.

if im not wrong, Olds liked to call it the "Re-O-Loy" brass. which is some form of gold/rose/red brass. not sure of the specific copper content, but it is leaning towards the redder side imo. Unless it was very unique factory custom order, it should just be a straight lacquer finish.

Olds did offer the hand hammered Military Model type finish as a kind of higher end standard option too, but I dont think many people opted to go that route. Olds was also known to have made custom orders with varying finishes throughout the years, but from what i can tell from your data, it is just a straight lacquer finish.

As was mentioned above, I would not relacquer the horn unless you are adamant about it. I would take it to a good shop and have it ultrasonically cleaned/chem bathed and looked over and just keep playing it.

However, I do not know if your horn has the duo-octagonal/fluted slides. I would NOT just have any random shop or even any run of the mill good shop try to work on those. even many good shops will not be able to fix those correctly if they need work.

There are a number of well known techs and restorers on this forum that can help you refinish/restore this horn properly if you really wish and many of those same techs here are some of the few that are truly trusted to be able to work on the duo-octagonal slides PROPERLY.

Olds horns are fantastic horns with a great rich history. I hope you will continue to enjoy your horn for decades to come and perhaps your descendants too!